1953 VFL season

Premiership season

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

First Semi-Final

Second Semi-Final

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Awards

• The 1953 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was John Coleman of Essendon who kicked 97 goals.
• The winner of the 1953 Brownlow Medal was Bill Hutchison of Essendon with 26 votes.
• Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1953.

  Notable events

• Because Anzac Day fell on a Saturday, there was a fortnight between Rounds 1 and 2. On the evening of Friday 24 April a night-time exhibition match was held between Collingwood and Fitzroy, under lights, at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds for the benefit of St Vincent's Hospital. Collingwood 9.13 defeated Fitzroy 4.19 before a crowd of 22,000.
• In Round 2, John Coleman kicked 11 of Essendon's 13 goals.
• In Round 5, Fitzroy came close to becoming the first VFL/AFL team to be held scoreless in their match against Footscray at the Western Oval, which was played amidst heavy rain and a burst water main. Allan Ruthven managed their only scoring shot, a goal, with about six minutes remaining in the match. To date, it remains the longest amount of time a team has been kept scoreless in a match.
• In a streak dating back to 1952, won 23 consecutive matches, and played 26 consecutive matches without defeat; as of 2014, both of these remain VFL/AFL records. The winning streak ended in Round 14, when Collingwood defeated Geelong by 20 points.
• Overall it was a low-scoring season: Footscray's 959 points against remains the lowest average points conceded per game since 1919; the season's highest score of 21.10 was the lowest since 1924; and, for the first time since 1927, there was no match where both teams scored more than 100 points.
• The Collingwood Grand Final team contained three sets of brothers: Lou Richards and Ron Richards; Bob Rose and Bill Rose; Bill Twomey, Jr., Pat Twomey, and Mick Twomey.
• Collingwood supporter and businessman John Wren suffered a heart attack at the 1953 Grand Final and died one month later.