In 1960, 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 1960 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.
Alterations to 1960 match fixtures
Round 1 of the 1960 competition was played over Easter long weekend, with three matches on Easter Saturday and three matches on Easter Monday. Round 2 of the competition was also scheduled for a long weekend, with four matches scheduled for the Saturday and two for the Monday. The four matches on Saturday 23 April were postponed because of the extremely wet conditions. Despite pressure from the Victorian Premier, Henry Bolte, the VFL refused to play the four postponed matches on Anzac Day, and scheduled the postponed matches for the following Saturday. As a consequence of this delay all of the season's matches from Round 3 to the Grand Final were played a week later than had been originally scheduled.
The reserves premiership was won by. Geelong 7.15 defeated 7.10 in the Grand Final, held as a curtain raiser to the seniors Grand Final on 24 September.
Notable events
From 1960, the Seconds became known as the VFL Reserves; and, the Thirds became known as the Under 19s.
The VFL started fixing the schedule from 1960 such that neither and, nor and played home matches on the same day, due to the heavy transport and labour burden associated with running the two nearby venues at the same time. This practice was already established for two other pairs of teams: and, and and.
The entire season was plagued by wet weather. This was reflected in the overall low scores of the full-forwards: Ron Evans was the leading goalkicker with only 67 goals in 18 games, and Leo Brereton was second with 44 goals in 18 games.
In the Round 3 match between Hawthorn and Footscray at Glenferrie Oval, Footscray defeated Hawthorn 6.17 to 6.9. The match was so affected by the strong wind conditions and, especially, the defensive play of the Hawthorn back-line — at a time when one could kick the ball out of boundson the full without penalty — that the prescribed playing time of 100 minutes was extended by an astonishing 32 minutes and 33 seconds of time-on, including 10 minutes 46 seconds in the first quarter alone.
In Round 13, Hawthorn defeated Collingwood at Victoria Parkfor the first time; Hawthorn had lost the previous 28 meetings at Victoria Park. Full forwardJohn Peck marked on the final siren and kicked a goal to give Hawthorn the win by a point.
The Brownlow Medal was won by Footscray's ruckman John Schultz. Schultz was the second of the only two amateur players to win the Brownlow Medal; the first had been Melbourne'sDon Cordner, also a ruckman, in 1946.
Former classmates at Caulfield Grammar School, John Schultz and Ron Evans, won the Brownlow Medal and topped the VFL Goalkicking List respectively in the same VFL season.
Melbourne played in its seventh successive Grand Final, thrashing Collingwood 8.14 to 2.2. Collingwood's score was its lowest since Round 5, 1900, and the lowest by any team in a Grand Final since 1927.
At the end of the 1960 season, the VFL estimated that the live telecast of the last quarter of three VFL matches each Saturday afternoon had cost at least 245,000 spectators, and the VFL decided to discontinue this practice.
