| 1961 VFL Grand Final | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 23 September 1961 | |||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 107,935 | |||||||||||||||
| Favourite | Hawthorn | |||||||||||||||
The1961 VFL Grand Final was anAustralian rules football game contested by theFootscray Football Club andHawthorn Football Club, held at theMelbourne Cricket Ground inMelbourne on 23 September 1961. It was the 64th annualGrand Final of theVictorian Football League, staged to determine thepremiers for the1961 VFL season. The match, attended by 107,935 spectators, was won by Hawthorn by a margin of 43 points, making it the club's first premiership victory.
Hawthorn, which was competing in its first VFL grand final since entering the competition in 1925, went into the game asminor premiers, favourites, and on a club-record 11-game winning streak.[1] Footscray, which also entered the competition in 1925, and was in its second grand final (after winning the1954 premiership), had finished the home-and-away season in fourth place. They qualified for the grand final after upsettingRon Barassi-led Melbourne by 27 points in the preliminary final. That ended Melbourne's record sequence of seven consecutive grand final appearances, and it was the first grand final not to feature any of the eight foundation VFL clubs.
It was a young Footscray side, with only two players having more than 80 VFL games experience, although one of them was the veteranTed Whitten. Hawthorn'sBrendan Edwards was playing in his 100th VFL game and dominated in the centre. Despite trailing at half time, Hawthorn won comfortably, after kicking six goals to one in a dominant third quarter.
The 1961 grand final is the earliest VFL grand final for which complete television footage has survived, and it has been made available onDVD.
     Hawthorn |   Footscray |
Umpire: Frank Schwab
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorn | 2.4 | 3.9 | 9.15 | 13.16 (94) |
| Footscray | 4.2 | 5.5 | 6.6 | 7.9 (51) |
Hawthorn:
| Footscray:
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