1967 VFL season

The 1967 Victorian Football League season was the 71st season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

1967 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Richmond (6th premiership)
Minor premiers	Richmond (6th minor premiership)
Consolation series	Footscray (3rd Consolation series win)
Matches played	112
Highest attendance	109,396
Coleman Medallist	Doug Wade (Geelong)
Brownlow Medallist	Ross Smith (St Kilda)

Premiership season

In 1967, 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 1967 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

1967 VFL ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Richmond (P)	18	15	3	0	1869	1281	145.9	60	Finals
2	Carlton	18	14	3	1	1425	1133	125.8	58
3	Geelong	18	13	5	0	1625	1323	122.8	52
4	Collingwood	18	12	6	0	1629	1232	132.2	48
5	St Kilda	18	11	7	0	1630	1328	122.7	44
6	Essendon	18	8	9	1	1406	1327	106.0	34
7	Melbourne	18	8	10	0	1258	1417	88.8	32
8	North Melbourne	18	7	10	1	1234	1310	94.2	30
9	South Melbourne	18	5	12	1	1446	1763	82.0	22
10	Hawthorn	18	5	13	0	1241	1766	70.3	20
11	Fitzroy	18	4	14	0	1193	1655	72.1	16
12	Footscray	18	4	14	0	1060	1481	71.6	16

Source: VFL ladder
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers.

Night Series Competition

The night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South Melbourne, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the season.

Final: Footscray 15.11 (101) defeated South Melbourne 8.8 (56).

Premiership Finals

Semi-finals

	First Semi-final
Saturday, 2 September 2:30pm	Geelong	def.	Collingwood	MCG (crowd: 91,715)
	4.5 (29) 8.7 (55) 10.10 (70)  16.12 (108)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	4.2 (26) 8.3 (51) 10.9 (69)  11.12 (78)	Umpires: Crouch Television broadcast: Seven Network
Wade 8 Goggin 3 Andrews 2 Sharrock, Ryan, Mitchell 1		Goals	4 Dunne 2 W. Richardson, Tuddenham 1 Waters, Britt, K. Rose
Farmer, Goggin, Walker, Rosenow, Marshall, Wade, Closter, Eales		Best	W. Richardson, K. Rose, Dunne, Thompson, Tully, Britt, Adamson, Price
		Reports	Tuddenham by field umpire Crouch for striking Ainsworth
Collingwood captain Des Tuddenham was found guilty and suspended for four matches.

	Second Semi-final
Saturday, 9 September 2:30pm	Richmond	def.	Carlton	MCG (crowd: 99,051)
	5.8 (38) 10.13 (73) 14.16 (100)  20.21 (141)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	3.4 (22) 7.9 (51) 11.12 (78)  14.17 (101)	Umpires: Sheales Television broadcast: Seven Network
Hart 6 Brown, Patterson 3 B. Richardson, Northey, Guinane 2 Barrot, Bartlett 1		Goals	3 Munari, Nicholls 2 Kekovich, Barassi, Jesaulenko 1 Silvagni, Gallagher
Barrot, Hart, Clay, Dean, Guinane, Burgin		Best	Nicholls, Goold, Munari, Barassi, Silvagni, Gallagher
Crowe for striking Nicholls		Reports
Richmond ruckman Neville Crowe was found guilty and suspended for four matches.

Preliminary Final

	Preliminary Final
Saturday, 16 September 2:30pm	Geelong	def.	Carlton	MCG (crowd: 95,542)
	1.0 (6) 6.2 (38) 14.3 (87)  17.6 (108)	Q1 Q2 Q3  Final	5.2 (32) 10.5 (65) 11.7 (73)  11.13 (79)	Umpires: Sheales Television broadcast: Seven Network
Wade 5 Sharrock 4 Ryan, Mitchell, Andrews 2 Polinelli, Newland 1		Goals	3 Gallagher 2 Jesaulenko 1 Collins, Stone, Nicholls, Barassi, Robertson, Auchettl
Sharrock, Goggin, Farmer, Polinelli, Ryan, Closter, Mitchell, Walker		Best	Nicholls, Barassi, Collis, Hall, Gill, Goold, Gallagher, Collins

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Richmond	4.3	9.10	12.15	16.18 (114)
Geelong	3.3	7.6	13.7	15.15 (105)
Attendance: 109,396

Umpires: P. Sheales, A. Cook, R. Kidd, L. Barratt, B. Grant.[1]

Awards

• The 1967 VFL Premiership team was Richmond (its first since 1943).
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Doug Wade of Geelong who kicked 96 goals (including 17 goals in the final series).
• The winner of the 1967 Brownlow Medal was Ross G. Smith of St Kilda with 24 votes.
• Footscray took the "wooden spoon" in 1967.
• The reserves premiership was won by North Melbourne. North Melbourne 15.13 (103) defeated Richmond 10.19 (79) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 23 September.[2]

Notable events

• As well as breaking a twenty-three year premiership drought, Richmond ended a twenty year finals drought, making the finals for the first time since 1947.
• Former Carlton ruckman Graham Donaldson, now coaching in Morwell, Victoria, was also the manager of one of the district's State Savings Bank of Victoria (SSB) branches. He convinced the Bank's head office to sponsor a new competition involving children (under 12), representing their VFL club and playing in their club colours, to be played during the half-time break in the senior VFL game each Saturday. The SSB Mini League, which eventually evolved into the "Little League", conducted its first matches during the 1967 VFL season.
• Fitzroy moved to Carlton's home ground, Princes Park, sharing the ground on alternate weeks.
• Hawthorn, having instituted an exhaustive schedule of pre-season and regular in-season training developed by coach John Kennedy and former star centreman, now gymnasium owner, Brendan Edwards, as a consequence of them having undertaken this gruelling schedule in addition to their normal, on-going skills training, the Hawthorn players became known as "Kennedy's Commandos".
• On Anzac Day, a representative match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between the Victorian team from the 1966 Hobart Carnival, and a team representing the rest of the league. The Carnival team wore Victoria's traditional Big V guernsey; the Rest team wore a red Guernsey with blue yoke and white collar. The Rest 18.13 (121) defeated the Carnival team 9.13 (67) in front of a crowd of 15,613.[3]
• In the Second Semi-Final between Richmond and Carlton Richmond's Neville Crowe and Carlton's John Nicholls were wrestling for the ball when Nicholls hit Crowe "in the guts", Crowe stepped back with the football grasped to his chest in his left hand and attempted to slap Nicholls with his open right hand. Crowe missed making any contact with Nicholls by about three inches. Nicholls immediately lifted his own left hand to his face, and pretended to have been badly affected, reeled away from Crowe. Despite Crowe's protests, he was reported for striking Nicholls. At the tribunal Crowe, received no assistance from Nicholls who was reluctant to admit that he was only acting. Crowe was suspended for four weeks; he missed the Grand Final, and never played VFL football again.
• At the end of the season, Harry Beitzel's squad of players drawn mainly from the VFL, known as "The Galahs", played matches in Ireland, England, and the United States.

Footnotes

1. VFL/AFL Grand Final umpires 1897-2005 Archived 1 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 2011-06-06)
2. Rex Pullen (25 September 1967). "Kangaroos too good". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 55.
3. Kevin Hogan (26 April 1967). ""Clash" was so friendly". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. p. 72.

References

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

• 1967 Season - AFL Tables
• Ben Broad, "Surprise debut a huge thrill for Tiger legend", Official AFL Website, (4 January 2008)