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1934 VFL Premiership Season
Premiership player Stan Judkins
Teams	12
Premiers	Richmond (4th premiership)
Minor Premiers	Richmond (3rd minor premiership)
Leading Goalkicker	Bob Pratt (South Melbourne)
Brownlow Medalist	Dick Reynolds (Essendon)

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1934.

Premiership season

In 1934, 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 1934 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".

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

Grand final

Richmond defeated South Melbourne 19.14 (128) to 12.17 (89), in front of a crowd of 65,335 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Ladder

Awards

• The 1934 VFL Premiership team was Richmond.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Bob Pratt of South Melbourne with 138 goals (150 after finals)
• The winner of the 1934 Brownlow Medal was 19 years old Dick Reynolds of Essendon with 19 votes in his second VFL season.
• North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1934.

Notable events

• Bob Pratt smashes Gordon Coventry's record, kicking with 150 goals in the 1934 season. He only took 13 matches to reach 100 goals.
• On 11 August, the regular South Melbourne centre half-back Laurie Nash plays at full-forward for Victoria for three quarters (the selected full-forward Bill Mohr had broken his finger in the first quarter) and kicks 18 goals in a single match against the SANFL at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Nash had kicked two goals from centre half-forward in the first quarter prior to Mohr's injury, then kicked two more in the second quarter, before dominating the match after half-time with another 14 goals.
• In round 8, Fitzroy's ruckman Colin Benham scored his famous "in-off the small boy" goal.
• In the third quarter of the round 10 match between Carlton and Collingwood, played at Victoria Park in a heavy cross-wind, a vicious brawl breaks out involving 20 players, required police assistance to stop. Syd Coventry left the field with concussion. Only three players were reported, and only one (Carlton's Harry Maskell) was suspended. One of the match's goal umpires and both boundary umpires are suspended for the remainder of the season for "dereliction of duty" in relation to the brawl.
• North Melbourne does not win a single game in the entire season.
• It is a matter of record that Dick Reynolds won the 1934 Brownlow Medal from Haydn Bunton, Sr by a single vote. Legend has it that Bunton, who had dominated in the last match of the season, tried to "suck up to" field umpire Jack McMurray as he walked off the playing field, and that Murray, sensing a blatant and improper attempt to influence his Brownlow voting, cast his votes for three other players.

See also

• Colin Benham's famous "in-off the small boy" goal

References

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-959-17402-8
• 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

External links

• 1934 Season - AFL Tables