In 1933, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th 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 1933 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page-McIntyre System.
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
Semi finals
Preliminary Final
Grand final
defeated Richmond 9.17 to 4.5, in front of a crowd of 75,754 people..
The seconds premiership was won by for the third consecutive season. Melbourne 10.15 defeated 10.14 in the Grand Final, played as a stand-alone game on Thursday 28 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 9,500.
Notable events
"Checker" Hughes took over as coach of Melbourne. He renamed the team "The Demons" from "The Fuchsias."
In Round 5, St Kilda defeated North Melbourne 13.19 to 11.17, despite having only 15 players left at the end of a brutal match, which was stopped at one stage because a wild brawl, instigated by the North Melbourne players, had erupted in the centre.
*St Kilda captain Clarrie Hindson had a broken ankle, full-forward Bill Mohr had two broken ribs, forward Jack Anderson had been knocked unconscious, centreman W.C. "Billy" Roberts was felled once, recovered, and then was felled a second time, and rover Roy "Tiger" Bence was also knocked out.
*The St Kilda President, Gallipoli veteran and naval war hero Commander Fred Arlington-Burke, described St Kilda's 15-man victory as the greatest moral victory in the club's history, and a "Badge of Courage" was struck by the Football Club and was awarded to each of the players that took part in the match.
*The medallion is silver, coin shaped, with coin-like reeding around its outer perimeter, with a St Kilda Football Club badge affixed to it, and the following inscription: "St KILDA DEFEATED Nth MELBOURNE WITH 15 MEN MAY 27th 1933".
In Round 8, Essendon experimented with a siren, rather than a bell at Windy Hill.
In the 1933 Interstate Carnival, held in Sydney, the Victorian team won all five of its matches.
During the 1933 Carnival, the Australian National Football Council considered a proposal from the New South Wales Rugby Football League that the two codes merge and play a single, Australian "national" game. A secret trial match of this proposed "national" game, conducted during the carnival, was unsuccessful. The ANFC subsequently rejected the proposal.
North Melbourne's win over Collingwood in Round 6 was the first by one of the three 1925 entrants over the Magpies. Prior to that, Collingwood had won the first 37 meetings against the three newest clubs. Footscray's first win over Collingwood came in Round 9 of this year, but Hawthorn would not record its first win over Collingwood until Round 5 of the 1942 VFL season.
