1964 VFL Grand Final: rare footage rediscovered

Barassi’s men do it again! 

For the Melbourne Football Club, this match would mark the end of a dynasty. Led by inspirational captain Ron Barassi – in his famous number 31 guernsey – and master coach Norm Smith, the Demons were at the tail end of a remarkable era of success. Competing in their 11th consecutive final series – where only the top four of the league’s 12 teams contested each September – the Demons would prevail in an exciting finish. In a low-scoring encounter, Melbourne held off a spirited Magpies comeback to run out four-point winners in front of 102,471 spectators on a sunny, blustery day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 19 September 1964. 

Many cameras… little surviving footage 

In an era when no single network was granted exclusive broadcast rights, all four Melbourne television stations (ABV2, HSV7, GTV9 and ATV0, the latter in existence for less than two months) sent cameras to the MCG. In the commentary box for Nine’s coverage were experienced broadcasters Tony Charlton and Don Hyde, former VFL players Jim Taylor and Geoff Leek, and former field umpire Ian Cleland sharing the calling duties. Hyde, now 94, fondly recalls his time with Charlton at GTV9: 'Tony was fantastic... He gave me the job alongside him after listening to my tapes calling Murray League games at Tocumwal on 2QN... He was my best friend for many years'.

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GTV9’s broadcast, like their rivals, would be shown across various highlights and replay programs over the weekend. However, unlike today, none of the four networks could broadcast the match live into their hometown, as the governing VFL would not allow live television coverage ‘against the gate’, fearing reduced attendances at the grounds. Live broadcasts of grand finals in Victoria were still more than a decade away, the VFL finally relenting in 1977. 

Delayed game highlights would also be telecast by Victorian regional television stations including in Ballarat (BTV6, taking HSV7’s coverage), Bendigo (BCV8) and Gippsland (GLV-10, taking GTV9’s vision). But for all of this extensive coverage screened across Victoria in 1964, for the next 60 years all that survived were a few brief silent shots (in colour) included in a 1966 government documentary on the city of Melbourne, and a 19-minute, silent black-and-white highlights reel (with commentary and sound effects added in post-production) made by Movietone Productions for a cigarette company sponsor. Otherwise, no television broadcast footage with live commentary capturing the excitement of the full second half of the game was held at the NFSA. 

Film discovery 

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Located within a collection of fifty 16mm prints donated by GTV9 technician Geoff Kilburn (1933–2011), the two reels of black-and-white footage with accompanying soundtrack were found to contain GTV9’s telecast of the entire second half of the game. 

When NFSA staff completed preservation digitisation of these two reels in 2025, they found the surviving 64 minutes had excellent picture and sound. 

In this sequence from his 2010 NFSA Oral History with interviewer John Fife, Kilburn – who worked at GTV9 from 1958 to 1974 in several roles including sound recordist and news film editor – recalled how live broadcasts such as football matches were recorded in the early days of television:

Grand final action in close-up 

GTV9’s television coverage of football telecasts was applauded by The Age, a 'Teletopics' columnist noting 'their success with filming close-up action on the ground is testimony to a perseverance to developing a technique to shooting from the sideline, anticipating and reverting to support cameras for the follow through and the panoramic picture' (17 September 1964). This technique differed from the direction taken by HSV7’s Alf Potter, considered the doyen of Australian football broadcasting, who did not employ a ground-level situated camera. Nine and Seven competed for the commercial TV football audience for the next decade, until Nine ceased covering VFL games in 1974. 

'Barassi can do nothing right'

The surviving 64 minutes of broadcast footage encompasses the entire second half of the match. In a tight struggle on a blustery day, only six goals were kicked in the last hour of play. Collingwood were held goalless in the third stanza, while Melbourne added only two majors, courtesy of Townsend and Bourke. These goals, Barassi’s stunning stab pass, spectacular leaps and heavy bumps – here are all the highlights from the very physical third quarter:

'The stadium’s gone crazy!' 

For Aussie Rules football historians, the game’s infamy rests with two sequences of play in the closing stages of the last quarter. In the first, Collingwood captain Ray Gabelich receives a pass from teammate Des Tuddenham with no Melbourne player between him and the goal. The 119 kg ruckman’s wayward 40-metre, 3 bounce (not 4!) run to the goal square to put the Magpies back in front remains one of the VFL’s most iconic grand final moments. It was only Gabelich’s second goal for the entire season – his first was only a few minutes earlier! About to enter time-on, could the Pies – smashed by the same team two weeks earlier by 15 goals – hold on for their first flag since 1958?

Several minutes later, that answer came via the unlikely boot of Melbourne back-pocket player Neil Crompton, snapping the game’s final goal to take back the lead for his team. Remarkably, it was Crompton’s only goal for the year and his first for three years. In the two further years he played, he did not kick another – truly a wonder snap! 'The stadium’s gone crazy!', commentator Tony Charlton announced excitedly.  

Holding on in the dramatic final minutes as Collingwood desperately battled to reclaim the lead, the Demons’ four-point victory ensured its captain Ron Barassi, playing his final game for Melbourne, would depart as a premiership captain. His move to Carlton as captain-coach the following year rocked the football world, bringing sustained success to his new club but miring the Demons in a downward spiral. Melbourne’s 1964 premiership was their 12th and last for nearly six decades until their 2021 victory over the Western Bulldogs in Perth.  

Relive Collingwood’s fightback, Gabbo’s run and goal, Crompton’s snap and the complete final three minutes of the frantic finish. It’s all here in our compiled fourth quarter highlights: 

NFSA Australian Rules Football collection  

The surviving GTV9 telecast coverage of the 1964 VFL Grand Final adds another important missing piece to the NFSA’s vast Australian Football collection. This comprises vision from thousands of games from the VFL/AFL and other regional leagues, including the earliest known surviving footage from 1909; rare footage of goalkicking icons such as Gordon Coventry and Ken Farmer and John Coleman; coverage of other famous grand finals; and documentaries including Marn Grook, a First Nations perspective on ‘Australian Rules’. 

Thanks to Patrick Keane at AFL Media, Don Hyde AM, Chris Keating, Melissa Kilburn, and the Nine Network. Special thanks to Richmond Football Club Historian and Aussie Rules footage archivist Rhett Bartlett for his enthusiastic support of this project. 

Main image: Frame capture showing Melbourne's John Lord (No. 4) jumping over Collingwood player with Ron Barassi (No. 31) in foreground. All footage and frame captures of the 1964 VFL Grand Final above are from NFSA title: 1502179. Courtesy: AFL and Nine Network