1944 VFL season
The 1944 VFL season was the 48th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. All twelve of the league's clubs competed, with returning after two years in recess due to wartime travel restrictions. The season ran from 6 May until 30 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs. The premiership was won by the Fitzroy Football Club for the eighth and final time in its history, after it defeated by 15 points in  the VFL Grand Final. Influence of World War II. The wartime travel restrictions that had forced Geelong into recess the previous two years were relaxed, and Geelong rejoined the competition. Premiership season. In 1944, with Geelong competing again, the VFL competition once again consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man. A player could be substituted for any reason; however, once substituted, a player could not return to the field of play under any circumstances. Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 18 rounds ; and, as had been the case in 1926 and 1927, matches 12 to 18 were "irregular", with 12 to 17 being the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 6, and match 18 the "home-and-way reverse" of match 11. The determination of the 1944 season's fixtures were greatly complicated by the fact that, although the Western Oval and the Junction Oval were now available to the VFL, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Lake Oval were still appropriated for military use and, because of this, Melbourne was sharing the Punt Road Oval with Richmond as its  home ground, and South Melbourne was sharing the Junction Oval with St Kilda as its home ground. Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1944 VFL "Premiers" were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system. Ladder. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Grand final. Fitzroy defeated Richmond 9.12 (66) to 7.9 (51), in front of a crowd of 43,000 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).