The 1953 Victorian Football Association season was the 72nd season of the Australian rules football competition.
The premiership was won by the Port Melbourne Football Club, after it defeated Yarraville by 60 points in the Grand Final on 3 October.
It was Port Melbourne's seventh VFA premiership, and it was the only premiership that the club won during a sequence of eight consecutive Grand Finals played from 1950 until 1957,
and five consecutive minor premierships won from 1951 until 1955.
1953 VFA Ladder
TEAM P W L D PF PA Pct PTS
1 Port Melbourne (P) 20 18 2 0 2052 1047 195.9 72
2 Williamstown 20 16 3 1 1939 1278 151.7 66
3 Yarraville 20 13 5 2 1542 1361 113.2 56
4 Prahran 20 13 6 1 1745 1403 124.3 54
5 Oakleigh 20 13 6 1 1667 1354 123.1 54
6 Coburg 20 12 7 1 1682 1413 119.0 50
7 Brunswick 20 10 10 0 1383 1385 99.8 40
8 Moorabbin 20 9 10 1 1436 1477 97.2 38
9 Preston 20 8 12 0 1375 1484 92.6 32
10 Box Hill 20 7 13 0 1370 1704 80.3 28
11 Camberwell 20 5 14 1 1389 1730 80.2 22
12 Northcote 20 5 15 0 1312 1482 88.5 20
13 Sandringham 20 5 15 0 1237 2103 58.8 20
14 Brighton 20 2 18 0 1138 2046 55.6 8
Finals
Semi Finals
Saturday, 12 September Yarraville 8.16 (64) def. Prahran 9.7 (61) St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 16,000)
Saturday, 19 September Port Melbourne 12.14 (86) def. Williamstown 12.4 (76) St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 12,000)
Preliminary Final
Saturday, 26 September Williamstown 11.13 (79) def. by Yarraville 12.11 (83) St Kilda Cricket Ground (crowd: 20,000)
1953 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 3 October Port Melbourne def. Yarraville St Kilda Cricket Ground (Crowd: 40,000)
2.4 (16)
7.9 (51)
12.10 (82)
21.15 (141) Q1
Q2
Q3
Final 2.2 (14)
3.5 (23)
9.8 (62)
12.9 (81)
Fraser 7, Bonnett 6, Miller 2, Murray 2, Atkinson, Bragg, Laffey, Owens Goals Salt 3, Smallwood 3, Marchesi 2, H. Mason 2, N. Rohleder 2
Injuries Cook (ankle), Gwynn (thigh), Jones (concussion), Smith (back)
Awards
The leading goalkicker for the home-and-home season was Johnny Walker (Williamstown), who kicked 98 goals.[6]
The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Ted Henrys (Preston), who polled 37 votes. Vic Hill (Oakleigh) was second with 33 votes, and H. Simpson (Williamstown) and C. Boyd (Prahran) were equal-third with 31 votes.[7]
Yarraville won the seconds premiership. Yarraville 10.13 (73) defeated Moorabbin 8.11 (59) in the Grand Final, played as a curtain raiser to the firsts Grand Final on 3 October.[5]
Notable events
Adelaide Carnival
The Association competed in the 1953 Adelaide Carnival, and finished in fourth place with a record of 1–3.[8]
Two Association players were named in the inaugural All-Australian team, which was named based on performances at the carnival: Frank Johnson and Ted Henrys.[9]
1953 Adelaide Carnival
Wednesday, 8 July Victoria (VFA) 11.18 (84) def. Tasmania 5.11 (41) Adelaide Oval
Monday, 13 July Victoria (VFL) 16.13 (109) def. Victoria (VFA) 11.10 (76) Adelaide Oval
Wednesday, 15 July South Australia 16.16 (112) def. Victoria (VFA) 7.11 (53) Adelaide Oval
Saturday, 18 July Western Australia 12.8 (80) def. Victoria (VFA) 8.14 (62) Adelaide Oval
Other notable events
Early in the V.F.A. Sub-Districts season, the Port Melbourne Thirds team lost its first match since 1946, ending a 127-game winning streak.
The team lost its first match in its inaugural season of 1946, before embarking on the record-breaking winning streak, which incorporated seven consecutive premierships.[13][14][15]
On 16 May, a premiership match between 1952 Grand Finalists Oakleigh and Port Melbourne was played at Bolton Park, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
The match was arranged by the Australian National Football Council to help spread the game to the New South Wales riverina district.[16] Port Melborne 11.13 (79) defeated Oakleigh 8.13 (61) before a crowd of 4,000 people.[17]
On Tuesday 2 June (Coronation Day holiday), a representative match was played at the St Kilda Cricket Ground between teams representing the six North-of-the-Yarra clubs
(Brunswick, Coburg, Northcote, Preston, Williamstown, Yarraville) and the eight South-of-the-Yarra clubs (Box Hill, Brighton, Camberwell, Moorabbin, Oakleigh, Port Melbourne, Prahran, Sandringham).
[18] North 11.20 (86) defeated South 10.9 (69), after overcoming an eighteen-point three-quarter time deficit.[19]
In July, the Association was granted full voting rights within the Australian National Football Council for the first time.
When the Association first affiliated with the ANFC in 1950, it had all rights of a full delegate except that it could not vote on motions.[20]
Several Association clubs encountered financial difficulties during the 1953 season.
By July, Brighton, Camberwell and Northcote were all operating on an amateur basis, having lost the financial capacity to pay their players.[21]
