1939 VFL season

In 1939, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, 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 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 1939 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page-McIntyre System.

Melbourne defeated Collingwood 21.22 (148) to 14.11 (95), in front of a crowd of 78,110 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

• The 1939 VFL Premiership team was Melbourne.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Ron Todd of Collingwood with 98 goals (121 after finals).
• The Argus newspaper's "Player of the Year", was shared between Jack Dyer of Richmond and Dick Reynolds of Essendon.
• The winner of the 1939 Brownlow Medal was Marcus Whelan of Collingwood with 23 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1939.
• The seconds premiership was won by Melbourne. Melbourne 22.12 (144) defeated Richmond 17.13 (115) in the Grand Final, played as a stand-alone game on Thursday 28 September (Show Day holiday) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, before a crowd of 4,100.[1]

• Two key rule changes were made nationally in 1939.
  • The holding the ball rule was altered to eliminate the provision for a player to drop the ball when tackled, meaning that a player was forced to either kick or handpass the ball when tackled to avoid conceding a free kick.
  • The boundary throw-in was reintroduced whenever the ball went out of bounds, except when put out deliberately, instead of a free kick being awarded against the last player to touch the ball, as had been the case since 1925.[2]
• A record 91 scores of more than one hundred points were kicked during the year; this was a record until 1969.
• Hawthorn's win over Carlton in Round 5 was its first as a member of the VFL. Carlton had won the first 25 meetings.
• All round 18 matches were postponed for a week because all grounds were under water from constant rain.
• North Melbourne's win over Geelong in Round 18 was the club's first since their initial meeting in Round 1 of the 1925 VFL season, North Melbourne's first match as a member of the VFL, breaking a streak of 23 consecutive wins by Geelong.

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• 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

• 1939 Season - AFL Tables