The 1962 VFL season was the 66th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 21 April until 29 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by the Essendon Football Club for the eleventh time, after it defeated Carlton by 32 points in the 1962 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1962, 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 18 rounds; matches 12 to 18 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7.

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1962 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

Home-and-away season

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

Ladder

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 75.5
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Preliminary final

Preliminary final replay

Grand final

Consolation Night Series Competition

The night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval, South Melbourne, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the season.

Final: Richmond 8.16 (64) defeated Hawthorn 9.6 (60)

Season notes

• Having abandoned live telecasts of the last quarters of VFL matches at the end of 1960, and having forbidden Saturday evening replays during the 1961 season, the VFL agreed to allow television stations to broadcast one hour of replays each Saturday evening, provided no more than 30 minutes of any one match was broadcast. A separate arrangement was made to allow a replay of the entire Grand Final match.
• St Kilda won its first match against Collingwood at Victoria Park since Round 2, 1919.
• On Anzac Day, a representative match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between the Victorian team from the 1961 Brisbane Carnival, and a team representing the rest of the league. The Rest 13.7 (85) defeated the Carnival team 10.17 (77) in front of a crowd of 17,068.^[1]
• In the Round 10 match between Carlton and Fitzroy at the Brunswick Street Oval, scores were level at 51 apiece when the final siren sounded; but, play was at the opposite end of the venue to the grandstand where the siren was located, and the umpire did not hear it. From the ensuing ball-up, Carlton's Martin Cross punched the ball through for a rushed behind, and Carlton won by that point. Fitzroy did not protest the result;^[2] it did request that the Fitzroy Cricket Club install new sirens at the other end of the field, but the request was rejected.^[3]
• In September, the VFL purchased land to the east of Melbourne, at Mulgrave, upon which later built VFL Park.
• The Preliminary Final replay between Carlton and Geelong was by Carlton won by 5 points. In the final moments of the match, Geelong full forward Doug Wade took a strong mark directly in front of the Geelong goals, but he was penalised for interfering with Carlton full-back Peter Barry.
• In the Grand Final, a badly injured Geoff Leek played one of the best matches in his career to nullify Carlton's John Nicholls and pave the way for a sound 32 point win by Essendon.

Awards

• The 1962 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Doug Wade of Geelong who kicked 68 goals (including 6 goals in the final series).
• The winner of the 1962 Brownlow Medal was Alistair Lord of Geelong with 28 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1962.
• The reserves premiership was won by Footscray. Footscray 13.13 (91) defeated St Kilda 10.8 (68) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the Preliminary Final Replay at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 22 September.^[4]