1973 VFL season

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1973.

Premiership season

In 1973, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11.

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1973 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "McIntyre Final Five 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

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Finals

Elimination Final

Qualifying Final

Semi Finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Richmond defeated Carlton 16.20 (116) to 12.14 (86), in front of a crowd of 116956 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1973 VFL Premiership team was Richmond.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter McKenna of Collingwood who kicked 84 goals (including 2 goals in the finals).
• The winner of the 1973 Brownlow Medal was Keith Greig of North Melbourne with 27 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1973.

Notable events

• Under the new VFL clearance system, whereby any player who has played 10 years with a single club can have a free transfer to the club of their choice, new North Melbourne coach Ron Barassi is able to recruit champion half-backs Barry Davis (who had already played 218 games for Essendon) and John Rantall (who had already played 174 games for South Melbourne), and champion full-forward Doug Wade (who had already played 208 games for Geelong).
• Just before half-time in the round 9 match between Geelong and North Melbourne at Kardinia Park the ball was heading out of bounds when it ricocheted back into play off the boot of boundary umpire Geoff McQueen straight into the arms of North Melbourne's Wayne Schimmelbusch, who passed it to Doug Wade, who kicked a goal.
• In round 11 Kevin Murray plays his 300th game for Fitzroy.
• The round 16 match between Footscray and Hawthorn at the Western Oval was played in appalling conditions with most of the centre of the ground at least ankle-deep in mud. There were 117 free kicks paid in the match. Hawthorn won due to its rovers Leigh Matthews and Peter Crimmins being able to rove to a beaten ruck, and "shark" the dominant rucking of Footscray's much taller ruckman Gary Dempsey.
• In round 21, Hawthorn full-forward Peter Hudson, who had been injured in round 1 of 1972 returns to the VFL. He beats four opponents and kicks 8 goals.
• In the first moments of the Grand Final Carlton's captain-coach John Nicholls was running out of goal to mark a kick from Alex Jesaulenko when Richmond's's back-pocket Laurie Fowler ran straight at Nicholls and smashed him in the head. Nicholls was given the mark and a 15-yard penalty. He kicked a goal; however, due to severe double vision cause by Fowler's blow, Nicholls could hardly see anything, and effectively took no further part in the match even though he stayed on the ground. In the second quarter Richmond's Neil Balme knocked out Carlton full-back Geoff Southby with a vicious elbow strike to the head (Southby did not return after half-time, and it took some months for him to fully recover from the effects of the assault). In the ensuing brawl, Balme also attacked Carlton's Vin Waite. Balme was not reported by the umpires.
• On the day of the Grand Final, the Richmond Football Club had much to celebrate: its Senior Team, Reserve Team, Under-19 team, and its Under-17 team all won their Grand Finals at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

References

• Hogan, P., The Tigers Of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
• 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

• 1973 Season - AFL Tables