1942 VFL season

World War II had many effects on the organisation of football in Australia:

• Geelong was unable to compete in the competition because of wartime travel restrictions. Temporary transfers to other clubs were available to Geelong players (limit of three per club).
• Melbourne and Collingwood struggled to field teams, and at one stage considered amalgamating into a joint team,[1] however they were both ultimately able to compete.
• Hawthorn and Collingwood withdrew their teams from the reserves competition.
• Available servicemen were often called upon to make up the numbers – this accounts for the drop in form of the Melbourne team, having previously won three premierships in a row.
• The VFA went into recess, and any eligible players were given temporary league permits.[2]
• The Brownlow Medal was suspended until 1946.
• Many ground changes were also forced upon teams, as their usual home grounds were used in the war effort. The new grounds used were Yarraville Oval (Footscray), Toorak Park (St Kilda), Punt Road Oval (Melbourne) and Princes Park (South Melbourne).[3]
• Government regulations meant the traditional matches on the King's Birthday public holiday could not be played until 1946.[4]

In 1942, the VFL competition consisted of eleven teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man. A player could be substituted for any reason; however, once substituted, a player could not return to the field of play under any circumstances. Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 16 rounds; once the 16 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1942 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

The determination of the 1942 season's fixtures was complicated by the fact that when the VFL decided to proceed with senior football on 1 April,[5] it was not known which grounds would be available. All 1941 grounds except Windy Hill and the Brunswick Street Oval were candidates for long-term appropriation by the military, and the VFL announced that unless three grounds were available, it would not play the season.[6] Consequently, each round's fixture through the first eleven weeks was set only on the previous Wednesday week, rather than being pre-determined at the start of the season. Ultimately the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Lake Oval, the Western Oval, and the Junction Oval all became unavailable; but, several Victorian Football Association grounds became available when the VFA announced on 21 April that it was going into recess, resulting in St Kilda and Footscray moving to Toorak Park and Yarraville Oval respectively,[7] and the remaining ground losses were managed by Melbourne sharing the Punt Road Oval with Richmond and South Melbourne sharing Princes Park with Carlton.

During the first eleven rounds, each team played each other once and had one bye. The remaining five rounds (Rounds 12 to 16) featured the same matches as Rounds 1 to 5. This resulted in an uneven fixture in which six teams played 15 matches, and five teams played 14 matches. Teams were awarded four premiership points for each bye, so the teams with an extra bye were favoured by this draw.[3]