The 1963 VFL season was the 67th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 20 April until 5 October, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
In 1963, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th 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 18 rounds; matches 12 to 18 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7. Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1963 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.
Persistent rain throughout the week and further heavy downpours on the Friday (12 July) caused the postponement of all Round 11 matches until the following Saturday (20 July). All remaining home-and-away and finals matches were played a week later than had been scheduled.
Going into the final home-and-away round, Hawthorn was the only team with a guaranteed finals berth. It was down to Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and Essendon to fight it out for the remaining three play-off positions.
The 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 season.
In Round 5, Collingwood was the first team to score at least 100 points against Melbourne since Footscray in the 1954 Grand Final; Terry Waters kicked 7 goals in Collingwood's 15.10 (100) to 7.10 (52) victory.
On Saturday 15 June, South Australia beat Victoria 12.8 (80) to 10.13 (73) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 59,260 spectators. In a brutal return match, in Adelaide, a straighter-kicking Victoria beat South Australia 8.6 (54) to 5.12 (42), a match notorious for a powerful king-hit delivered by Victorian John Peck, who had been included in the team for the return match in order to provide more "grunt" and physical menace, to the jaw of an unsuspecting Brian Sawley. Sawley went some distance in the air before collapsing unconscious in the mud, and had to be carried from the field on a stretcher. Peck was reported, and at the VFL tribunal, Peck testified that the king-hit was in retaliation for Sawley having kicked him in the stomach; Peck was suspended for two weeks.
Owing to extremely cold and wet weather, Round 11 was postponed from 13 to 20 July. As of 2024, this is the last time that a complete round of football has been postponed due to weather.
As of 2024, this is the most recent season that both of the previous year’s Grand Finalists would miss the finals.
The reserves premiership was won by Geelong. Geelong 13.12 (90) defeated St Kilda 7.11 (53) in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 October.[2]
^Rex Pullen (7 October 1963). "Cats too fast in Reserves". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne. p. 28.
Atkinson, Graeme; Atkinson, Brant (2009). The Complete Book of AFL Finals (4th ed.). Scoresby, Victoria: The Five Mile Press. ISBN9781742112756.
Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN0-670-90809-6
Ross, John, ed. (1996). 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. Ringwood, Victoria: Viking. ISBN0-670-86814-0.
