The season featured twelve clubs and ran from 29 April to 30 September, comprising an 18-match home-and-away season followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.
South Melbourne won the premiership, defeating Richmond by 42 points in the 1933 VFL grand final; it was South Melbourne's third VFL premiership.
Richmond won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 15–3 win–loss record.
Fitzroy's Chicken Smallhorn won the Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and South Melbourne's Bob Pratt won the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1933 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the Page–McIntyre system.