1971 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

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Ladder

Consolation Night Series Competition

Premiership Finals

First Semi-Final

Second Semi-Final

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Awards

• The 1971 VFL Premiership team was Hawthorn.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Peter Hudson of Hawthorn who kicked 150 goals.
• The winner of the 1971 Brownlow Medal was Ian Stewart of Richmond with 21 votes.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1971.
• The reserves premiership was won by. Richmond 14.14 defeated 8.18 in the Grand Final, held as a curtain-raiser to the seniors Grand Final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 25 September.

  Notable events

• Fitzroy winger Trevor McGregor won the 1971, 130-yard Stawell Gift in 11.7 seconds, off a handicap of 7¼ yards.
• Bill Barrot of Richmond and Ian Stewart of St Kilda swap clubs before the start of the 1971 season. Stewart went on to win his third Brownlow Medal at Richmond, while Barrott was so dissatisfied at St Kilda's demands that he play in defence that he requested, and was given, a clearance to Carlton during the season.
• The VFL sold its Harrison House headquarters and moved to 84 Jolimont Street.
• The Round 21 match between and at Junction Oval was played in a thick fog with terrible visibility – so much so that goal umpires could not see each other's flags, forcing the boundary umpires to convey messages between the goal umpires for scorekeeping purposes.
• In the Grand Final, Peter Hudson could have broken Bob Pratt's season record of 150 goals except for three incidents:
• *He kicked what would have otherwise been an easy goal into the man on the mark.
• *He kicked a goal on the run that was disallowed because the end of the quarter siren had gone before the ball hit his boot.
• *He ran into an open goal and kicked the ball out of bounds.
• The Committees of the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood decide not to renew the contracts of their respective coaches, Ron Barassi and Bob Rose.