1952 VFL season

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1952.

Premiership season

In 1952, 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 19 rounds.

There was an extra round (round 8), in addition to 1951's 18 rounds, promoted as a "National Day Round", and held on the Saturday (14 June) of the Queen's Birthday weekend while the Victorian State side played against the West Australian State side at Melbourne Cricket Ground (also on 14 June).

The season was constructed as follows: in matches 1 to 7 and 9 to 12 the teams played each other. Round 8, the "National Day Round", was the reverse of round 11 (and the designated round 8 "home team" was the reverse of that in round 11). Rounds 13 to 19 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7.

Once the 19 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1952 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 (National Day Round)

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Ladder

Finals

First Semi-Final

Second Semi-Final

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Awards

• The 1952 VFL Premiership team was Geelong.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was John Coleman of Essendon with 103 goals.
• The winner of the 1952 Brownlow Medal was Roy Wright of Richmond with 21 votes. He won on a count-back from Bill Hutchison of Essendon.
  • As a consequence of its 1981 decision to change its rules relating to tied Brownlow Medal contests, the AFL awarded a retrospective medal to Bill Hutchison in 1989.
• St Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1952.

Notable events

• Essendon winger Lance Mann wins the 1952, 130-yard Stawell Gift in eleven and fourteen-sixteenths seconds, off a handicap of 7¼yards; his team-mate, half-back flanker Norm McDonald, running off a handicap of 5 yards, comes second.
• Bowing to pressure from its players and supporters, Fitzroy abandons "The Gorillas" as its emblem. Originally intended to signify strength, tenacity, aggression, power, etc. the symbol had become somewhat devalued when opposition supporters started referring to the team as "The Apes". "The Lions" was not introduced until 1957; in the interim they were known as either "The Maroons" or "The Roys".
• In May 1952, as part of its promotion of the Burt Lancaster movie Ten Tall Men, the management of the Melbourne cinema The State Theatre on the corner of Flinders Street and Russell Street (now known as the Forum Theatre) measured the height of the ten tallest VFL players.
  • Geoff Leek of Essendon was officially declared to be the tallest: at 6'4½" (194.3cm) he was measured to be half an inch taller than the next 8 tallest players, Denis Cordner of Melbourne, Kevin Easton of North Melbourne, John Gill of Essendon, Brian Gilmore of Footscray, Jack "Chooka" Howell of Carlton, Tom H. McLean of Melbourne, Bill McMaster of Geelong, and George Swarbrick of Geelong, all of whom were measured at 6'4" (193 cm), and a inch taller than Colin Thornton of North Melbourne, who was measured at 6'3½" (191.8cm).
• There was an extra round of premiership matches — so that Melbourne and Geelong people would still have their (by now standard) 9 home and 9 away matches in the 1952 season — promoted as a "National Day Round", during the Queen's Birthday weekend.
  • At the same time as the Victorian Interstate team were playing the West Australian State team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Saturday 14 June 1952), an entire round of six premiership matches were played outside the Melbourne-Geelong area for the first time since 1904. The advertising in each area stressed the fact that they were not "exhibition matches", but were real competition matches that counted towards the premiership.
  • The premiership matches were played at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground in Brisbane, the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, the North Hobart Oval in Hobart, the Albury Sports Ground in Albury, New South Wales, the Euroa Oval in Euroa, Victoria and the Yallourn Oval Yallourn.
  • Heavy rain meant that the Brisbane match had to be postponed until Monday (16 June); it was held on Monday evening, under lights, in front of a crowd of 28,000 spectators.
• In the First Semi-Final, Carlton's high marking centreman Keith Warburton received a heavy knock to his abdomen early in the match, but thought little of it. Later that evening he collapsed at the Carlton Club dance. He was rushed to hospital where it was discovered that he was suffering from a severed artery leading to his bowel. He hovered near death for some days, requiring almost continuous transfusions of blood. It was said that his physical fitness was the only reason he survived that time.
• In round 10, in a match played in atrocious conditions at the Brunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy's champion full-back, Vic Chanter, holds Essendon champion full-forward John Coleman goal-less for the only time in his 98 game career.
• Overall, the season was the wettest season for more than 20 years. Many matches were played in deep sticky mud on grounds that were covered in sheets of water. Mud was ankle deep at the Brunswick Street Oval in round 11. White balls were introduced in July to help players see the ball in all of the mud.
  • The overall bad weather and the atrocious condition of the grounds throughout the season, and the effect that had on the condition of the ball, especially in relation to hand-passing, marking and kicking, as well as the physical problems of leading and being unable to spring from muddy ground, highlights the significance of John Coleman's 103 goals in 18 matches (he missed the first round serving the last week of his 1951 suspension).

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

• 1952 Season - AFL Tables