1961 VFL grand final

The 1961 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested by the Footscray Football Club and Hawthorn Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 23 September 1961. It was the 64th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1961 VFL season. The match, attended by 107,935 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 43 points, making it the club's first premiership victory.

1961 VFL Grand Final
Hawthorn Footscray 13.16 (94) 7.9 (51)
1 2 3 4 HAW 2.4 (16) 3.9 (27) 9.15 (69) 13.16 (94) FOO 4.2 (26) 5.5 (35) 6.6 (42) 7.9 (51)
Date	23 September 1961
Stadium	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Attendance	107,935
Favourite	Hawthorn
← 1960 VFL Grand Final 1962 →

Hawthorn, which was competing in its first VFL grand final since entering the competition in 1925, went into the game as minor premiers, favourites, and on a club-record 11-game winning streak.^[1] Footscray, which also entered the competition in 1925, and was in its second grand final (after winning the 1954 premiership), had finished the home-and-away season in fourth place. They qualified for the grand final after upsetting Ron Barassi-led Melbourne by 27 points in the preliminary final. That ended Melbourne's record sequence of seven consecutive grand final appearances, and it was the first grand final not to feature any of the eight foundation VFL clubs.

It was a young Footscray side, with only two players having more than 80 VFL games experience, although one of them was the veteran Ted Whitten. Hawthorn's Brendan Edwards was playing in his 100th VFL game and dominated in the centre. Despite trailing at half time, Hawthorn won comfortably, after kicking six goals to one in a dominant third quarter.

The 1961 grand final is the earliest VFL grand final for which complete television footage has survived, and it has been made available on DVD.

Teams

Hawthorn

Footscray

Hawthorn B: 29 Reg Poole 1 Les Kaine 10 Graham Cooper HB: 20 Sted Hay 28 John McArthur 26 Cam McPherson C: 30 Colin Youren 9 Brendan Edwards 5 John Fisher HF: 14 Ian Mort 31 Garry Young 4 Morton Browne F: 11 Malcolm Hill 23 John Peck 19 Jack Cunningham Foll: 12 John Winneke 2 Graham Arthur (c) 7 Ian Law Res: 22 Phil Hay 3 Ron Nalder Coach: John Kennedy Sr.

Footscray B: 28 Charlie Evans 29 Bernie Lee 4 Bob Ware HB: 25 John Jillard 23 John Hoiles 38 Barry Ion C: 12 Alex Gardiner 8 Bob Spargo 37 Ian Bryant HF: 15 John Quarrell 17 Graham Ion 30 Barney McKellar F: 3 Ted Whitten (c) 24 Jack Slattery 6 Keith Beamish Foll: 14 John Schultz 9 Cameron McDonald 2 Merv Hobbs Res: 16 Ken Duff 5 Charlie Stewart Coach: Ted Whitten

Umpire: Frank Schwab

Scoreboard

Team	1	2	3	Final
Hawthorn	2.4	3.9	9.15	13.16 (94)
Footscray	4.2	5.5	6.6	7.9 (51)

Statistics

Goal kickers

Hawthorn: Browne 3 Law 2 Mort 2 Arthur 1 Cunningham 1 Edwards 1 Hill 1 Nalder 1 Peck 1

Footscray: Whitten 3 Quarrell 2 Hobbs 1 McKellar 1

Attendance

• MCG attendance – 107,935

See also

• 1961 VFL season