1930 VFL Grand Final

The 1930 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and Geelong Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 11 October 1930. It was the 34th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1930 VFL season. The match, attended by 45,022 spectators, was won by Collingwood by a margin of 30 points, marking that club's ninth premiership victory and fourth in succession.

The Great Depression had taken hold by the 1930 VFL season, and, for many, sport was a rare diversion from dire circumstances. While Don Bradman and Phar Lap enthralled the cricket and racing worlds respectively, the residents of Collingwood, many of whom were made virtually destitute, were inspired by the Collingwood Football Club, who had won the previous three flags.

Stan Judkins (Richmond), Allan Hopkins (Footscray) and Harry Collier (Collingwood) all finished with an equal number of votes in the Brownlow Medal. The Umpires Board (which administered the award) recommended that no medal be awarded as there was no provision for a tied result. However, the VFL administration overruled the umpires board and created a criterion that the medal should be awarded to the player who played the least number of games. Judkins' banishment to the seconds had won him the award. Adding to the controversy, one vote for a Collingwood game was simply labeled "Collier", but as there were two Collier brothers playing in the game, the vote wasn't counted. To avoid situations like this in the future the rules were altered to a 3-2-1 system in 1931. In 1989, Hopkins and Collier, while both still living, were awarded a Brownlow Medal retrospectively for their performances in the 1930 VFL season.

...
Wikipedia