Trisha Shetty (Editor)

1898 VFL season

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Highest attendance
  
16,358

Teams
  
8

Start date
  
1898

Matches played
  
70

Premiers
  
Fitzroy (1st premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Essendon (1st minor premiership)

Leading Goalkicker Medallist
  
Archie Smith (Collingwood)

Similar
  
1904 VFL season, 1897 VFL season, 1923 VFL season

The 1898 Victorian Football League season was the second season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Contents

Premiership season

In 1898, 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 1898 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the 1898 VFL Premiership System.

Win/Loss table

Bold – Home game
Opponent for round listed above margin

Grand final

Fitzroy defeated Essendon 5.8 (38) to 3.5 (23). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

  • The 1898 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
  • The VFL's leading goalkicker was Archie Smith of Collingwood with 31 goals.
  • The Wooden Spoon went to St Kilda.

    • Notable events

  • On 21 May 1898, playing against St Kilda Football Club, Geelong's Firth McCallum eluded 12 opponents to score a goal.
  • A VFL representative team played two matches against a combined Ballarat Football League team. The VFL won their home match, and lost their away match.
  • Essendon player Corrie Gardner, who also played for Melbourne Football Club from 1900 to 1903 and in 1905, and who represented Australia in the hurdles and the long jump at the 1904 Summer Olympics at St. Louis, Missouri in the USA, won the Australian Amateur Athletics hurdle championship in 1898.
  • At the end of the home-and away season, Essendon had a VFL record percentage of 202.2%.
  • 1898 was the first VFL season that the premiership had been decided in a "challenge" match.
  • Two sets of brothers played for Fitzroy in the 1898 "Grand Final Match": Bill Dalton and Jack Dalton; and Jim Grace and Mick Grace.

    • References

    1898 VFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA