Australian football at the 1956 Summer Olympics

The VAFA, growing frustrated by the common theme of having its best amateur players 'poached' by the VFL and VFA to play for money, saw the opportunity to upstage its professional counterparts on an elevated public platform.[18] The relationship between the VAFA and the professional leagues was hostile at best, and a win would return a great sense of pride to the amateur association.[19]

The squad selected by the VAFA was star-studded; nearly all of those selected had participated in various association grand finals over the years.[19] The most well-known of the amateur squad, and its captain, was Collegians ruckman Geoff Hibbins. Hibbins had played 33 League games for St Kilda before returning to Collegians, where he won the 1956 Australian Amateur Football Association medal. Murray Mitchell of Old Melburnians was another star selection, having captain-coached his side to premiership success in 1955.[19]

The overall cohesion of the squad was immediately evident, no doubt due to their familiarity with each other, and all of them playing in the same competition, under the same rules; and, although the far more robust style of play of the rather different VFL and VFA competitions was likely to present a far more physical opposition, the bulk of the VAFA squad had also played together at a higher level — in representative amateur interstate matches over the last few seasons.[19]

Headlining the VFL/VFA combined squad was Melbourne 150-game veteran Denis Cordner, a 3-time premiership player and former captain of the club.[20] Fresh from the 1956 VFL Grand Final just a month earlier, where he retired at the conclusion of the match after Melbourne smashed Collingwood,[21] Cordner was the logical choice to lead the combined team. One of the League's most formidable ruckmen at his peak, finishing runner-up in the club best-and-fairest award in his penultimate season, Cordner would be a valuable asset to the combined team through both skill and leadership.[22][23]

The VFL portion of the squad, although making up the majority of the final team, was largely youthful and inexperienced. Only the Richmond pair of Brian Davie and Frank Dunin had more than 30 League games to their name at that point, with eight of the squad members only having made their debut in that year's season. Collingwood had the most squad representatives, with five.[20]

The VFA representatives in the squad contained no Williamstown players, despite the club having won the last three Association premierships. Unlike the VFL squad inclusions, no VFA club boasted more than two players from their side in the overall group of 33. One of the headline players was Box Hill forward Dave Plunkett, who in his first season of Association football had kicked more than 25 goals to help his side to a maiden finals appearance.[24]

Many of the combined squad members were former VAFA players themselves who had maintained an amateur status upon their inclusion in the professional leagues.[25]

• Peter Craw (Old Scotch Collegians)
• D. Douglas (State Savings Bank)
• John Byrne (Ormond)
• E. J. Hill (Old Paradians)
• S. P. Hawthorne (Old Scotch Collegians)

• Alf Perrin

The combined team was made up of 14 VFL players and 6 VFA players.[16]

• Keith Anderson (Oakleigh)
• Lindsay Gaze (Prahran)
• Brian Turner (Collingwood)

• Eric McCutchan

Respected VAFA umpire Les Wenker was chosen to be the field umpire, with Sam Birtles as his reserve. The boundary umpires were the VFL's Bill Quinn (who had officiated in four VFL Grand Finals in his career to date),[30] and the VAFA's Jack Wilson. The goal umpires were Bob Coldrey and Ossie Meehan; both of the VAFA.[31]

Players had to deal with the various hazards on the ground left over from previous events, chiefly the Olympic flagpole. The 50-foot structure was to be left standing until the conclusion of the closing ceremony as part of Games protocol, despite the fact that it sat awkwardly in the forward pocket, well in from the boundary line.[33][19] The plinth installed for the inside lane of the running track also posed problems for the footballers, who were at risk of tripping if they did not identify the sharp rise in height of the surface.[13] The size of the playing area itself was reduced dramatically (down to 170 x 145 yards)[32] due to the cinder track around the inside of the stadium, while the sandpits used for the long jump and triple jump events had only recently been covered, making for unsteady ground.[19]

The VAFA got the jump in the first quarter, kicking six goals to one. After this early dominance, the VAFA never came close to relinquishing their lead, maintaining a healthy margin for the rest of the game. While their opponents fought back in the second term, it was the lapses of the combined team that meant they were never truly in with a chance after going behind early – a goalless third term essentially dashing any hopes of a comeback.[34] Leading the way on the scoreboard for the VAFA were Fenton-Smith and Pettigrove, each with four goals, while the highly favoured Anderson finished with three goals, realising the journalists' predictions. Dunin was the only multiple goalkicker for the combined team, finishing with three. Hibbins, captain, took best afield honours for the VAFA. Contrarily, the Melbourne champion, Cordner, captain of the combined team, had his predicted impact nullified by the "marking ability and persistency" of his opponents.[34]

Crowd estimates varied between 15,000 and 30,000 spectators.[35][13] Throughout the entire game, at which the Duke of Edinburgh was an interested spectator,[36] a running commentary attempted to explain the umpires' decisions to the audience, and those who were not used to the game found it extremely useful. VAFA secretary and match organiser Jack Fullerton sat alongside the Duke, explaining the intricacies of the game to him throughout.[19]

While the official Olympic Report of 1956 praised the quality of the match, describing it as being played "in the true amateur spirit, with an abundance of vigour and speed, plenty of good kicking and high marking",[37] the media was less favourable.[38]

The Argus' Percy Taylor suggested the crowd would not have been greatly impressed by the game, which he said "lacked the fire that makes our game", in part due to it being an out-of-season exhibition match with nothing on the line except pride.[39] Meanwhile, a staff reporter at The Age commented on how the spectators seemed more interested in the butcher hats and coats of the goal umpires than the quirks of the sport itself.[35]

The VAFA's victory over its higher-standard opponents gave them a bargaining chip when dealing with both the VFL and the VFA in future agreements. The winning twenty were recognised for their achievement with the presentation of a congratulatory letter from Wilfrid Kent Hughes, chairman of the Games organising committee. The following year, the VAFA were granted the use of the Olympic Park No. 2 ground as their headquarters, which proved profitable for the association.[19]

Of the winning amateur team, four players would be picked up by VFL clubs in subsequent seasons. Dick Fenton-Smith was selected by Melbourne for the 1957 season, and in his three years in the league, he played in three Grand Finals for a return of two premierships.[40] Most fruitful was his debut league season, when the six-foot-five ruckman booted 18 goals from 18 matches on the way to a premiership.[41] Also making their league debuts in 1957 were Lloyd Williams, who played two games for Collingwood, and Phil Rochow, who played a solitary match for Fitzroy.[42][43] A year later, John Hayes would make his senior debut for St Kilda, finishing with a tally of seven games.[44]

The combined team featured a number of VFL players who would go on to achieve greater success in their league careers. The Magpies quartet of Brian Gray, Ken Turner, Ray Gabelich and Bill Serong were all members of Collingwood's 1958 VFL premiership team,[45] with both Gabelich and Serong going on to win club best-and-fairest awards in future seasons (the latter with North Melbourne).[46][47] North Melbourne had also unearthed a gem in Laurie Dwyer, wingman for the combined team in the demonstration match, as he went on to become a two-time Syd Barker Medallist for North, while also finishing runner-up in the Brownlow Medal in both his best-and-fairest winning seasons.[48] Brendan Edwards followed up a best-and-fairest win for Hawthorn in 1960 with a starring performance in the Hawks' maiden VFL premiership win of 1961.[49][50]

Coach of the combined team, dual Collingwood premiership player and secretary of the ANFC Bruce Andrew, would be an inaugural inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, just months before his death.[51][52]

Of the Association representatives, Keith Woolnough, who had experienced a decade-long career with Northcote up to the end of 1956,[53] capped off his career with a surprise victory in the 1958 J. J. Liston Trophy before immediately retiring from the Dragons after 185 senior games.[54] Box Hill's Dave Plunkett was named at centre half-forward in the club's "Greatest Ever Team", announced in 2000, after a career spanning 115 games and 91 goals.[55]

Foreshadowing a move to commercialise and promote the sport, Alf Potter and Gordon Bennett of HSV-7 commissioned a 'trial run' of filming the demonstration match for television purposes.[56] While it wasn't broadcast on free-to-air TV, remnants of the video remain and can be viewed on the AOC's website.[57] The low-angle action shots and fast jump cuts proved appealing and by the 1957 season, the three major television networks at the time – HSV-7, GTV-9 and ABV-2 – were all broadcasting the final quarter of a live VFL match into viewers' homes each week, the first time that Australian football would be shown on free-to-air television.[56]