The 1941

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

season was the 63rd season of the

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

competition, and it was the last season before the Association went into recess during World War II. The premiership was won by the

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football Association/Leag ...

, which defeated

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

by 19 points in the Grand Final on 4 October. It was Port Melbourne's fifth VFA premiership, and its second in a row.

Association membership

World War II had commenced in Europe in September 1939, and for the second consecutive season the Association opted to proceed with a full premiership season. Many Association players had enlisted in the war effort, and the

Sandringham Football Club The Sandringham Football Club, nicknamed The Zebras, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne which was formed in 1929 and plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL) which was formerly called the Victorian Football Association ...

elected to operate on an amateur basis for the season.

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over twenty matches, before the top four clubs contested a finals series under the

Page–McIntyre system The McIntyre System, or systems as there have been five of them, is a playoff system that gives an advantage to teams or competitors qualifying higher. The systems were developed by Ken McIntyre, an Australian lawyer, historian and English lect ...

to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder

Finals

Awards

Bob Pratt Harold Robert Pratt Sr. (31 August 1912 – 6 January 2001) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the South Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the Coburg Football Club in the Victorian Football Asso ...

(

) was the leading goalkicker for the season, kicking 165 goals in the home-and-home season and 183 goals overall. Pratt broke George Hawkins' Association record of 164 goals, achieved in

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

. The achievement meant that Pratt simultaneously held the season goalkicking record in both the Association and the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

, in which he kicked 150 goals in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. Pratt's record exceeded Western Australian forward

George Doig George Ronald Doig (25 May 1913 – 27 November 2006) was an Australian rules footballer who played for and later coached the East Fremantle Football Club in the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL). A member of the Doig sport ...

's national record of 152 goals in a season, but it was not recognised as a national record because the Association was not playing under ANFC rules at the time. *

Des Fothergill Desmond Hugh Fothergill (15 July 1920 – 16 March 1996) was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for Williamstown Football Club in the Victorian Football Associatio ...

( Williamstown) won the Association best and fairest, receiving both the V.F.A. Medal and the

Recorder Cup The J. J. Liston Trophy is awarded annually to the best and fairest senior player in the Victorian Football League (formerly the Victorian Football Association). It is named after J.J. Liston, a businessman, civic leader and sports administrato ...

as trophies for the achievement. Fothergill polled a huge total of 62 votes – an average of 3.1 votes per game – and was a comfortable winner ahead of E. Fay ( Brunswick) on 33 votes and

Lance Collins Lance Kitchener Collins (19 June 1916 – 3 January 1988) was a leading Australian rules footballer of the 1940s, playing for Carlton Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Born in Beulah, Victoria, Collins joined Victori ...

(

) on 32 votes. Fothergill had transferred to the Association from League club in 1941, and had shared the

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

as best and fairest of that competition. * Williamstown won the seconds premiership. Williamstown 18.17 (125) defeated

in the Grand Final, played as a curtain raiser to the seniors Grand Final on Saturday 4 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Notable events

* On 30 August,

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populatio ...

43.29 (287) defeated

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places * Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia * Sandringham, Queensland, Australia * Sandringham, Victoria, Australia **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station **Electoral district of Sandringham * Sand ...

7.9 (51). Port Melbourne's score set a new record for the highest score in Association history, breaking Brunswick's record of 37.16 (238) set in

. * Three

players –

Ted Freyer Ted Freyer (20 May 1910 – 22 April 1984) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the VFL during the 1930s. Family The sixth of the seven children of Peter Henry Freyer (1869-1945), and Mary Freyer (1871-1928), née Su ...

, Austin Robertson, and R. Reynolds – were all initially suspended for the Grand Final, but successfully appealed to overturn the suspensions. In the Grand Final, Robertson and Freyer kicked twelve of Port Melbourne's fifteen goals between them. * Port Melbourne's win against

in the Grand Final was the first time that Port Melbourne had defeated Coburg since July

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

External links

List of VFA/VFL Premiers This page is a complete chronological listing of the premiers of the Australian rules football competition known as the Victorian Football Association until 1995 and as the Victorian Football League since 1996. The Victorian Football Association ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1941 Vfa Season Victorian Football League seasons VFL