1913 VFL season

The 1913 VFL season was the 17th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured ten clubs and ran from 26 April to 27 September, comprising an 18-match home-and-away season followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.

1913 VFL premiership season
Fitzroy 1913 VFL premiership team
Date26 April—27 September 1913
Teams10
PremiersFitzroy
5th premiership
Minor premiersFitzroy
4th minor premiership
Leading goalkicker medallistRoy Park (University)
53 goals
Matches played94

Fitzroy won the premiership, defeating St Kilda by 13 points in the 1913 VFL grand final; it was Fitzroy's fifth VFL premiership. Fitzroy also won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 16–2 win–loss record. University's Roy Park won the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.

Background

In 1913, the VFL competition consisted of ten teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their place on the field at any time during the match.

Each team played each other twice in a home-and-away season of 18 rounds.

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1913 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Home-and-away season

Ladder
(P)Premiers
Qualified for finals
# Team P W L D PF PA  % Pts
1Fitzroy (P)1816201137788144.364
2South Melbourne1814311256977128.658
3Collingwood1813501158984117.752
4St Kilda18117011491081106.344
5Geelong18108012641016124.440
6Carlton1898111101100100.938
7Richmond1861201034109094.924
8Essendon1861201072114893.424
9Melbourne184140816114371.416
10University180180907157657.60

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 60.6
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

All of the 1913 finals were played at the MCG, so the home team in the semi-finals and preliminary final was the higher ranked team from the ladder but in the grand final the home team was the team that won the preliminary final.

Grand final
Main article: 1913 VFL Grand Final

Season notes
  • The VFL formed an independent tribunal to hear charges against players.
  • Prior to Melbourne's Round 4 match against Fitzroy, six of the club's players went on strike to protest the club committee's failure to support a player charged by police after striking a Carlton player in Round 3. After Melbourne President Dr. William C. McClelland entered the club rooms and personally informed the players they would be expelled from the club if they did not take the field, the players called off their strike.[1]
  • In the round 14 match against Fitzroy, controversy erupted after VFL Stewards incorrectly reported Essendon follower Bill Walker.[1]
  • University Football Club's full-forward Roy Park, who stood only 5"5" (165 cm), was selected as the Victorian Interstate team's full-forward, and kicked 53 of University's 115 goals for the season. Park was the second player to win the goalkicking when his team won the wooden spoon, after Charlie Baker of St Kilda in 1902, whose team also finished last without a win.

Awards

References
  1. Ross, John (1996). 100 Years of Australian Football. Ringwood, Australia: Viking Books. p. 382. ISBN 9781854714343.
  • Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6

Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.