1975 VFL season

79th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL)

Australian rules football season

The 1975 VFL season was the 79th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 5 April until 27 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

The premiership was won by the North Melbourne Football Club, after it defeated Hawthorn by 55 points in the VFL Grand Final. It was North Melbourne's first premiership, making it the last of the league's twelve clubs to win a premiership.

Background

In 1975, 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 (except that rounds 14 and 15 were the reverse of 4 and 3 respectively).

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1975 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "McIntyre final five system".

Home-and-away season

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

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 94.6
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

Finals week 2

Preliminary final

Grand final

Season notes

• Football matches were telecast in colour, following the official launch of colour television in Australia on 1 March 1975. In response to this, many clubs adopted brighter playing colours: Fitzroy changed its colours from maroon, blue and white to red, blue and gold; Melbourne changed the primary colour of its guernsey from navy blue to royal blue; and other clubs adopted coloured home shorts to replace the black they had previously worn (except Collingwood, Richmond & St Kilda where black is a club colour).^[1]
• The centre square replaced the centre diamond (which had been used throughout the 1973 and 1974 VFL seasons).
• There was a wild brawl in the Round 1 match between Hawthorn and North Melbourne involving 34 of the 36 players. Hawthorn's Don Scott and North Melbourne's Brad Smith did not participate. There were no reports from this match.
• Footscray had three new, highly talented recruits from interstate in 1975: 183 cm centreman Peter Featherby from Subiaco Football Club in the West Australian National Football League (WANFL), 183 cm forward Ian Low from Manuka Football Club in the Canberra Australian National Football League (CANFL), and 190.5 cm forward-flanker Neil Sachse from North Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). In an accidental collision in the Round 2 match against Fitzroy at the Western Oval, Neil Sachse was badly injured and became a quadriplegic.
• On 17 June, Hawthorn announced that it had given full-forward Peter Hudson who had only played three and a half games for Hawthorn in three years, a clearance to Glenorchy.
• The second quarter of the round 14 match between Carlton and Essendon at Windy Hill lasted almost 40 minutes, with Carlton scoring 14.1 (85) to Essendon's 4.1 (25) for a record quarter aggregate score of 18.2 (110). It is the first quarter to beat South Melbourne's 1919 team record of 17.4 (106).
  • Near the end of the quarter, a massive brawl involving all 36 players erupted when Essendon centreman Neville Fields ran past Carlton forward Craig Davis and king-hit him in retaliation for some supposed earlier act of aggression against an Essendon player.^[2][3] Noticing the unconscious Davis, both Rod Ashman and Rod Austin ran to remonstrate with Fields, followed by their Carlton team-mates, and the fight was on. Carlton's Phillip Pinnell knocked out Essendon's Dean Hartigan.^[4]
    It took a long time for the match to resume. Field umpire Ian Robinson was showered with cans by spectators. Eight players were reported. Many more players would have been reported had the umpires been able to turn their attention elsewhere (the VFL responded to this problem by introducing two field umpires in the following season).^[5]
    The tribunal decisions were:^[6]
  • Rod Ashman of Carlton was suspended for 4 weeks, for striking Neville Fields.
  • Rod Austin of Carlton was suspended for 4 weeks, for striking Neville Fields.
  • Phillip Pinnell of Carlton was suspended for 2 weeks, for striking Robin Close.
  • David McKay of Carlton was found guilty of striking Laurie Moloney, and severely reprimanded.
  • Ron Andrews of Essendon was found not guilty of striking David McKay.
  • Robin Close of Essendon was suspended for 2 weeks, for striking Phillip Pinnell.
  • Laurie Moloney of Essendon was suspended for 2 weeks, for charging Phillip Pinnell.
  • Neville Fields of Essendon was found not guilty of striking Rod Austin.
• At the end of the season, greatly dissatisfied with the approach of coach Des Tuddenham (especially his emphasis on "vigour" with players who were renowned for their skill), and disturbed by the fact that, under Tuddenham, Essendon had been involved in two massive brawls in two consecutive years, the committee of the Essendon Football Club sacked Tuddenham and paid out his contract.
  • Also, given the example of an injured John Nicholls in the 1973 Grand Final, and that of Tuddenham having his leg broken in the round 10 match against Richmond, Essendon now recognized the dangers of having its coach on the playing field and liable to injury.

Awards

• The 1975 VFL premiership team was North Melbourne.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Leigh Matthews of Hawthorn who kicked 68 goals (including one goal in the finals).
• The winner of the 1975 Brownlow Medal was Gary Dempsey of Footscray with 20 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1975.
• The reserves premiership was won by Geelong. Geelong 16.18 (114) defeated Richmond 11.17 (83) in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 27 September.^[7]

References

1. Damien Berry (30 July 2012). "Clash colours an untraditional eyesore". Bound for Glory News. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
2. Davis claimed that he had been knocked out five times during the match, see caption to the photograph of severely injured Davis taken on the day following the match (The Age, (Monday, 7 July 1975), p.22.)
3. Barker, Geoff, "For Game, read Shame: Thuggery at Windy Hill, The Age, (Monday, 7 July 1975), p.20.
4. Hartigan out to it, The Age, (Monday, 7 July 1975), p.20.
5. Beames, Percy, "Probe the Windy Hill war:VFL cannot let eight reports pass", The Age, (Monday, 7 July 1975), p.22.
6. Carter, Ron, Knox, Ken, and Sheahan, Mike, "Windy Hill War—5 Players Outed", The Age, (Tuesday, 8 July 1975), pp.28, 26, and 26.
7. "Grand final scores". The Age. Melbourne. 29 September 1975. p. 22.

• 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

Sources

• 1975 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1975 VFL season at Australian Football