1958 VFL season
Encyclopedia
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League
season of 1958.
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 1958 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".
, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the season.
Final: St Kilda 16.13 (109) defeated Carlton
15.11 (101)
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 1958.
Premiership season
In 1958, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th 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 1958 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".
Consolation Night Series Competition
The night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South MelbourneSouth Melbourne, Victoria
South Melbourne is an inner city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Port Phillip and Melbourne...
, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the season.
Final: St Kilda 16.13 (109) defeated Carlton
Carlton Football Club
The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897...
15.11 (101)
First Semi-Final
| Team | 1 Qtr | 2 Qtr | 3 Qtr | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitzroy Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897... |
3.3 | 4.7 | 5.8 | 9.12 (66) |
| North Melbourne North Melbourne Football Club The 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... |
2.2 | 4.6 | 8.8 | 10.10 (70) |
| Attendance: 68,213 | ||||
Second Semi-Final
| Team | 1 Qtr | 2 Qtr | 3 Qtr | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria.... |
5.0 | 6.4 | 8.5 | 11.12 (78) |
| Collingwood Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League... |
1.0 | 2.4 | 3.8 | 4.9 (33) |
| Attendance: 77,350 | ||||
Preliminary Final
| Team | 1 Qtr | 2 Qtr | 3 Qtr | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collingwood Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League... |
5.5 | 6.5 | 11.8 | 14.12 (96) |
| North Melbourne North Melbourne Football Club The 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... |
1.1 | 2.10 | 4.11 | 10.16 (76) |
| Attendance: 77,656 | ||||
Grand final
| Team | 1 Qtr | 2 Qtr | 3 Qtr | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria.... |
5.1 | 7.4 | 7.6 | 9.10 (64) |
| Collingwood Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League... |
2.2 | 7.6 | 12.9 | 12.10 (82) |
| Attendance: 99,346 | ||||
Awards
- The 1958 VFL Premiership team was CollingwoodCollingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
. - 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 Ian BrewerIan BrewerIan Brewer was an Australian rules footballer with a distinguished career between 1956 and 1970, in the three major leagues of his era: the Victorian Football League , West Australian National Football League and South Australian National Football League...
of CollingwoodCollingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
who kicked 97 goals (including 6 goals in the finals). - The winner of the 1958 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 to Neil Roberts of St Kilda with 20 votes. - 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...
took the "wooden spoonWooden spoon (award)A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...
" in 1958.
Notable events
- On Monday 2 June 1958, following his superb performance in Footscray'sWestern BulldogsThe Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...
unexpected round 8 fifteen point victory over EssendonEssendon Football ClubThe Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
, Sun News Pictorial journalist Rex Pullen christens Ted WhittenTed WhittenEdward James "EJ" Whitten was an Australian rules football player and media personality. He played a then-record 321 Victorian Football League games for the Footscray Football Club between 1951 and 1970...
"Mr. Football". - The game between and on Queen's Birthday Holiday drew a crowd of 99,346, which endures as the highest attendance ever for a home-and-away game in VFL/AFL history.
- The 16 match 1958 Australian National Football1958 Melbourne CarnivalThe 1958 Melbourne Carnival was the 14th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition...
(ANFC) Carnival is held in Melbourne during a two-week break in the VFL competition between rounds 12 and 13. ANFC President, Pat RodriguezPat RodriguezRichard Patrick Gerald "Pat" Rodriguez was an Australian rules footballer and administrator.-Playing career:...
, remarks that the total attendance of 90,261 spectators at the 16 matches was an insult to the rest of Australia from the Victorian football community.- Given that the VFL competition was suspended for the duration of the Carnival. and given that a total of 99,346 spectators had attended the round 10 match, three weeks earlier, between CollingwoodCollingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
and MelbourneMelbourne Football ClubThe Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
at the Melbourne Cricket GroundMelbourne Cricket GroundThe Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
, it seems that his remarks were well justified.
- Given that the VFL competition was suspended for the duration of the Carnival. and given that a total of 99,346 spectators had attended the round 10 match, three weeks earlier, between Collingwood
- In the last moments of the third quarter of the round 16 match between 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...
and St Kilda, South Melbourne winger Ian Tampion received a free kick. The siren went and Tampion, thinking that he was far too far away from the goals, gave the ball the field umpire Bill Barbour and went to join the three-quarter time South Melbourne team huddle. South Melbourne captain-coach Ron CleggRon CleggRon "Smokey" Clegg was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.A brilliant key position player at either centre half-forward or centre half-back, he was awarded the Brownlow Medal in 1949 while playing with the then South Melbourne Football Club...
insisted that he "have a go" and not waste the chance. Tampion retrieved the ball from the umpire and kicked a beautiful 80-yard (73.2m) drop-kick that travelled over the heads of the St Kilda defenders, who had moved up the field towards him, not expecting him to be able to kick such a distance, and scored a goal. - Immediately the round 18 matches were over, on Saturday 23 August, evening newspaper The Sporting Globe announces that Neil Roberts of St Kilda is the winner of its Haydn Bunton Memorial Medal. The medal came with a cash prize of ₤100-0-0. By accepting the prize, Roberts (who, up to that time had played as an amateur) turned professional.
- Therefore, whilst he played the entire 1958 season as an amateur, the same as Don CordnerDon CordnerDr Donald Cordner was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne in the Victorian Football League during the 1940s...
in 1946 and John SchultzJohn SchultzJohn Schultz is a former Australian rules football player, who played for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football League and is one of the club's greatest players....
in 1960, unlike both Cordner and Schultz he was a professional at the time the 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...
winner was announced (Tuesday 26 August).
- Therefore, whilst he played the entire 1958 season as an amateur, the same as Don Cordner
- CollingwoodCollingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
caused a Grand Final upset by unexpectedly stopping MelbourneMelbourne Football ClubThe Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
's attempt to equal CollingwoodCollingwood Football ClubThe Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
's record of four premierships in a row (1927-1930) (see Early VFL Final systems#Collingwood's four VFL Premierships (1927–1930)) - In order to increase the sales of the VFL's Football RecordAFL RecordThe AFL Record is the official program available at Australian Football League matches. The publication began as the Football Record in Melbourne, Australia in April 1912, making it one of the oldest magazines in Australia....
which, in addition to the selected player lists, also listed the number that each player would carry on the back of their club guernseyGuernsey (clothing)A guernsey, or gansey, is a seaman's knitted woollen sweater, similar to a jersey, which originated in the Channel Island of the same name.-Origins:...
, the Grand Final teams (Collingwood and Melbourne) were ordered to change the "regular" (i.e., that registered with the VFL) playing numbers for each player for that specific match, and only for that specific match on that specific day — and, unless one is aware of this fact (i.e., that the numbers on the back of guernseys on that one particular day did not signify the individual players that they routinely signified in every other match in each player's career), one is either confused or misinformed when viewing photographs, motion pictures, and when perusing other references such as the day's Football Record, relating to this particular match in 2008.- By the established VFL convention (and, thus, the established tradition) that existed before and after this particular Grand Final match, and unlike most other football codes that display playing-position-indicating-numbersSquad numberIn team sports, the squad number, shirt number, jersey number, sweater number, uniform number or simply a number is the number worn on a player's uniform, to identify and distinguish each player from others wearing the same or similar uniforms...
on a team's kit/strip/uniform — e.g., Rugby UnionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, Rugby LeagueRugby leagueRugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
, Gridiron FootballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
,etc. — the number on the back of an Australian Rules footballer's guernsey:- (a) has no connection with the position the individual occupies in any particular match,
- (b) is issued by the player's football club prior to their first match with that club (and is then registered against that player's name, by the VFL),
- (c) usually remains unchanged throughout a player's career with that club, and
- (d) is often, as was the case of Ron BarassiRon BarassiRonald Dale Barassi, Jr AM is a former Australian rules football player and coach. During a long and decorated career, Barassi has been one of the most important figures in the history of Australian football. His father, Ron Barassi, Sr., was the first Australian footballer killed at Tobruk during...
's 31, retained by a player, when he transfers from one team to another. - (a) to (d) is also the current AFL convention.
- By the established VFL convention (and, thus, the established tradition) that existed before and after this particular Grand Final match, and unlike most other football codes that display playing-position-indicating-numbers
- The reason for this last-minute aggressively pro-active move by the VFL was to halt, counter-act and nullify an attempt by university students to significantly destabilize the VFL's income stream by issuing free team sheets — containing the Grand Final players' names, their (regular) guernsey numbers, and their official selected team positions (as announced on the Thursday evening prior to the match) — outside the Melbourne Cricket GroundMelbourne Cricket GroundThe Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
on the day of the match.