1942 VFL season

Infobox VFL Premiership Season
year = 1942


imagesize = 120px
caption = Lindsay White
teams = 11
premiers = AFL Ess
count = 8th
minor premiers = AFL Ess
mpcount = 7th
matches =
top goal scorer = Lindsay White (South Melbourne)
brownlow medalist =

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1942.

Influence of World War II

World War II had many negative effects on AFL in Australia:

*Geelong were unable to compete in the competition because of wartime travel restrictions. Temporary transfers to other clubs were available to Geelong players (limit of three per club).
*Melbourne and Collingwood struggled to field a team, however they were able to compete.
*Available servicemen were often called upon to make up the numbers - this accounts for the drop in form of the Melbourne team, having previously won 3 premierships in a row.
*The VFA went into recess, and any eligible players were given league permits.
*The Brownlow Medal was suspended until 1946.
*Many ground changes were also forced upon teams, as their usual home grounds were used in the war effort. The new grounds used were Yarraville Oval (Footscray), Toorak Park (St Kilda), Punt Road Oval (Melbourne) and Princes Park (South Melbourne).

Premiership season

In 1942, the VFL competition was comprised of eleven teams of 18 on-the-field players each (Geelong did not field a team due to wartime rail and road transport restrictions), plus one substitute player, known as the 19th 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 16 rounds. During the first 11 rounds each team played each other once and had one bye. In the remaining rounds (12 to 16), 6 teams played 5 matches, and 5 teams played 4 matches and had one bye (thus, the five teams had 2 byes for the season).

The determination of the 1942 season's fixtures were greatly complicated by the fact that the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Lake Oval, the Western Oval, and the Junction Oval had all been appropriated for military use, and that Melbourne now shared the Punt Road Oval with Richmond as their home ground, South Melbourne now shared Princes Park with Carlton as their home ground, and that St Kilda and Footscray now played their home games at Toorak Park and Yarraville Oval respectively (this was possible because there was no VFA competition in 1942).

Once the 16 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1939 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

Grand Final

"See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list."

Essendon defeated Richmond 19.18 (132) to 11.13 (79), in front of a crowd of 49,000 (approx.) people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Ladder

Awards

* The 1942 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Lindsay White of South Melbourne with 67 goals (80 after finals). He was usually a Geelong player, but played for South Melbourne because Geelong had withdrawn from the war-time competition.
* "The Argus" newspaper's "Player of the Year", Jack Dyer of Richmond, was declared 1942 Champion of the Season.
* No Brownlow Medal was awarded in 1942.
* Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1942.

Notable Events

* In Round 2, Melbourne and Richmond set the record for the highest aggregate score in a game, with the teams combining for 48.25 (313). This record would stand for thirty years, eventually broken in the 1972 Grand Final.
**Melbourne was led on to the field by RAAF air ace Squadron Leader Keith "Bluey" Truscott, DFC and Bar. Truscott unfurled Melbourne's 1941 premiership flag and, very obviously lacking match condition, played an average game, kicking a single goal in his team's 79 point loss (last of his 50 career senior VFL games).
* On Sunday 12 July 1942, at the Punt Road Oval, a Combined Services Team, which included Percy Beames, Allan La Fontaine, Jack Mueller, Alby Pannam, and Norm Ware, played a match against a combined team of VFL players chosen by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, former Olympic swimming champion Sir Frank Beaurepaire, which included Norm Smith, Jack Dyer, and Bob Chitty.
* The second half of the 1942 Grand Final was delayed as the captains Jack Dyer and Dick Reynolds, both of whom were in "reserved" occupations and, therefore, exempt from military service (Dyer was a police officer, and Reynolds a munitions worker), made speeches to the crowd in support of the wartime Austerity Loan.
* On Saturday, 26 September, the Premiers, Essendon play a "patriotic" match against a Combined Services Team that included Alby Pannam, Bob Pratt, and Ron Todd, and win 24.18 (162) to (20.15 (135).

References

* Hogan, P., "The Tigers Of Old", The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
* Maplestone, M., "Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996", Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-959-17402-8
* Rogers, S. & Brown, 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

* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1942.html 1942 Season - AFL Tables]