In 1957, 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 1957 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. In all other years of the night competition, only teams that had finished 5th to 12th on ladder at the end of the home-and-away season competed; i.e., teams which were not playing in any of the end of season finals matches. In 1957, due to the perceived popularity of the competition's initial year, all twelve VFL clubs played in the 1957 Night Series. The series was marred by bad weather, with two matches having to be abandoned. Only an average of 16,000 spectators attending each of the 11 matches that were played. In 1958, the competition reverted to the 1956 structure, where only teams finishing 5th to 12th on the ladder competed. Final: South Melbourne 15.13 defeated Geelong 8.4
Premiership Finals
This season was the first Hawthorn season ever in the finals after entering the league for the 33rd season.
Following the successful introduction of televised sport in 1956, the VFL decides to allow the live broadcast of the last quarter of three VFL matches each Saturday afternoon. Experiments conducted in 1956 involving three "closed circuit" telecasts of three of the finals matches, and the live broadcast of the Olympic Games' demonstration match had shown that it was possible to from "wide-shots" to "close-ups" quickly enough to provide effective viewing. Each station's telecast had a principal commentator: Tony Charlton, Ken Dakin, and Ian Johnson.
In Round 4, Richmond defeated Fitzroy by 15 points despite having fifteen fewer scoring shots. This remains the greatest deficit in scoring shots by a winning side, though equalled by Geelong against Collingwood in 1977.
In August, learning from the success of the Olympic Games, and in an attempt to counter the problems of overnight queues outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground prior to each final, the VFL sold reserved tickets through the mail for the finals series. It was also anticipated that this would greatly assist country people, who could now book seats and accommodation well in advance.
Hawthorn made the final fourfor the first time since their VFL debut in 1925, ending the longest finals drought in VFL/AFL history.
Allan Nash becomes the last umpire to officiate in all games of a finals series.
