1950 VFL season

In 1950, 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 1950 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.

• The 1950 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was John Coleman of Essendon with 120 goals (including 8 goals in the final series).
• The winner of the 1950 Brownlow Medal was Allan Ruthven of Fitzroy with 21 votes.
• Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1950.

• In the early 1950 pre-season, veteran Collingwood coach Jock McHale announced his retirement after a then-record 714 senior games. Collingwood called for applications for a non-playing coach, and champion ruckman Phonse Kyne immediately announced his retirement and applied for the job. On 13 April, the Thursday before the last pre-season practice match, the Collingwood committee announced that it had appointed the (then) coach of the Collingwood Second Eighteen team, Bervyn Woods as coach,[1] by the casting vote of the President Harry Curtis. The announcement was greeted with anger, because it meant that Kyne would have to go elsewhere to realise his coaching ambitions. At Collingwood's final practice match, the crowd continuously booed and jeered Woods, the members of the Collingwood committee that had voted for him were threatened and abused, and Kyne was carried around the ground on the shoulders of the crowd at the end of the match. The following day, Woods withdrew his application[2] and reverted to coaching the Second Eighteen, and Kyne was appointed coach.[3] All committee members then resigned their positions, and Curtis did not seek re-election.[4] Former player Syd Coventry was elected the new president, unopposed.[5]
• In Round 2, St Kilda recorded its first win by 100 points or more, defeating Hawthorn 20.24 (144) to 5.5 (35).
• North Melbourne reached the Grand Final for the first time since joining the VFL in 1925.
• In Round 9, North Melbourne won for the first time at Victoria Park, after having suffered 23 straight defeats at the ground.
• Essendon won the First Eighteen, Second Eighteen, and Third Eighteen premierships in 1950.

• 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
• Strevens, S., Bob Rose: A Dignified Life, Allen & Unwin, (Crows Nest), 2004. ISBN 1-74114-465-5

• 1950 Season – AFL Tables