The 1957 VFL Grand Final was an

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 ...

game contested between the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, ...

and

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

, held at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

on 21 September 1957. It was the 60th annual

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

of 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 ...

, staged to determine the

premiers Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

for the 1957 VFL season. The match, attended by 100,324 spectators, was won by Melbourne by 61 points, marking that club's ninth premiership victory. This was Melbourne's fourth successive Grand Final appearance and third successive premiership.

Ron Barassi Ronald Dale Barassi Jr. (born 27 February 1936) is a former Australian rules footballer, coach and media personality. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the game, Barassi was the first player to be inaugurated into ...

starred for the Demons with five goals, four of them in the first half to put the game out of Essendon's reach. Melbourne's coach

Norm Smith Norman Walter Smith (21 November 1915 – 29 July 1973) was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After more than 200 games as a player with and , Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, inc ...

had previously participated in successive premierships as a player, from 1939 to 1941.

Teams

{, , valign="top", * Umpire - Allan Nash

Statistics

Goalkickers

{, width="40%" , valign="top" width="30%" , Melbourne: * Barassi 5 * Ridley 4 * Webb 3 * B.Johnson 2 * Tunbridge 2 * Case 1 , valign="top" width="30%" , Essendon: * Gallagher 3 * Birt 1 * Clarke 1 * Gill 1 * Hebbard 1

Attendance

* MCG crowd - 100,324

References

1957 VFL Grand Final statistics
* ''The Official statistical history of the AFL 2004'' * 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.

Teams

Statistics

Goalkickers

Attendance

References

See also