# 1936 VFA season

The 1936 VFA season was the 58th season of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), an Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria. The premiership was won by the Northcote Football Club, after it came from fourth on the ladder to defeat Prahran by 15 points in the Grand Final on 12 September. It was the club's fifth VFA premiership, all won between 1929 and 1936, and it was the last top division VFA premiership ever won by the club before it left the Association in 1987.

## Premiership

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

### Ladder

1936 VFA ladder :
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts |
| 1 | Brunswick | 18 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 2063 | 1395 | 147.9 | 64 |
| 2 | Prahran | 18 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 1896 | 1363 | 139.1 | 58 |
| 3 | Camberwell | 18 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 1882 | 1553 | 121.2 | 48 |
| 4 | Northcote (P) | 18 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1639 | 1339 | 122.4 | 46 |
| 5 | Brighton | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1545 | 1501 | 102.9 | 44 |
| 6 | Preston | 18 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1739 | 1597 | 108.9 | 40 |
| 7 | Coburg | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 1920 | 1562 | 122.9 | 36 |
| 8 | Williamstown | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 1185 | 1632 | 72.6 | 28 |
| 9 | Yarraville | 18 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 1637 | 1756 | 93.2 | 24 |
| 10 | Oakleigh | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1573 | 1898 | 82.9 | 20 |
| 11 | Sandringham | 18 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 1394 | 2137 | 65.2 | 16 |
| 12 | Port Melbourne | 18 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 1263 | 2003 | 63.1 | 8 |

### Finals

| | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | |
| Saturday, 22 August | Camberwell 8.16 (64) | def. by | Northcote 18.15 (123) | Toorak Park (crowd: 7,000) |
| Saturday, 29 August | Brunswick 14.14 (98) | def. by | Prahran 15.18 (108) | Toorak Park |
| | Preliminary Final | Preliminary Final | Preliminary Final | |
| Saturday, 5 September | Brunswick 9.13 (67) | def. by | Northcote 14.10 (94) | Brunswick Cricket Ground (crowd: 10,000) |
| | 1936 VFA Grand Final | 1936 VFA Grand Final | 1936 VFA Grand Final | |
| Saturday, 12 September | Prahran | def. by | Northcote | Toorak Park (crowd: 12,000) |
| | 1.3 (9) 8.8 (56) 11.10 (76) 15.15 (105) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 7.2 (44) 7.4 (46) 13.6 (84) 19.6 (120) | |
| Hawkins 4, White 4, Gravell 3, Hyde 2, Thompson 2 | Hawkins 4, White 4, Gravell 3, Hyde 2, Thompson 2 | Goals | Ross 5, Seymour 4, Bates 3, Gray 3, Downie 2, Hart, O'Keefe | Ross 5, Seymour 4, Bates 3, Gray 3, Downie 2, Hart, O'Keefe |

## Awards

* Lance Collins (Coburg) was the leading goalkicker for the season; he kicked 116 goals in the home-and-home season and did not participate in the finals.
* In the parallel Association best and fairest awards:
** Bert Hyde (Preston) and Peter Reville (Coburg), both in their first season of Association football, jointly won the Recorder Cup, each polling five votes. Neville Huggins (Williamstown), S. Plumridge (Port Melbourne) and Les White (Prahran) were equal third with four votes apiece.
** The Association Medal was won by Neville Huggins (Williamstown), who polled 33 votes; Bert Hyde (Preston) finished second with 32 votes, and Les White (Prahran) was third with 27 votes.
* Brunswick won the seconds premiership. Brunswick 11.11 (77) defeated Coburg 10.12 (72) in the Grand Final on Saturday 12 September at the Brunswick Cricket Ground.

## Notable events

* In the seconds match between Port Melbourne and Northcote on June 13, Port Melbourne vice-captain Robert Rowe suffered a fractured skull in a head clash with a Northcote opponent. He suffered meningitis as a result of the injury, and died eight days later.
* In the final round of home-and-away matches, Preston 10.11 (71) trailed Brunswick 17.19 (121) by 50 points at three-quarter time, before kicking 8.10 (58) to no score with the wind in the final quarter to win the game by eight points, 18.21 (129) d. 17.19 (121). The comeback set a new record for the largest final quarter comeback in VFA history, which stood until 1940. So strong was the wind affecting the match that only two behinds out of the total 250 points were kicked to the northern end of Preston City Oval; and, the ball kept being blown so far beyond the southern goal that the extra time required to repeatedly retrieve it saw Preston's comeback finish in semi-darkness.
* A charity game for the benefit of the sportsmen's ward at Prince Henry's Hospital was held on the evening of Thursday 24 September (Show Day holiday) at Olympic Park between combined teams representing the Victorian Football League and the Victorian Football Association. The attendance was 2,000. The League 14.15 (99) defeated the Association 10.10 (70).