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The 1878 Victorian Football Association season was the second season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club, after it defeated Melbourne in a playoff match on 5 October. It was the club's first VFA premiership, and the first in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1878 to 1880. Geelong was unbeaten during the year.
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Association membership
There were seven senior metropolitan clubs in the Association in 1878: Albert-park, Carlton, Essendon, Hotham, Melbourne, St Kilda and West Melbourne. Essendon and West Melbourne had been leading junior teams in 1877 and competed as seniors in 1878. Additionally, several provincial teams – including premiers Geelong – competed as senior clubs affiliated with the Association.
1878 VFA premiership
Among the metropolitan clubs, Melbourne had the best record, finishing with eleven wins and five draws from its twenty-three matches. The second-placed metropolitan club was Carlton, whose record was seventeen wins and one draw from twenty-four matches. At the time, Melbourne and Carlton were considered to be by far the strongest of the metropolitan clubs, so Melbourne's position as the top club was based almost entirely on head-to-head matches between the two clubs – of which Melbourne won all four.
Among the provincial clubs, Geelong was by far the strongest, having gone through the season undefeated with fifteen wins and one draw from sixteen matches. However, it had played only three games against metropolitan clubs – wins against Carlton, Hotham and Albert-park – and its provincial opponents were not considered as strong as the metropolitan competition, so whether or not its record was strong enough to claim the premiership was a point of debate.
To settle the matter of the premiership, a playoff match was scheduled between Melbourne and Geelong for 5 October. Geelong won the game by four goals, and as a result won its first premiership. It was the first playoff match for a premiership in Association history, and the last until 1896.
Club senior records
The below table details the playing records of the seven senior metropolitan clubs, and Geelong, in all matches during the 1878 season, including the playoff. Two sets of results are given:
The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Australasian newspaper. The VFA had no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised; however, the top three placings were later acknowledged in publications including the Football Record and are considered official.