Lightning premiership In 1972, the Association established a post-season lightning premiership, contested by the twelve teams which did not reach the finals (six from each division). Matches were played as curtain-raisers to senior finals matches on Sundays, and were played at half the length of a normal match over two periods of play. The format of the competition was knock-out, and was arranged such that the Division 1 teams competed separately to the Division 2 teams up to the semi-final stage; then, the semi-final stage was contested by three Division 1 teams and one Division 2 team. The post-season lightning premiership was contested from 1972 until 1979. Other notable events Prior to the season, Port Melbourne recruited two of the greatest players in the history of Australian rules football: Bob Skilton and Ron Barassi. Both players were later among the twelve inaugural Legends inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996, and Skilton was a three-time Brownlow Medallist in the Victorian Football League; so that both were playing alongside each other at Port Melbourne was a substantial recruiting coup for the Association. The two recruits had very different experiences at Port Melbourne: Skilton, 33 years old and recruited from , was still a top class player, and he finished third in the J. J. Liston Trophy voting, only six votes short of victory, despite playing only 11 of Port Melbourne's 18 games due to business commitments; conversely, Barassi was 36 years old and had been a non-playing coach at for the previous 2½ years, and he managed only four games before a hamstring injury forced his retirement. On 9 July, Lyall Henriksen (Dandenong) was reported for assaulting field umpire Andrew Craig, striking him first in the back, then in the stomach as Craig approached to report him. He was suspended until the start of the 1974 season for the incident. Early in the final quarter of the game between Oakleigh and Port Melbourne on 20 August, Phil Fryer (Oakleigh) ran into the behind post and snapped it at its base. After a five-minute delay in which no viable repair strategy was developed, an Oakleigh official was assigned to stand on the boundary line and hold the broken post in position for the rest of the game. External links List of VFA/VFL Premiers References Victorian Football League seasons VFL