Grand Final History
Welcome to Grand Final History, a Podcast that explores every VFL and AFL premiership since 1897. Each episode takes you through a summary of the season, the changing rules, emerging trends, controversies and highlights. Then into the finals culminating in two teams challenging each other in a Grand Final to become the premiers for the year (Apart from the seasons where a round robin system replaced the Grand Final). From the early years of the VFL when 8 suburban clubs built a competition to a national league playing games in every state and territory across the country.
Episodes
Eleven teams started the 1943 season but only ten made it to the final round. To ensure only one bye per team, the club on the bottom of the ladder after round eleven was eliminated! The earliest Wooden Spoon ever! The war meant everything was different, US Marines were at the MCG, they even played a gridiron game, the American football code as a rare game on the G once it was occupied for the war. The Americans even took on the Au...
This episode delves into a unique chapter of football history set against the backdrop of World War II. Discover the remarkable story of the Changi Australian Football Association and the creation of the Changi Brownlow Medal within the brutal confines of Changi Prisoner of War Camp in Singapore. Despite being far from home in a hostile environment, Australian POWs found solace and a sense of normalcy through a makeshift football l...
In 1942 the Americans were taking over the city and were amazed by the footy and yet some wanted to Americanise the local game to help it expand north and internationally. But there were bigger problems north of Australia with the Japanese advancing through the Pacific.
Not all the teams played, the MCG was a not so secret military base and Sunday football became a regular event but not for the VFL. The ordinary way of life was gon...
A world in turmoil, a world at war and some want to play football on Sundays, undermining the nation’s spiritual and moral foundations and risking national destruction, there was a lot going on in 1941. Melbourne were aiming for their third premiership in a row while others wondered if football should be played at all. The VFA were stealing star players while others were in military camps, unsure how many games they would play and ...
The greatest shirtfront ever delivered occurred in possibly the toughest season ever, with more players reported in 1940 than ever before. The drama and shocks on the field were matched by the turmoil and challenges off the field as the VFA looked to recruit the biggest stars of the day and many players made the biggest decisions of their lives to enlist in the armed services. St Kilda won their first premiership (The Patriotic Pre...
Welcome to 'Grand Final History,' where we delve into the tumultuous events of 1939, the 43rd season of the VFL, amid a backdrop of global and local crises. Experience how devastating bushfires scorched Victoria, culminating in the infamous Black Friday, and how the VFL played a role in providing solace through sport.
Join us as we navigate through a year marked by political upheaval, with the death of Australian Prime Minister Jo...
The VFL was “The rebellious child of the Association” and it could not dictate how football was going to be played in 1938. There was a split in Australian Football, the Association were changing the rules, allowing throwing the ball and more as they looked to attract more spectators to their games, so “Who cares what the League thinks” was their motto. 1938 was a dramatic year on and off the field, bribery attempts by gambling car...
The greatest game of all they called it: The 1937 Grand Final between Collingwood and Geelong. The year saw a King’s coronation, with a North Melbourne player representing the VFL in London and Fitzroy became the Gorillas! Finals prices increased, never popular, yet a record crowd was a the Grand Final. It was the Magpies chance for a premiership hat trick and to send Gordon Coventry off in style or Geelong’s opportunity to give Re...
Welcome to Grand Final History. In this special supplementary episode, we review the fourth decade of the VFL, from 1927 to 1936. We explore the trends, issues, significant incidents, and quirks over the ten years.
New rules, night football, new finals system, new club mascots, goal kicking master classes and the dominant Magpie Machine, the Fourth Decade of the VFL provided a welcome relief for supporters struggling through the Gr...
Abdications, invasions, Olympics and Grand Finals but some people in 1936 were more worried about all night trams and football being played on a Sunday. It was the VFL’s 40th Season with Richmond’s Punt Rd home ground the centre of an extraordinary dispute that might bankrupt every club and the league. One of the most infamous tribunal hearings will result in a champion missing a Grand Final and decades of fake news. One club takes...
Collingwood and South Melbourne play each other seven times, but only one can win the 1935 VFL premiership. It was a year that saw the first night game between VFL clubs and beer came in cans for the first time, two pivotal moments in history. Footscray made their bid for worst jumper of all time and the Magpies almost forfeited a game. North Melbourne and Hawthorn struggled while the league promised to help Rugby Union. Meanwhile ...
In this gripping episode of "Grand Final History", we transport you back in time to relive the highs and lows of the 1934 Victorian Football League (VFL) season. This episode encompasses Melbourne's Centenary year, the effects of economic depression, global political turbulence, and local events as experienced by the average supporter
We examine the game-changing evolution of how football was played, from new rules to record breaki...
It was the year a cartoonist bestowed a mascot onto a VFL club, it was the year Australian Rules and Rugby League tried to invent Universal Football and it was the year St Kilda and North had a game that they both recall very differently. The VFL experimented with a new pricing model for finals, the crowds might have been lower but the league considered it a success. Has the League ever regretted a price rise?
So much of football history relies on the pioneering journalists who covered the early years of the VFL. In this episode we take a break from normal programming to look at some of the key reporters in print and the emerging radio media. Find out the names and the stories behind the pseudonyms of those early trail blazers who established media traditions still with us today.
Australians struggle with the Depression, unemployment and the death of Phar Lap but there is always footy to look forward to. South Melbourne bring in a new jumper, new management and new players but will it be enough? The Tigers have been runners up four times in five years, their coach Checker Hughes has led teams into eight Grand Finals and been runners up eight times, will it change in 1932?
Games at the Exhibition Oval, next to the Exhibition Buildings? The VFL was negotiating with Cricket Clubs to get a fair share of revenue for football on grounds controlled by Cricket Clubs and released the 1931 fixture with games at the Exhibition Oval and the Motordrome, opposite the MCG. Football clubs were threatened with eviction. It was going to get tense before an agreement was struck. Collingwood were trying for their fifth...
Collingwood are looking for their fourth premiership in a row but with three time premiership captain Syd Coventry appointed Captain Coach of Footscray how will the Magpies cope? Harry Collier finally gets to meet Charlie, it only took 59 years! Geelong supporters wonder if the You Yang mountains are cursed. 1930 was a tough time for many people but footy provided relief for many. And though the rain fell heavily at times some want...
The Rum Rebellion, the tragedy of Australia’s frontier wars and the birth of our own game, all of this will be explored as we look at the Henry Colden Antil Harrison, the Father of Football and the forgetting and remembering of his cousin, Tom Wills. Colden Harrison may not have been at the very birth of the game, unlike cousin and brother in law Tom, but his impact was pivotal in the growth and establishment of the native game. An...
Coventry kicks a ton, the Father of Football dies and the Victorian team rescue a stowaway and there is talk of the VFL killing the VFA, again! The VFL and the world were changing in 1929, not always for the better but one thing that could be counted on was the Collingwood Machine and their quest for a premiership hat trick. The Saints would make a late run for the finals and the premiership game would have a familiar look to it.
...Affiliation between the VFA and VFL was a hot topic in 1928. Could these two feuding organisations put their history behind them and cooperate for the good of football in Victoria. Many meetings, detailed proposals and a preview of an arrangement that was implemented many decades later.
An episode for those interested in the fractious relationship between the VFL and the VFA
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