The 1976 VFL season was the 80th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the third time, after it defeated North Melbourne by 30 points in the 1976 VFL Grand Final.

Background

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".

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: 97.1
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

Finals week 2

Preliminary final

Grand final

Season notes

• The VFL introduced two field umpires per match.
• John Nicholls resigned as coach of Carlton three days before the VFL season commenced. Assistant coach Ian Thorogood was promoted to coach.
• The opening round match between South Melbourne and Geelong at the Lake Oval saw the Swans set a new record for the highest losing score on record, beating Melbourne's 1940 previous record.
• The Round 1 match between Carlton and Collingwood at Princes Park saw a massive all-in brawl that involved virtually every player from both sides, with Collingwood's Phil Carman the chief target.
• In Round 10, North Melbourne's Malcolm Blight kicked a booming torpedo punt 65–70 metres out from goal after the final siren at Princes Park, which sailed through for a goal that won the match for North Melbourne. HSV Channel 7 football commentator Michael Williamson exclaimed after the match, "I have seen it all, now. I have seen it all!!" ("The Sensational Seventies -- 1976." Screened on HSV 7 Melbourne in September 1979)
• The Round 21 match between Footscray and Fitzroy at VFL Park was the first match to provide the lowest two scores of a season.
• Collingwood "won" its maiden wooden spoon after seventy-nine years, leaving Carlton as the only foundation VFL team yet to finish last. Carlton would "win" its maiden wooden spoon twenty-six years later in 2002.
• Collingwood's six wins is the most by a wooden spooner in VFL/AFL history.

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 Essendon with 48 votes.
• Collingwood took the "wooden spoon" for the first time in 1976.
• The reserves premiership was won by Collingwood. Collingwood 23.17 (155) defeated North Melbourne 19.15 (129) in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 25 September.^[1]