In 1962, the VFL competition was comprised 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 1962 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "Page-McIntyre system".
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.
Having abandoned live telecasts of the last quarters of VFL matches at the end of 1960, and having forbidden Saturday evening replays during the 1961 season, the VFL agrees to allow television stations to broadcast one hour of replays each Saturday evening, provided no more than 30 minutes of any one match was broadcast. A separate arrangement was made to allow a replay of the entire Grand Final match.
In September, the VFL buys land to the east of Melbourne, at Mulgrave, Victoria, upon which it will later erect VFL Park.
The first Preliminary Final between Carlton and Geelong is tied, requiring a preliminary Final Replay on Saturday 22 September, which Carlton won by 5 points.
Geelong could well have won the second match if its hot-headed full-forward Doug Wade had not interfered with Carlton full-back Peter Barry in the process of him (Wade) taking a strong mark directly in front of the Geelong goals in the last moments of the match. Although there was no doubt that Wade had marked the ball, Barry was given a free kick for Wade's "holding the man".
In the Grand Final, a badly injured Geoff Leek plays one of the best matches in his career to nullify Carlton's John Nicholls and pave the way for a sound 32 point win by Essendon.
References
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 0-959-17402-8
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
Ross, J. (ed.), The Australian Football Hall of Fame, HarperCollinsPublishers, (Pymble), 1999. ISBN 0-7322-6426-X