The1968 VFL season was the 72nd season of theVictorian Football League (VFL), the highest level seniorAustralian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 15 April until 28 September, and comprised a 20-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by theCarlton Football Club for the ninth time, after it defeatedEssendon by three points in the1968 VFL Grand Final.

In 1968, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the19th man and the20th 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 20 rounds; matches 12 to 20 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 9.

Once the 20 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1968 VFLPremiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of thePage–McIntyre system.

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 82.1
Source:AFL Tables

The consolation night series were held under the floodlights at Lake Oval,South Melbourne, for the teams (5th to 12th on ladder) out of the finals at the end of the home and away rounds.

Final:Hawthorn 16.15 (111) defeatedNorth Melbourne 6.14 (50).

• The season's home-and-away draw was extended from 18 to 20 rounds. This now meant that each team met nine of the other eleven teams twice in a season.
• In Round 3, the Anzac Day match betweenCarlton andEssendon atPrinces Park was greatly affected by an unusually strong wind that blew across the ground from wing to wing, making kicking and marking entirely unpredictable as balls would almost turn at right angles in the air as they moved down the ground towards the outer (eastern) end and lost the protection of the stands (or, whilst in the stand-protected western end, the ball went above the protection of the stands). In an otherwise close, hard-fought match with not many scoring opportunities available, Carlton were least able to cope with the windy conditions, kicking 1.11 (17) to Essendon's 7.8 (50).
• In Round 7,Essendon playedRichmond atWindy Hill in a rain-sodden game that finished in such dark conditions that players could not see across the ground. In the last quarter, a goal was awarded toGeoff Gosper, although several Richmond players protested that the ball had hit the post. Essendon won the match by two points, 11.14 (80) to Richmond's 10.18 (78).
• After the Round 8 match betweenHawthorn andRichmond at theMelbourne Cricket Ground, the teams and many of the fans left the ground believing the game had been tied 11.15 (81) apiece. After the goal-umpires checked their scorecards, it was confirmed that the scoreboard was reading incorrectly, and that Richmond had, in fact, won by a point: 11.15 (81) to 11.14 (80).
• Peter Hudson became the first player to kick 100 goals in a season sinceJohn Coleman in 1952.
• In Round 17 and Round 18 respectively,Ron Barassi andBrian Dixon played their 250th VFL games. At the time, only thirteen other players had reached the milestone.
• After Round 18 of the Under-19s competition,Geelong was stripped of all premiership points that it had earned in matches in which it had fielded ineligible player John Taylor, who was residentially tied toFootscray. The lost points relegated Geelong from fourth to last place on the ladder.^[1]

• The 1968 VFL Premiership team wasCarlton.
• TheVFL's leading goalkicker wasPeter Hudson ofHawthorn who kicked 125 goals.
• The winner of the 1968Brownlow Medal wasBob Skilton ofSouth Melbourne with 24 votes.
• North Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1968.
• The reserves premiership was won byEssendon. Essendon 15.7 (97) defeatedRichmond 13.14 (92) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 28 September.^[2]

• Hogan, P.,The Tigers of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996.ISBN 0-646-18748-1
• Maplestone, M.,Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996.ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• Rogers, S. & Brown, A.,Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998.ISBN 0-670-90809-6
• Ross, J. (ed),100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996.ISBN 0-670-86814-0

• 1968 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1968 VFL season at Australian Football

• Australian Football League seasons
• 1968 in Australian rules football

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