1968 VFL Season - Notable Events

Notable Events

• The season's home-and-away draw was extended from 18 to 20 rounds. This now meant that each team met nine, rather than seven, on the other eleven teams twice in a season. The final series were still conducted according to the (1931) "Page-McIntyre system".
• In round 3, the ANZAC Day match between Carlton and Essendon at Princes Park is greatly affected by an unusually strong wind that blew across the ground from wing to wing, Making kicking and marking entirely unpredictable as balls would almost turn at right angles in the air as they moved down the ground towards the outer (eastern) end and lost the protection of the stands (or, whilst in the stand-protected western end, the ball went above the protection of the stands). In an otherwise close, hard-fought match with not many scoring opportunities available, Carlton were least able to cope with the windy conditions, kicking 1.11 (17) to Essendon's 7.8 (50).
• In round 7, Essendon played Richmond at Windy Hill in a rain-sodden game that finished in such dark conditions that players could not see across the ground, let alone along its full length. In the last quarter Geoff Gosper kicks for goal and hits the post. In the gloom, the goal umpire signals a goal, and Essendon goes on to win the match by two points, 11.14 (80) to Richmond's 10.18 (78).
• After their round 8 match against Richmond at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Hawthorn leave the ground believing that they have tied with Richmond. When the goal-umpires meet in the centre of the ground, as was the custom in those days (when they checked their own scorecards and signalled an "all clear" to the scoreboard), they check the scores on their own score cards and signalled to the scoreboard operators that the scoreboard was wrong and that Richmond had, in fact, won by a point: 11.15 (81) to 11.14 (80).
• In round 16, Peter Hudson scores his 100th goal for the season. He is the first player to do so since John Coleman in 1952.
• In round 17 and round 18 respectively, Ron Barassi and Brian Dixon play their 250th VFL games.
  • By 1968, due to the shorter home-and-away seasons, the influences of the two World Wars on the VFL competition, and the effects of war service on player availability, only thirteen VFL players had reached 250 games in the 72 seasons since the VFL began in 1897:
    • Ted Whitten of Footscray (321), Dick Reynolds of Essendon (320), Jack Dyer of Richmond (312), Gordon Coventry of Collingwood (302), Jack Titus of Richmond (294), Bill Hutchison of Essendon (290), Arthur Olliver of Footscray (272), Percy Bentley of Richmond (263), Jack Clarke of Essendon (263), Vic Thorp of Richmond (262), Jock McHale of Collingwood (261), Harry Collier of Collingwood (253), and Lou Richards of Collingwood (250).
• For the first and to date only time in VFL history, the premiership team kicks fewer goals than the runners-up in the Grand Final.