1953 VFL season

The 1953 VFL season was the 57th season of the Victorian Football League, the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 18 April until 26 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
The premiership was won by the Collingwood Football Club for the twelfth time, after it defeated by twelve points in the 1953 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1953, 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 1953 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

Home-and-away season

Round 8

Round 16

Ladder

Finals series

Semi-finals

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Geelong	3.1	6.4	7.12	8.12
Collingwood	2.3	5.7	7.8	13.12
Attendance: 70,292	-	-	-	-

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Collingwood	2.4	5.6	10.10	11.11
Geelong	2.2	3.9	5.11	8.17
Attendance: 89,149	-	-	-	-

Season notes

Because Anzac Day fell on a Saturday, there was a fortnight between Rounds 1 and 2. On the evening of Friday 24 April a night-time exhibition match was held between Collingwood and Fitzroy, under lights, at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds for the benefit of St Vincent's Hospital. Collingwood 9.13 defeated Fitzroy 4.19 before a crowd of 22,000.
Footscray won its first final since joining the league in 1925, their twenty-ninth season. This came after making the finals six times previously and being eliminated each time.
In Round 2, John Coleman kicked 11 of Essendon's 13 goals.
In Round 5, Fitzroy came close to becoming the first VFL/AFL team to be held scoreless in their match against Footscray at the Western Oval, which was played amidst heavy rain and a burst water main. Allan Ruthven managed their only scoring shot, a goal, with about six minutes remaining in the match. To date, it remains the longest amount of time a team has been kept scoreless in a match.
In a streak spanning from 1952 until 1953, won 23 consecutive matches and played 26 consecutive matches without defeat; both of these remain VFL/AFL records as of 2023. The winning streak ended in Round 14, when Collingwood defeated Geelong by 20 points. At the time, Geelong had a 13–0 record and a four game lead over second-place, but won only three of its eight remaining games for the season.
Overall it was a low-scoring season: Footscray's 959 points against remains the lowest average points conceded per game since 1919; the season's highest score of 21.10 was the lowest since 1924; and, for the first time since 1927, there was no match in which both teams scored more than 100 points.
The Collingwood Grand Final team contained three sets of brothers: Lou Richards and Ron Richards; Bob Rose and Bill Rose; Bill Twomey Jr., Pat Twomey, and Mick Twomey.
Collingwood supporter and businessman John Wren suffered a heart attack at the 1953 Grand Final and died one month later.

Awards

The 1953 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
The VFL's leading goalkicker was John Coleman of Essendon who kicked 97 goals.
The winner of the 1953 Brownlow Medal was Bill Hutchison of Essendon with 26 votes.
Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1953.