It was the 54th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1951 VFL season.

The match, attended by 84,109 spectators, was won by Geelong by 11 points (the club's fourth premiership).

The win by Geelong — its first since winning the 1937 VFL Grand Final — capped off a brilliant season; the team won the Minor Premiership, its back-pocket, Bernie Smith, won the Brownlow Medal, and its full-forward, George Goninon, was the league's leading goalkicker.

On the day of the match, champion ruckman John Gill had a heavy cold and declared himself unfit to play.

At the last minute, the Essendon coach, Dick Reynolds, who had retired the year before, was re-registered as a player; Fred Payne replaced Gill in the run-on team, and Reynolds became 19th Man.