Grand Final History

Mr Football, Ted Whitten, won four Best and Fairest Awards in one season the year before his VFL debut with Footscray in 1951. It was a year with one of the biggest tribunal shock decisions in the entire history of the V/AFL and a year full of rumours about Dick Reynold's return to the playing field. Essendon players wanted reserved seats for their wives, mothers or girlfriends at the Finals but w...

Every Jock McHale Medal winner can trace their coaching DNA back to Jock McHale, yet who was this man, this Prince of Coaches. A man who held the games played record, a man who held the games coached record, a man whose 8 premierships as coach is unmatched, a man who coached Collingwood to an unprecedented and unmatched four premierships in a row. All of that and more, an author, a political campa...

Jock McHale coached Collingwood for almost 1,400 days. His successor lasted just 4 days. The man the players always called Mr McHale retired in 1950 and a civil war exploded at Collingwood. Hawthorn also had their own controversial, disruptive coaching replacement scandal, an experience that became a turning point for the club. It was a year of war in Korea and Communism reached the MCG on Grand F...

Jack Dyer played the game hard until he could play no more, but none of the players were expecting a kiss from the big man after his last game. As his career came to an end John Coleman made a debut unlike any other in the history of V/AFL footy. The Russians exploded an atomic bomb but that was not the only big news on grand final day. The 1949 VFL season saw a new team top the ladder in a year f...

Was Melbourne’s 1948 Grand Final team the craziest brave selection for any Grand Final team ever? Two blokes who had played the season for Uni Blacks in the Amateurs and a full forward who had spent the season in the Reserves. Essendon had already beaten Melbourne 3 times in 1948 and 12 times in a row. What were the Demon’s selectors thinking? A big season of footy got even bigger when the 1948 Gr...

Carlton shocked their supporters and the football world in 1947 when they selected their new captain who had only played two games in the VFL. It was a time of change with the invention of the Four'nTwenty Pie, as immigrants beginning new lives, far away from the chaos in Europe and women playing footy in front of one of the biggest crowds of the season. Collingwood threatened to forfeit rather th...

A special extra episode covering the 5th decade of the VFL from 1937 to 1946. From the greatest Grand Final ever to the Infamous Bloodbath, from war with the VFA to surviving WWII the VFL and the clubs faced many challenges. Players were killed in the war, some returned from the horrors of the Burma Railway, others kept the country moving at home, playing football when they were not working 12 hou...

The VFL celebrates its 50th Jubilee season with the return of the MCG and the Brownlow and some changes including the addition of a 20th man. The game has become a “Gigantic Industry’ according to VFL Secretary Like McBrien but clubs are still having trouble getting enough jumpers and balls with rationing still in place. Goal kicking legend Bob Pratt’s comeback would end after one game, some playe...

Ted Whitten said it was the best game he ever saw, several of the players had no memory of what happened, a suspended player got reported and Ted Whitfield’s pre-match routine was to drink 6 beers with a top up at halftime. The Bloodbath was an extraordinary Grand Final played shortly  after the end of World War II where a football match occasionally broke out between the fights. 1945 was a pivota...

Supporters were “Up the Junction” in 1944, making their way to the Junction Oval, hosting the Grand Final for the first time since 1899, baked by hot winds on a 30C day with trams and busses on strike. It had been another tough wartime season, so tough even Jack Dyer got suspended, for the only time in his career. Some had suggested that anyone who hit Dyer deserved a Victoria Cross. The Tigers ha...

Eleven teams started the 1943 season but only ten made it to the final round. To ensure only one bye per team, the club on the bottom of the ladder after round eleven was eliminated! The earliest Wooden Spoon ever! The war meant everything was different, US Marines were at the MCG, they even played a gridiron game, the American football code as a rare game on the G once it was occupied for the war...

This episode delves into a unique chapter of football history set against the backdrop of World War II. Discover the remarkable story of the Changi Australian Football Association and the creation of the Changi Brownlow Medal within the brutal confines of Changi Prisoner of War Camp in Singapore. Despite being far from home in a hostile environment, Australian POWs found solace and a sense of norm...

In 1942 the Americans were taking over the city and were amazed by the footy and yet some wanted to Americanise the local game to help it expand north and internationally. But there were bigger problems north of Australia with the Japanese advancing through the Pacific. Not all the teams played, the MCG was a not so secret military base and Sunday football became a regular event but not for the VF...

A world in turmoil, a world at war and some want to play football on Sundays, undermining the nation’s spiritual and moral foundations and risking national destruction, there was a lot going on in 1941. Melbourne were aiming for their third premiership in a row while others wondered if football should be played at all. The VFA were stealing star players while others were in military camps, unsure...

The greatest shirtfront ever delivered occurred in possibly the toughest season ever, with more players reported in 1940 than ever before. The drama and shocks on the field were matched by the turmoil and challenges off the field as the VFA looked to recruit the biggest stars of the day and many players made the biggest decisions of their lives to enlist in the armed services. St Kilda won their f...

Welcome to 'Grand Final History,' where we delve into the tumultuous events of 1939, the 43rd season of the VFL, amid a backdrop of global and local crises. Experience how devastating bushfires scorched Victoria, culminating in the infamous Black Friday, and how the VFL played a role in providing solace through sport. Join us as we navigate through a year marked by political upheaval, with the dea...

The VFL was “The rebellious child of the Association” and it could not dictate how football was going to be played in 1938. There was a split in Australian Football, the Association were changing the rules, allowing throwing the ball and more as they looked to attract more spectators to their games, so “Who cares what the League thinks” was their motto. 1938 was a dramatic year on and off the fiel...

The greatest game of all they called it: The 1937 Grand Final between Collingwood and Geelong. The year saw a King’s coronation, with a North Melbourne player representing the VFL in London and Fitzroy became the Gorillas! Finals prices increased, never popular, yet a record crowd was a the Grand Final. It was the Magpies chance for a premiership hat trick and to send Gordon Coventry off in style...

Welcome to Grand Final History. In this special supplementary episode, we review the fourth decade of the VFL, from 1927 to 1936. We explore the trends, issues, significant incidents, and quirks over the ten years. New rules, night football, new finals system, new club mascots, goal kicking master classes and the dominant Magpie Machine, the Fourth Decade of the VFL provided a welcome relief for s...

Abdications, invasions, Olympics and Grand Finals but some people in 1936 were more worried about all night trams and football being played on a Sunday. It was the VFL’s 40th Season with Richmond’s Punt Rd home ground the centre of an extraordinary dispute that might bankrupt every club and the league. One of the most infamous tribunal hearings will result in a champion missing a Grand Final and d...

Collingwood and South Melbourne play each other seven times, but only one can win the 1935 VFL premiership. It was a year that saw the first night game between VFL clubs and beer came in cans for the first time, two pivotal moments in history. Footscray made their bid for worst jumper of all time and the Magpies almost forfeited a game. North Melbourne and Hawthorn struggled while the league promi...

In this gripping episode of "Grand Final History", we transport you back in time to relive the highs and lows of the 1934 Victorian Football League (VFL) season. This episode encompasses Melbourne's Centenary year, the effects of economic depression, global political turbulence, and local events as experienced by the average supporter We examine the game-changing evolution of how football was play...

It was the year a cartoonist bestowed a mascot onto a VFL club, it was the year Australian Rules and Rugby League tried to invent Universal Football and it was the year St Kilda and North had a game that they both recall very differently. The VFL experimented with a new pricing model for finals, the crowds might have been lower but the league considered it a success. Has the League ever regretted...

So much of football history relies on the pioneering journalists who covered the early years of the VFL. In this episode we take a break from normal programming to look at some of the key reporters in print and the emerging radio media. Find out the names and the stories behind the pseudonyms of those early trail blazers who established media traditions still with us today.

Australians struggle with the Depression, unemployment and the death of Phar Lap but there is always footy to look forward to. South Melbourne bring in a new jumper, new management and new players but will it be enough? The Tigers have been runners up four times in five years, their coach Checker Hughes has led teams into eight Grand Finals and been runners up eight times, will it change in 1932?