# 1953 VFA season

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.

## Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over twenty matches, before the top four clubs contested a finals series under the Page–McIntyre system to determine the premiers for the season.

### Ladder

1953 VFA ladder :
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts |
| 1 | Port Melbourne (P) | 20 | 18 | 2 | 0 | 2052 | 1047 | 196.0 | 72 |
| 2 | Williamstown | 20 | 16 | 3 | 1 | 1939 | 1278 | 151.7 | 66 |
| 3 | Yarraville | 20 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 1542 | 1361 | 113.3 | 56 |
| 4 | Prahran | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 1745 | 1403 | 124.4 | 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 | 99.9 | 40 |
| 8 | Moorabbin | 20 | 9 | 10 | 1 | 1436 | 1477 | 97.2 | 38 |
| 9 | Preston | 20 | 8 | 12 | 0 | 1375 | 1484 | 92.7 | 32 |
| 10 | Box Hill | 20 | 7 | 13 | 0 | 1370 | 1704 | 80.4 | 28 |
| 11 | Camberwell | 20 | 5 | 14 | 1 | 1389 | 1730 | 80.3 | 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

| | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | |
| 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 | Preliminary Final | 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 | 1953 VFA Grand Final | 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 | 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 | Salt 3, Smallwood 3, Marchesi 2, H. Mason 2, N. Rohleder 2 |
| | | Injuries | Cook (ankle), Gwynn (thigh), Jones (concussion), Smith (back) | 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.
* The J. J. Liston Trophy was won by Ted Henrys (Preston), who polled 37 votes. Vic Hill (Oakleigh) was second with 33 votes, and Harry Simpson (Williamstown) and Colin Boyd (Prahran) were equal-third with 31 votes.
* 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.

## Notable events
### Adelaide Carnival

The Association competed in the 1953 Adelaide Carnival, and finished in fourth place with a record of 1–3. 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.
| | 1953 Adelaide Carnival | 1953 Adelaide Carnival | 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 VFA 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.
* 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. Port Melbourne 11.13 (79) defeated Oakleigh 8.13 (61) before a crowd of 4,000 people.
* 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). North 11.20 (86) defeated South 10.9 (69), after overcoming an eighteen-point three-quarter time deficit. The North vs South game did not become a regular fixture in the VFA Senior competition, but later became the chief representative fixture in the VFL Thirds competition.
* 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.
* 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.
* In September, Ray Gibb (Box Hill) died in a motorcycle accident. A benefit game to raise money for his family was played on Show Day at Box Hill City Oval between a combined team of his two former VFL clubs, Richmond and Hawthorn, and a Box Hill team augmented with other VFL and VFA star players, including John Coleman and Bill Hutchison. Including the gate and donations, £400 was raised from a crowd of 6,000 people; Box Hill 17.11 (113) defeated Hawthorn–Richmond 12.8 (80).