Rahul Sharma (Editor)

1897 VFL season

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Highest attendance
  
8,000

Teams
  
8

Start date
  
1897

Matches played
  
62


Premiers
  
Essendon (1st premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Geelong (1st minor premiership)

Leading Goalkicker Medallist
  
Eddy James (Geelong) Jack Leith (Melbourne)

Similar
  
1904 VFL season, 1912 VFL season, 1923 VFL season, 1924 VFL season

The 1897 Victorian Football League season was the inaugural season of the VFL Australian rules football competition.

Contents

Premiership season

In 1897, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 20 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" (although any of the 20 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 14 rounds.

Once the 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1897 VFL Premiers were determined according to the conditions dictated by the specific format and conventions of the 1897 Finals System, which was used in this season only.

Win/Loss table

Bold – Home game
Opponent for round listed above margin

Ladder progression

  • Numbers highlighted in green indicate that the team finished the round inside the top 3.
  • Numbers highlighted in blue indicates the team finished first on the ladder in that round.
  • Numbers highlighted in red indicates the team finished in last place on the ladder in that round.

    • Grand final

    Essendon won the premiership for finishing on top of the round robin finals ladder and no Grand Final was played.

    See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.

    Awards

  • The 1897 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
  • The VFL's leading goalkickers were Eddy James of Geelong and Jack Leith of Melbourne with 22 goals.
  • The Argus newspaper's "Player of the Year" was Melbourne's Fred McGinis.
  • The 1897 Wooden Spoon went to St Kilda.

    • Notable events

  • George Stuckey, the captain of the Essendon Football Club team that won the VFL's inaugural premiership, also won the 130-yard Stawell Gift in 1897 in 12.2 seconds off a handicap of 12 yards.
  • In the first round of 1897, the VFL revoked the VFA's (then prevailing) push-in-the-back rule. The rule was reinstated before the second round's matches on the following Saturday due to complaints from fans, players and officials.
  • On 12 June, a League representative team played against a Ballarat Football League representative team at the Brunswick Street Oval. Ballarat 13.11 (89) defeated the League 8.6 (54).
  • On 3 July 1897, Fitzroy rover Bill McSpeerin weaved his way and bounced the ball the length of the Brunswick Street Oval to score a goal against St Kilda.
  • Carlton's first six matches were all away games due to renovations at Princes Park.
  • The first round finals match between Geelong and Essendon was the only finals match to be played in Geelong until 2013.

    • References

    1897 VFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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