1976 VFL season

Infobox VFL Premiership Season
year = 1976


imagesize =
caption =
teams = 12
premiers = AFL Haw
count =
minor premiers = AFL Car
mpcount =
matches =
top goal scorer = Larry Donohue (AFL Gee)
brownlow medalist = Graham Moss (AFL Ess)Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1976.

Premiership season

In 1976, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11 (except that rounds 14 and 15 were the reverse of 4 and 3 respectively).

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1976 VFL "Premiers" were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "McIntyre Final Five 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

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Umpire - Bill Deller, K. Smith

Awards

* The 1976 VFL Premiership team was Hawthorn.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Larry Donohue of Geelong who kicked 105 goals (including 6 goals in the finals).
* The winner of the 1976 Brownlow Medal was Graham Moss of Richmond with 48 votes.
* Collingwood took the "wooden spoon" in 1976.

Notable Events

* The VFL introduces two field umpires per match.
* John Nicholls resigns as coach of Carlton three days before the VFL season commences. Assistant coach Ian Thorogood is promoted to coach.
* The round 9 clash between North Melbourne Football Club and Essendon Football Club proved to be confusing with two umpires. First, an umpire picks out a free kick then decides a ball-up. Ross Henshaw was off the ground injured while the reserves were in action. The umpires finally decided that North had to play with just 17 men. North won by 4 points, easily chipping it around and creating loose men around the wing.

References

* 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/1976.html 1976 Season - AFL Tables]