The1976 VFL season was the 80th season of theVictorian Football League (VFL), the highest level seniorAustralian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

The premiership was won by theHawthorn Football Club for the third time, after it defeatedNorth Melbourne by 30 points in the1976 VFL Grand Final.

In 1976, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11 (except that rounds 14 and 15 were the reverse of 4 and 3 respectively).

Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1976 VFLPremiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the"McIntyre final five system".

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 97.1
Source:AFL Tables

• The VFL introduced two field umpires per match.
• John Nicholls resigned as coach ofCarlton three days before the VFL season commenced. Assistant coachIan Thorogood was promoted to coach.
• The opening round match betweenSouth Melbourne andGeelong at theLake Oval saw theSwans set a new record for the highest losing score on record, beating Melbourne's 1940 previous record.
• The Round 1 match betweenCarlton andCollingwood atPrinces Park saw a massive all-in brawl that involved virtually every player from both sides, with Collingwood'sPhil Carman the chief target.
• In Round 10, North Melbourne'sMalcolm Blight kicked a booming torpedo punt 65–70 metres out from goal after the final siren atPrinces Park, which sailed through for a goal that won the match forNorth Melbourne. HSV Channel 7 football commentatorMichael Williamson exclaimed after the match, "I have seen it all, now. I have seen it all!!" ("The Sensational Seventies -- 1976." Screened onHSV 7Melbourne in September 1979)
• The Round 21 match betweenFootscray andFitzroy atVFL Park was the first match to provide the lowest two scores of a season.
• Collingwood "won" its maiden wooden spoon after seventy-nine years, leaving Carlton as the only foundation VFL team yet to finish last. Carlton would "win" its maiden wooden spoon twenty-six years later in 2002.
• Collingwood's six wins is the most by a wooden spooner in VFL/AFL history.

• The 1976 VFL Premiership team wasHawthorn.
• TheVFL's leading goalkicker wasLarry Donohue ofGeelong who kicked 105 goals (including 6 goals in the finals).
• The winner of the 1976Brownlow Medal wasGraham Moss ofEssendon with 48 votes.
• Collingwood took the "wooden spoon" for the first time in 1976.
• The reserves premiership was won byCollingwood. Collingwood 23.17 (155) defeatedNorth Melbourne 19.15 (129) in the grand final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 25 September.^[1]

• 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

• 1976 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1976 VFL season at Australian Football

• Australian Football League seasons
• 1976 in Australian rules football

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