1939 VFL season

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1939.

Premiership season

In 1939, 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 1939 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Ladder

Finals

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Melbourne defeated Collingwood 21.22 (148) to 14.11 (95), in front of a crowd of 78,110 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1939 VFL Premiership team was Melbourne.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Ron Todd of Collingwood with 98 goals (121 after finals).
• The Argus newspaper's "Player of the Year", was shared between Jack Dyer of Richmond and Dick Reynolds of Essendon.
• The winner of the 1939 Brownlow Medal was Marcus Whelan of Collingwood with 23 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1939.

Notable events

• A record (unbroken until 1969) 91 century scores were kicked during a year of high scoring is spite of much appalling weather.
• Hawthorn's win over Carlton in Round 5 was the first win by the Hawks over the Blues as a member of the VFL. Carlton had won the first 25 meetings.
• In the round 10 match between Essendon and Hawthorn there is 28 minutes and 11 seconds of time on.
• In Round 16 against Geelong, Melbourne trailed by a point at quarter time, were outscored 6.2 (38) to 8.2 (50) in the third and 3.3 (21) to 3.6 (24) in the last. However, in the second quarter the Demons blitzed Geelong 11.6 (72) to 0.3 (3) and won by 53 points. This margin remains the largest by a team winning only one quarter of a match.
• All round 18 matches are postponed for a week because all grounds are under water from constant rain.
• North Melbourne's win over Geelong in Round 18 was the Kangaroos' first win over the Cats since their initial meeting in Round 1 of the 1925 VFL season, North Melbourne's first match as a member of the VFL. The Cats had won 23 straight vs. the Kangaroos.
• In a broadcast from the Cabinet Room in Melbourne on Sunday 3 September 1939, the day after the last home-and-away match of the 1939 season, avid Carlton fan and Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies announces to the nation:

"It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland, Great Britain has declared war upon her, and that, as a result, Australia is also at war."

References

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897-1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6
• Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0

External links

• 1939 Season - AFL Tables