1951 VFL season

Premiership season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Ladder

Finals

First Semi-Final

Second Semi-Final

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Awards

• The 1951 VFL Premiership team was Geelong.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was George Goninon of Geelong with 86 goals.
• * John Coleman of Essendon kicked 75 goals in the home-and-away season and did not play in the final series — thus, if there had been such a thing as a Coleman Medal in 1951, he would have won it.
• The winner of the 1951 Brownlow Medal was Bernie Smith of Geelong with 23 votes.
• Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1951.

  Notable events

• The maximum match payment to players permissible under the league's "Coulter Law" was increased from £4-0-0 to £5-0-0 per match.
• The VFL established the Dr. W. C. McClelland Club Trophy, which was awarded on the basis of an aggregate of the performances of all three club teams, week by week, over the entire season. A First Eighteen win was worth 10 points, a Second Eighteen win was worth 4 points, and a Third Eighteen win was worth 2 points. In the case of a drawn match the relevant points are halved.
• In the best performance by a centre half-back since "Duncan's match" in 1927, South Melbourne's centre half-back Ron Clegg took 32 marks in the drawn match against Fitzroy.
• Essendon's full-forward John Coleman was reported for striking Carlton's back-pocket Harry Caspar in the last home and away match of the season. Coleman had scored seven goals during the match. Coleman was suspended for four matches and, as a consequence, he missed the entire final series.
• In a desperate effort to cover for the loss of players through suspension, illness and injury, Essendon's coach Dick Reynolds came out of retirement and played in the Grand Final as 20th man. Reynolds came on in the last quarter. He did not score any goals and, when he accidentally bumped into Keith McDonald, he prevented McDonald taking a critical mark.