1898 VFL season

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1898.

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.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Ladder

Finals

Sectional Round 1

Sectional Round 2

Sectional Round 3

Section A Ladder

Section B Ladder

Semi Final

Attendance: 13,120 at Brunswick Street Oval

• Having won the Semi-Final, Fitzroy were given the right to 'challenge' Minor Premiers Essendon in the Grand Final

Grand final

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

Attendance: 16,358 at Junction Oval

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 eludes 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.

See also

• 1898 VFL Grand Final
• The 1898 VFL Premiership System

References

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897-1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6
• Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897-1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0

External links

• 1898 Season - AFL Tables
• "1898" (Brisbane Lions Website, 1 May, 2006)