| 1966 VFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 24 September 1966 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 101,655 | |||||||||||||||
| Umpires | Jeff Crouch | |||||||||||||||
| Accolades | ||||||||||||||||
| Jock McHale Medallist | Allan Jeans | |||||||||||||||
| Broadcast in Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Network | Seven Network | |||||||||||||||
| Commentators | "Butch" Gale Ted Whitten Mike Williamson | |||||||||||||||
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The1966 VFL Grand Final was anAustralian rules football game contested between theCollingwood Football Club andSt Kilda Football Club, held at theMelbourne Cricket Ground inMelbourne on 24 September 1966. It was the 69th annualgrand final of theVictorian Football League (VFL), staged to determine thepremiers for the1966 VFL season. The match, attended by 101,655 spectators,[1] was won by St Kilda by a margin of one point, marking that club's first and only premiership victory to date.
BothSt Kilda andCollingwood were coming off consecutive VFL Grand final defeats: the Magpies in1964 againstMelbourne and the Saints after losingthe previous year toEssendon. In a thrilling finish to the home-and-away season, Collingwood finished minor premiers after easily beatingFootscray at Victoria Park, while St Kilda, Geelong, Essendon and Richmond fought for the remaining three qualifying spots. St Kilda managed to hold on to second place in a thrilling contest againstHawthorn at Moorabbin, while Geelong and Essendon also won their games, which meant that Richmond would miss the finals despite its big win over Fitzroy.
     St Kilda |  Collingwood |
Umpire –Jeff Crouch
Twenty-five minutes into the final quarter and with scores level, Collingwood'sWayne Richardson had a shot at goal on the run but kicked it out of bounds on the full. St Kilda then began to work the ball out of defence after winning the boundary throw-in. A kick fromIan Cooper saw the ball make its way to centre half-forward. Collingwood defenderTed Potter failed to mark the ball low down, and with the players scrummaging for the ball, a bounce was called.Brian Mynott won the tap for the Saints, but it was intercepted by Potter, who was quickly tackled. Potter, however, managed to get out a handball, but it found its way to St Kilda'sBarry Breen, who snapped at goal and kicked a behind to put his side in front. With about a minute left on the clock, Collingwood were able to work the ball towards their forward line. St Kilda'sBob Murray, however, was able to take a mark at centre half-back, and the siren sounded after he kicked the ball towards the wing. St Kilda had held on to win by one point.
One of the timekeepers was an avid St Kilda fan and blew the final siren for more than ten seconds.[2]
After the game, the playersswapped guernseys, which was a tradition at the time for grand finals. There is an infamous photo of St Kilda captainDarrel Baldock swapping guernseys with Collingwood captainDes Tuddenham.[3] Later versions of the photo would be doctored to show Baldock and Tuddenham wearing their own guernseys.[4]Ian Synman was the only St Kilda player not to swap his jumper with a Collingwood opponent.[3]
According to Peter Clark of The Footy Almanac, St Kilda'sIan Cooper was best on ground.[5]
| 1966 VFL Grand Final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 24 September 2:50pm | Collingwood | def. by | St Kilda | MCG (crowd: 101,655) | |
| 2.1 (13) 5.7 (37) 7.11 (53) 10.13 (73) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 2.5 (17) 5.6 (36) 8.9 (57) 10.14 (74) | Umpires:Crouch Television broadcast:Seven Network | ||
| Tuddenham3 Gabelich,Richardson2 Graham,Pitt,Wallis1 | Goals | 5Neale 2Baldock 1Cooper,Griffiths,Moran | |||
| Waters, Richardson,Thompson,Patterson, Pitt, Tuddenham | Best | Cooper,Stewart,Sierakowski, Griffiths,Breen,Morrow, Neale | |||
