MELBOURNE Football Club is pleased to confirm the recovery of the 1948 VFL Premiership Flag.

The club was alerted to the flag’s presence on eBay last week and contacted both the auction site and the AFL integrity department regarding the listing.

Following a joint investigation between Victoria Police and NSW Police, the flag was retrieved from a New South Wales property last night.

The year of Melbourne’s sixth premiership, the 1948 Grand Final was an important moment in both club and AFL/VFL history.

The Demons tied with Essendon in the league’s first ever drawn Grand Final before storming home by 39 points in the replay a week later.

Club legend Jack Mueller kicked six goals in both finals, while the great Norm Smith was also a part of the premiership team captained by Don Cordner.

As premiership trophies were not introduced to the league until 1959, nine of the club’s premierships were commemorated solely with flags.

Therefore, these flags are an important part of Melbourne’s history and the club is thrilled to recover this piece from an era of consistent success.

The police investigation into how the flag came to be in NSW is ongoing.