1956 VFL Season - Notable Events

Notable Events

• The VFL introduced a "Night Premiership", played between teams that finished outside the final four. The seven elimination matches were played under lights at the Lake Oval. The matches were renowned for their violence both on and off the field. In 1956 Melbourne, with its "Six o'clock closing" the opportunity of having somewhere to have a drink after six o'clock, made these matches very attractive, and the seven matches were attended by an average of 20,000+ patrons, who were far from bothered that the somewhat dim lighting meant that most of the spectators standing on the terraces along the Albert Road side could not always clearly see what was happening on the other side of the ground over at the Lake outer wing (all the way from the back flank at the bowling club to the forward pocket in front of the scoreboard). On occasion the fights amongst the spectators were so fierce that the players stopped to watch. There was also much violence on the field, with players soon learning that keeping to the well-lit parts of the ground offered considerable protection.
• In winning the Grand Final, Melbourne creates a record by having defeated the same opponent (Collingwood) four times in a single senior VFL season.
• The official Grand Final attendance of 115,802, based on gate entrance sales (it had been anticipated that it would be a very close and hard-fought match), breaks VFL records. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was so packed that spectators sat between the fence and the boundary line. The gates were closed for safety. During the third quarter the crowd milling outside the MCG broke a perimeter fence and an estimated additional 15,000 people poured into the MCG; this crowd, estimated at 130,000, for an Australian sporting event, stands as a record still in 2008. Next year (in 1957), the ticket sales were first used for the final series to prevent overcrowding.
• The 1956 season was somewhat disrupted by the 1956 Summer Olympics (see above).
• Inspired by the imminent Olympic Games, the VFL decides to inaugurate a public Brownlow Medal presentation ceremony to be held at the First Semi-Final.
• Essendon Third Eighteen footballer and junior champion athlete Ron Clarke, son of 1931 Essendon Best and Fairest Tom Clarke, and brother of Essendon champion Jack Clarke, lit the Olympic Flame in the 1956 Olympics' opening ceremony.
• Australian Rules Football was a demonstration sport at the 1956 Olympics: on Friday 7 December 1956, as a curtain raiser to the soccer match to decide third and fourth places between Bulgaria and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a combined team of amateur players from the VFA and VFL played a demonstration match of Australian Rules Football against a team of Victorian Amateur Football Association players in front of an audience of 21,236.