1970 VFL season

The 1970 Victorian Football League season was the 74th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

1970 VFL Premiership season
Teams	12
Premiers	Carlton (10th premiership)
Minor premiers	Collingwood (15th minor premiership)
Consolation series	Footscray (4th Consolation series win)
Matches played	136
Attendance	3,321,925 (24,426 per match)
Highest attendance	121,696
Coleman Medallist	Peter Hudson (Hawthorn)
Brownlow Medallist	Peter Bedford (South Melbourne)

Premiership season

In 1970, 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 1970 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

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

1970 VFL ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Collingwood	22	18	4	0	2333	1709	136.5	72	Finals
2	Carlton (P)	22	16	6	0	2146	1911	112.3	64
3	St Kilda	22	14	8	0	1926	1532	125.7	56
4	South Melbourne	22	14	8	0	1914	1828	104.7	56
5	Geelong	22	12	10	0	1949	1903	102.4	48
6	Richmond	22	12	10	0	2029	1998	101.6	48
7	Footscray	22	11	11	0	1728	1894	91.2	44
8	Hawthorn	22	10	12	0	2264	1986	114.0	40
9	Fitzroy	22	9	13	0	1774	2155	82.3	36
10	Melbourne	22	6	16	0	1705	2043	83.5	24
11	Essendon	22	6	16	0	1734	2128	81.5	24
12	North Melbourne	22	4	18	0	1574	1989	79.1	16

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

Consolation Night Series Competition

The consolation 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 home and away rounds.

Final: Footscray 13.17 (95) defeated Melbourne 13.15 (93).

Premiership Finals

First Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
St Kilda	6.1	9.3	14.8	22.11 (143)
South Melbourne	2.5	9.8	10.10	13.12 (90)
Attendance: 104,239

Second Semi-Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Collingwood	5.2	9.7	12.11	17.16 (118)
Carlton	5.0	9.2	14.3	17.6 (108)
Attendance: 112,838

Preliminary Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Carlton	2.6	6.12	13.16	17.21 (123)
St Kilda	1.4	4.12	6.16	7.19 (61)
Attendance: 108,215

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Carlton	0.3	4.5	12.5	17.9 (111)
Collingwood	4.8	10.13	13.16	14.17 (101)
Attendance: 121,696

Crowd figures

Attendances 1970	Total	Average
Home & Away	2,860,423	21,670
Finals	446,988	111,747
Season	3,307,411	24,319

Awards

• The 1970 VFL Premiership team was Carlton.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter Hudson of Hawthorn who kicked 146 goals.
• The winner of the 1970 Brownlow Medal was Peter Bedford of South Melbourne with 25 votes.
• North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1970.
• The reserves premiership was won by Melbourne for the second consecutive year. Melbourne 16.10 (106) defeated Richmond 16.8 (104) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 26 September.[1]

Notable events

• Unhappy with their treatment over the three seasons they spent at Princes Park, Fitzroy moved their home ground to the Junction Oval in St Kilda.
• On Monday 9 March, the Victoria representative team played a match under Gaelic football rules against the 1969 All-Ireland Senior football champions, Kerry, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Kerry 4-11 defeated Victoria 2-10.[2]
• Essendon's Don McKenzie, Geoff Gosper, Darryl Gerlach, Geoff Pryor, and Barry Davis, and Collingwood's Len Thompson and Des Tuddenham did not play in Round 1 due to separate disputes over player payments with their respective clubs (see Dispute over player payments).
• Essendon missed the finals in consecutive years, the first time this had occurred since 1939.
• In Round 1, Richmond and Fitzroy played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday, 5 April 1970, the first ever VFL match played on a Sunday. Before the start of the third quarter, the Richmond and Fitzroy players lined up in front of the Members' Stand and were introduced to The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales and Princess Anne, who then watched the last half of the match.
• In Round 10, Collingwood trailed St Kilda by over ten goals late in the second quarter but came back to win by seven points. Their 52-point deficit remains, as of 2019, the greatest at half-time deficit by a winning side.
• The 1970 VFL season was the first in which three full-forwards (Alex Jesaulenko, Peter McKenna, and Peter Hudson) kicked at least 100 goals in a home-and-away season.
• South Melbourne ended the second-longest finals drought in league history (twenty-four seasons) by finishing fourth, making the finals for the first time since 1945.
• In Round 5, Ted Whitten played his 321st senior VFL game, breaking the record set by Dick Reynolds. Whitten retired after this match.
• On Monday 31 August HSV-7 broadcast the first live Brownlow Medal count.
• In the 1970 Second Semi-Final, Carlton's Syd Jackson was reported for striking Collingwood defender Lee Adamson. Carlton president George Harris, eager to have Jackson in his Grand Final team, devised the strategy of having the club's advocate to assert to the tribunal (on Jackson's behalf) that Jackson had been provoked by an extended series of racial taunts from Adamson, including repeatedly calling him "Sambo" and, furthermore, stating that Jackson would respond in the same way to any future vilification. The tribunal took the stance that the VFL had to be seen to protect its only top-level Aboriginal footballer at the time, and they immediately exonerated him, without hearing Adamson's side of the story, stating that Jackson had no case to answer.[3] Jackson revealed much later that it had all been a set-up by George Harris.
• The 1970 Grand Final between Collingwood and Carlton was considered to be the most memorable Grand Final in VFL/AFL history. Collingwood had a great lead over Carlton during most of the game, however Carlton managed to come back and win the Grand Final by 10 points.

See also

• 1970 VFL Grand Final

Footnotes

1. "Demons in on error". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. 28 September 1970. p. 57.
2. Tom Prior (10 March 1970). "=Those Irish aces strike". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 69.
3. Carter, R., "Adamson Denies Jackson's Claim", The Age, (Thursday, 30 September, 1970), p.30.

References

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• Rogers, S. & Browne, 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

• 1970 Season – AFL Tables