The holy grail of football broadcasting, Channel 9’s entire never-before-screened colour recording of the 1973 VFL Grand Final, has been discovered.

The discovery coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the Richmond v Carlton battle famous as one of the most brutal in League history.

The footage was discovered by Rhett Bartlett, and Channel 9 news director Hugh Nailon in the station’s film library.

Back on the night of September 29, 1973, Channel 9 along with Channel 7 and the ABC broadcast highlights of Richmond’s premiership victory. All three broadcasters used their own cameras and TV director for the telecast, and all were broadcast in black and white.

However, as confirmed by then Channel 9 director John Crilly to Rhett Bartlett in a recent interview, Channel 9 filmed up to six games at the end of the 1973 season in colour (including the Grand Final), in preparation for the introduction of colour tv into Australia the following year.

As no viewers had colour television in 1973, and the Mt Dandenong transmission setup had yet to be upgraded, Channel 9’s colour recording was broadcast to tv sets in black and white.

The only colour transmission that took place that afternoon was into John Crilly’s director van outside the MCG.

To prepare for the recording Crilly assembled new colour monitors and cameras, including one located at ground level in the Members Stand which captured some of the game’s most famous moments from a new angle.

You can glimpse the camera in the Members Stand in the below image, as Hafey leaves the coach’s box.

The camera was integral in capturing this unique colour angle of the infamous Laurie Fowler/ John Nicholls incident. 

Even more incredible, the camera captures the brutal Neil Balme incidents involving Geoff Southby and Vin Waite and somehow makes them look even more ferocious. 

The crowning moment of the match is Royce Hart holding up the Premiership Cup to the cameras, after receiving it from the Governor-General in the crowd.

All 2 hours and 24 minutes of the historic Channel 9 broadcast is now for the first time ever, available to view online at the video below.

We are eternally grateful to Channel 9 for the assistance with this discovery.