1905 VFL season
The 1905 VFL season was the ninth season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 6 May until 30 September, and comprised a 17-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
| 1905 VFL Premiership season | |
|---|---|
 Fitzroy, Premier team | |
| Teams | 8 |
| Premiers | Fitzroy (4th premiership) |
| Minor premiers | Collingwood (3rd minor premiership) |
| Matches played | 72 |
| Highest attendance | 30,000 |
| Leading Goalkicker Medallist | Charlie Pannam (Collingwood) |
The premiership was won by the Fitzroy Football Club for the fourth time and second time consecutively, after it defeated Collingwood by 13 points in the 1905 VFL Grand Final.
Premiership season
In 1905, 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. Then, based on ladder positions after those 14 rounds, three further 'sectional rounds' were played, with the teams ranked 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th playing in one section and the teams ranked 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th playing in the other.
Once the 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1905 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus 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
Sectional Rounds
Sectional Round 1 (Round 15)
Sectional Round 2 (Round 16)
Sectional Round 3 (Round 17)
Ladder
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collingwood | 17 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 1111 | 635 | 175.0 | 60 | Semi finals |
| 2 | Fitzroy (P) | 17 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 884 | 653 | 135.4 | 50 | |
| 3 | Carlton | 17 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 1005 | 789 | 127.4 | 44 | |
| 4 | Essendon | 17 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 976 | 853 | 114.4 | 36 | |
| 5 | South Melbourne | 17 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 816 | 975 | 83.7 | 30 | |
| 6 | Geelong | 17 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 747 | 946 | 79.0 | 24 | |
| 7 | St Kilda | 17 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 690 | 1076 | 64.1 | 16 | |
| 8 | Melbourne | 17 | 3 | 14 | 0 | 736 | 1038 | 70.9 | 12 |
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers
Semi finals
First Semi Final
Second Semi Final
Preliminary final
Grand final
Fitzroy defeated Collingwood 4.6 (30) to 2.5 (17). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).
| Team | 1 Qtr | 2 Qtr | 3 Qtr | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collingwood | 0.1 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 2.5 (17) |
| Fitzroy | 0.3 | 1.3 | 4.6 | 4.6 (30) |
Awards
- The 1905 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
- The VFL's leading goalkicker was Charlie Pannam of Collingwood with 38 goals.
- Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1905.
Notable events
- Collingwood used only 24 players to play its nineteen games – the smallest number of players to represent one club in a VFL/AFL season.[1]
- Australasian Football Council formed.
- VFL decides to pay field umpires 30 shillings per match, and boundary umpires 7 shillings per match (approx $75.00 and $20.00 in 2008 buying power).
References
- AFL Tables; All Time Records – Miscellaneous
- 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