1901 VFL season

Updated on Oct 19, 2023

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Highest attendance 30,000 Teams 8		Start date 1901 Matches played 71
Premiers Essendon (2nd premiership) Minor premiers Geelong (2nd minor premiership) Leading Goalkicker Medallist Fred Hiskins (Essendon) Similar 1904 VFL season, 1923 VFL season, 1912 VFL season, 1911 VFL season

The 1901 Victorian Football League season was the fifth season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1901, the VFL competition consisted of eight 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 14 rounds.

Once the 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1901 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the original Argus system.

1st Semi Final

Crowd: 10,000 at EMCG, 31 August 1901

2nd Semi Final

Crowd: 15,000 at Victoria Park, 31 August 1901

Grand final

Essendon defeated Collingwood 6.7 (43) to 2.4 (16). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Crowd: 30,000 at Lake Oval, 7 September 1901

Awards

The 1901 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.

The VFL's leading goalkicker was Fred Hiskins of Essendon with 34 goals.

St. Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1901.

Notable events

Fitzroy lodged an official protest against the result of the Second Semi-Final, which it lost against Essendon by one point, alleging that the goal umpire had erred in awarding Essendon's first goal because the ball had hit the post. Later in the week, Fitzroy withdrew its protest against the result, and the scheduling of the Final was not affected; an inquiry later in September found that the goal umpire had made a mistake, but no change was made to the score after the finding.

Against South Melbourne in Round 6, Essendon kicked 17 behinds between its first and second goals. Only Geelong against St. Kilda in 1919 and St. Kilda against Fitzroy in 1921 have beaten this unwanted record. Fred Hiskins kicked ten behinds.

In the last home-and-away match between South Melbourne and Geelong, field umpire Henry "Ivo" Crapp experiments with clearly calling out his decisions.

In Essendon's "Grand Final" victory against Collingwood, Albert Thurgood kicks three of Essendon's six goals. One of his goals was scored with an 86-yard (79 m.) drop-kick, and another (measured immediately after the match) was scored with a 93-yard (85 m.) place-kick into a strong head wind.

VFL instituted the original Argus system to determine the season's premiers.

References

1901 VFL season Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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