Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

1917 VFL season

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Highest attendance
  
28,512

Start date
  
1917

Teams
  
6

Leading Goalkicker Medallist
  
Dick Lee (Collingwood)

Premier
  
Collingwood Football Club

Matches played
  
49

Premiers
  
Collingwood (4th premiership)

Minor premiers
  
Collingwood (5th minor premiership)

Similar
  
1916 VFL season, 1923 VFL season, 1912 VFL season, 1911 VFL season, 1904 VFL season

The 1917 Victorian Football League season was the 21st season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Contents

Premiership season

In 1917, the VFL competition consisted of six 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 of the six teams played each other three times in a 15 match home-and-away season (Geelong, Richmond, and South Melbourne each hosting eight games, while Carlton, Collingwood, and Fitzroy each hosted seven).

Once the 15 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1917 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Awards

  • The 1917 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
  • The VFL's leading goalkicker was Dick Lee of Collingwood with 50 goals (54 after finals).
  • Richmond took the "wooden spoon" in 1917.

    • Notable events

  • Geelong and South Melbourne, having refused to compete in 1916 on "patriotic grounds" returned to the VFL competition, having concluded that the drop in the number of recruits in 1916 indicated that the VFL competition had no effect on military recruitment. The Geelong team members met their own expenses and played as amateurs, with the club donating all of its 1918 profits to war funds.
  • On 12 May 1917, recruiting officers visiting VFL grounds were heckled by spectators. On another occasion a Fitzroy crowd attacked a recruiting sergeant.
  • On 4 August, the entire thirteenth round was put back a week, at the request of the State War Council, so that recruiting meetings could be held at each VFL ground.

    • References

    1917 VFL season Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA