1971 VFA season

1971 VFA Premiership season
Division 1
Teams	10
Premiers	Dandenong (2nd premiership)
Minor premiers	Preston (3rd minor premiership)
Division 2
Teams	10
Premiers	Sunshine (1st D2 premiership)
Minor premiers	Caulfield (1st D2 minor premiership)
← 1970 1972 →

The 1971 Victorian Football Association season was the 90th season of the top division of the Australian rules football competition, and the eleventh season of second division competition. The Division 1 premiership was won by the Dandenong Football Club, after it defeated Preston in the Grand Final on 26 September by six points, and after a formal protest by Preston against the result of the Grand Final was dismissed on 29 September; it was Dandenong's second Division 1 premiership. The Division 2 premiership was won by Sunshine; it was the club's first and only premiership in either division in its time in the Association, and came in its ninth consecutive in the Division 2 finals.

The Division 1 home-and-home season was played over 18 rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system. The finals were played at the St Kilda Cricket Ground.

Dandenong defeated Preston in the Grand Final by six points. However, following the match, Preston formally protested the result, on the grounds that umpire Jim McMaster had paid a free kick to Dandenong full-forward Jim Miller, from which a goal was scored, before the opening bounce was executed and therefore before the game had officially begun – which Preston contended made the free kick invalid and the resultant goal void. Preston's protest was heard by the Board of Management on the evening of Wednesday 29 September, and was dismissed by an overwhelming majority, formally confirming Dandenong as premiers.

The Division 2 home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds; the top four then contested the finals under the Page–McIntyre system; all finals were played on Sundays at Toorak Park.

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