The 1960 VFL season was the 64th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 16 April until 24 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
In 1960, 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 1960 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.
Round 1 of the 1960 competition was played over Easter long weekend, with three matches on Easter Saturday (16 April) and three matches on Easter Monday (18 April). Round 2 of the competition was also scheduled for a long weekend, with four matches scheduled for the Saturday (23 April) and two for the Monday (Anzac Day, 25 April).
The four matches on Saturday 23 April were postponed because of the extremely wet conditions. Despite pressure from the Victorian Premier, Henry Bolte, the VFL refused to play the four postponed matches on Anzac Day (which, by custom, would have contributed to patriotic funds), and scheduled the postponed matches for the following Saturday (30 April). As a consequence of this delay all of the season's matches from Round 3 to the Grand Final were played a week later than had been originally scheduled.
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.
From 1960, the Seconds became known as the VFL Reserves; and, the Thirds became known as the Under 19s.[1]
The VFL started fixing the schedule from 1960 such that neither Collingwood and Fitzroy, nor Carlton and North Melbourne played home matches on the same day, due to the heavy transport and labour burden associated with running the two nearby venues at the same time.[2] This practice was already established for two other pairs of teams: St Kilda and South Melbourne, and Melbourne and Richmond.
The entire season was plagued by wet weather. This was reflected in the overall low scores of the full-forwards: Ron Evans (Essendon) was the leading goalkicker with only 67 goals in 18 games, and Leo Brereton (Carlton) was second with 44 goals in 18 games.
In the Round 3 match between Hawthorn and Footscray at Glenferrie Oval, Footscray defeated Hawthorn 6.17 (53) to 6.9 (45). The match was so affected by the strong wind conditions and, especially, the defensive play of the Hawthorn back-line – at a time when one could kick the ball out of bounds on the full without penalty – that the prescribed playing time of 100 minutes was extended by an astonishing 32 minutes and 33 seconds of time-on, including 10 minutes 46 seconds in the first quarter alone.
In Round 13, Hawthorn defeated Collingwood at Victoria Park for the first time; Hawthorn had lost the previous 28 meetings at Victoria Park. Full forward John Peck marked on the final siren and kicked a goal to give Hawthorn the win by a point.
Melbourne played in its seventh successive Grand Final, thrashing Collingwood 8.14 (62) to 2.2 (14). Collingwood's score was its lowest since Round 5, 1900, and the lowest by any team in a Grand Final since 1927.
At the end of the 1960 season, the VFL estimated that the live telecast of the last quarter of three VFL matches each Saturday afternoon had cost at least 245,000 spectators, and the VFL decided to discontinue this practice (which had been introduced in 1957).
The reserves premiership was won by Geelong. Geelong 7.15 (57) defeated Hawthorn 7.10 (52) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 24 September.[3]
References
^"New name likely for thirds". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. 2 April 1960. p. 66.
^"Football starts at Easter". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. 26 November 1959. p. 64.
^"Geelong hangs on to win flag". The Age. Melbourne. 26 September 1960. p. 22.
Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN0-670-90809-6
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. ISBN0-670-86814-0
Ross, J. (ed.), The Australian Football Hall of Fame, HarperCollinsPublishers, (Pymble), 1999. ISBN0-7322-6426-X
