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| 1976 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Hawthorn 3rd premiership |
| Minor premiers | Carlton 13th minor premiership |
| Brownlow Medallist | Graham Moss (Essendon) |
| Coleman Medallist | Larry Donohue (Geelong) |
| Attendance | |
| Matches played | 138 |
| Total attendance | 3,288,470 (23,829 per match) |
| Highest | 110,143 |
The 1976 VFL season was the 80th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 3 April until 25 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
The premiership was won by the Hawthorn Football Club for the third time, after it defeated North Melbourne by 30 points in the 1976 VFL Grand Final.
In 1976, 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 22 rounds; matches 12 to 22 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 11 (except that rounds 14 and 15 were the reverse of 4 and 3 respectively).
Once the 22 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1976 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the "McIntyre final five system".
| (P) | Premiers |
| Qualified for finals |
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlton | 22 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 2245 | 1690 | 132.8 | 66 |
| 2 | Hawthorn (P) | 22 | 16 | 6 | 0 | 2323 | 2035 | 114.2 | 64 |
| 3 | North Melbourne | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 2041 | 1748 | 116.8 | 60 |
| 4 | Geelong | 22 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2251 | 2166 | 103.9 | 48 |
| 5 | Footscray | 22 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 1958 | 2023 | 96.8 | 46 |
| 6 | Melbourne | 22 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 2319 | 2333 | 99.4 | 44 |
| 7 | Richmond | 22 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 2192 | 2224 | 98.6 | 40 |
| 8 | South Melbourne | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 2223 | 2364 | 94.0 | 36 |
| 9 | St Kilda | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 2056 | 2282 | 90.1 | 36 |
| 10 | Essendon | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 1987 | 2253 | 88.2 | 36 |
| 11 | Fitzroy | 22 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 2005 | 2161 | 92.8 | 28 |
| 12 | Collingwood | 22 | 6 | 16 | 0 | 2033 | 2354 | 86.4 | 24 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 97.1
Source: AFL Tables