1968 VFL season

The 1968 VFL season was the 72nd season of the Victorian Football League, the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 15 April until 28 September, and comprised a 20-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club for the ninth time, after it defeated by three points in the 1968 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1968, 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 20 rounds; matches 12 to 20 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 9.
Once the 20 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1968 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
Essendon	1.2	7.6	7.8	8.11
Carlton	5.8	6.9	11.12	13.17
Attendance: 106,365	-	-	-	-

Grand final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Carlton	2.2	6.8	7.9	7.14
Essendon	2.1	5.1	6.4	8.5
Attendance: 116,917	-	-	-	-

Consolation Night Series Competition

The consolation night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South Melbourne, for the teams out of the finals at the end of the home and away rounds.
Final: Hawthorn 16.15 defeated North Melbourne 6.14.

Season notes

The season's home-and-away draw was extended from 18 to 20 rounds. This now meant that each team met nine of the other eleven teams twice in a season.
In Round 3, the Anzac Day match between Carlton and Essendon at Princes Park was greatly affected by an unusually strong wind that blew across the ground from wing to wing, making kicking and marking entirely unpredictable as balls would almost turn at right angles in the air as they moved down the ground towards the outer end and lost the protection of the stands. In an otherwise close, hard-fought match with not many scoring opportunities available, Carlton were least able to cope with the windy conditions, kicking 1.11 to Essendon's 7.8.
In Round 7, Essendon played Richmond at Windy Hill in a rain-sodden game that finished in such dark conditions that players could not see across the ground. In the last quarter, a goal was awarded to Geoff Gosper, although several Richmond players protested that the ball had hit the post. Essendon won the match by two points, 11.14 to Richmond's 10.18.
After the Round 8 match between and Richmond at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the teams and many of the fans left the ground believing the game had been tied 11.15 apiece. After the goal-umpires checked their scorecards, it was confirmed that the scoreboard was reading incorrectly, and that Richmond had, in fact, won by a point: 11.15 to 11.14.
Peter Hudson became the first player to kick 100 goals in a season since John Coleman in 1952.
In Round 17 and Round 18 respectively, Ron Barassi and Brian Dixon played their 250th VFL games. At the time, only thirteen other players had reached the milestone.
After Round 18 of the Under-19s competition, was stripped of all premiership points that it had earned in matches in which it had fielded ineligible player John Taylor, who was residentially tied to. The lost points relegated Geelong from fourth to last place on the ladder.

Awards

The 1968 VFL Premiership team was Carlton.
The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter Hudson of Hawthorn who kicked 125 goals.
The winner of the 1968 Brownlow Medal was Bob Skilton of South Melbourne with 24 votes.
North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1968.
The reserves premiership was won by. Essendon 15.7 defeated 13.14 in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 28 September.