It was the 38th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1936 VFL season.

The match, attended by 74,091 spectators, was won by Collingwood by a margin of 11 points, marking that club's eleventh premiership victory.

On the eve of the finals series star Collingwood full-forward Gordon Coventry was suspended for eight weeks for striking Richmond's Joe Murdoch.

As it was the first time Coventry had been reported in seventeen seasons of VFL football, there was surprise at the severity of the suspension.

At this stage, Collingwood was dominating the play, but then Nash finally scored South Melbourne's first goal before Robertson kicked their second.