The 1972 VFL season was the 76th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 1 April until 7 October, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs – an increase from the four clubs which had contested the finals in previous years.

The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club for the eleventh time, after it defeated Richmond by 27 points in the 1972 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1972, 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.

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1972 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the McIntyre final five 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

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 93.7
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

Finals week 2

Preliminary final

Grand final

Season notes

• The Page–McIntyre system for determining the VFL premiership team, that had been centered on a final four, and had operated from 1931 to 1971, was replaced by the McIntyre final five system in 1972 (the new finals system operated from 1972 until the 1991 AFL season, when it was replaced by the first McIntyre final six system).
• In Round 1, Hawthorn full-forward Peter Hudson kicked 8 goals at Glenferrie Oval before he sustained a knee injury that kept him out until Round 21 of the following season.
• In Round 10, the VFL changed a tradition: the field umpire, rather than team captains, tossed the coin at the start of the match, in order to reduce gamesmanship.
• In Round 14, Collingwood half-forward John Greening was felled by St Kilda back-man Jim O'Dea 70 metres behind play. Greening was comatose for some time and was extremely lucky not to have died. After a VFL investigation, O'Dea received a 10-week suspension, which was seen by some as unsatisfactory.
• In the second quarter of Carlton's Round 16 match against Essendon, Alex Jesaulenko kicked six goals in eleven minutes. Carlton kicked 11 goals straight in that second quarter.
• In August, the VFL announced that it would grant a free transfer to any player who had played 10 years with a single club.
  • The "10-year rule" was introduced in order to render the VFL immune from the sorts of "restraint of trade" difficulties that were being experienced, at the time, in New South Wales in relation to Rugby League footballers.
  • Although twenty-two VFL players were eligible to do so, only six players, George Bisset (Footscray to Collingwood), Barry Davis (Essendon to North Melbourne), Carl Ditterich (St Kilda to Melbourne), Adrian Gallagher (Carlton to Footscray), John Rantall (South Melbourne to North Melbourne), and Doug Wade (Geelong to North Melbourne) took advantage of the new rule. The rule was rescinded in May 1973.
• In September, North Melbourne Football Club appointed Ron Barassi as its 1973 coach.
• In Round 20, Geelong's Ken Newland kicked a behind after the siren to win the match against Collingwood.
• In the Round 21 match between Fitzroy and Essendon at the Junction Oval, bespectacled Essendon full-forward Geoff Blethyn kicked his 100th goal. A mounted policeman galloped out to protect Blethyn from spectators, and Blethyn was temporarily rendered sightless when the policeman's horse slobbered all over his glasses.
• The 16 September First semi-final between Richmond and Carlton was tied at 8.13 (61) each. Angry fans invaded VFL Park immediately after the siren and field umpire Ian Coates was assaulted.
• The Grand Final between Carlton and Richmond featured an aggregate score of 50.27 (327), setting the record for the highest aggregate score in any game, final or otherwise. The previous record of 48.25 (313) had stood since 1942, and the record would last until 1978.

Awards

• The 1972 VFL Premiership team was Carlton.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter McKenna of Collingwood who kicked 130 goals.
• The winner of the 1972 Brownlow Medal was Len Thompson of Collingwood with 25 votes.
• North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1972. The club would not "win" another wooden spoon again until 2021, forty-nine years later.
• The reserves premiership was won by Hawthorn. Hawthorn 13.10 (88) defeated Melbourne 12.12 (84) in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 7 October.^[1]