1937 VFL season
Encyclopedia
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League
season of 1937.
Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 18 rounds; matches 12 to 18 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7.
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1937 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".
defeated Collingwood
18.14 (122) to 12.18 (90), in front of a crowd of 88,540 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football
).
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
season of 1937.
Premiership season
In 1937, the VFL competition consisted of twelve 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 18 rounds; matches 12 to 18 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7.
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1937 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".
Grand final
GeelongGeelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
defeated Collingwood
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
18.14 (122) to 12.18 (90), in front of a crowd of 88,540 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
).
Awards
- The 1937 VFL Premiership team was GeelongGeelong Football ClubThe Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
. - The VFL's leading goalkickerColeman MedalThe Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...
was Dick HarrisDick Harris (Australian rules footballer)Richard 'Dick' Harris was an Australian rules footballer who played in the Victorian Football League between 1934 and 1944 for the Richmond Football Club...
of RichmondRichmond Football ClubThe Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
with 64 goals. - The ArgusThe Argus (Australia)The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...
newspaper's "Player of the Year" was Dick ReynoldsDick ReynoldsRichard Sylvannus 'Dick' Reynolds was an Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Essendon and Victoria with great distinction....
of EssendonEssendon Football ClubThe Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
. - The winner of the 1937 Brownlow MedalBrownlow MedalThe Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...
was Dick ReynoldsDick ReynoldsRichard Sylvannus 'Dick' Reynolds was an Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Essendon and Victoria with great distinction....
of EssendonEssendon Football ClubThe Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
with 27 votes. - North MelbourneNorth Melbourne Football ClubThe North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...
took the "wooden spoon" in 1937.
Notable events
- Still struggling to recover from the injury that kept him out of the 1936 Grand Final, Bob PrattBob PrattHarold Robert "Bob" Pratt was a former Australian rules footballer from Mitcham, Victoria.Pratt played with South Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League from 1930–1939 and again in 1946, and with the Coburg Football Club in the Victorian Football Association from 1940 to 1941...
only plays six matches (kicking 12 goals) for South MelbourneSydney SwansThe Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
in the 1937 season. - Having kicked Collingwood'sCollingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
only goal in the last quarter of the Grand Final, Gordon CoventryGordon CoventryGordon "Nuts" Coventry was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League . With 1,299 goals over 18 seasons, Coventry remains one of the greatest full forwards the game has ever seen...
retires having played 306 senior VFL games and having scored 1299 goals.- In Round 15, Coventry became the first player to play 300 VFL games
- In Round 16, Collingwood and Melbourne set numerous record for high scoring:
- a record match aggregate of 295 points, beating by two the record of Essendon and North Melbourne in 1934
- highest losing score, beating Collingwood's own record against St. Kilda in 1931 and still a club record for Collingwood
- Collingwood's losing score was the seventh highest of the season, beating Carlton's record of losing with the ninth-highest score of 1924