1908 VFA season

none December 2017 May 2020 VFA Premiership season 1908 Footscray team 1908.jpg 250px Footscray FC team, premiers 10 4 1 1907 1909 The 1908 Victorian Football Association season was the 32nd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club, after it defeated Brunswick in the final by 24 points. It was the fourth premiership won by the club. The season was preceded by a tumultuous off-season, in which the Richmond Football Club left the Association in favour of the rival Victorian Football League, and both and West Melbourne were banished from the Association for attempting to do likewise. Association membership League expansion On 4 October 1907, shortly after the end of the season, the University Football Club – which had won the Metropolitan Junior Football Association premiership that seasonThe Argus 9 September 1906 Football – Association Matches 5 Melbourne Old Boy – was admitted to the Victorian Football League as a senior club. This brought the size of the League to nine clubs, and the League delegates resolved at the same meeting to admit a tenth team, citing the desire to have an even number of teams to avoid the need for byes in the fixture, as well as some other strategic goals. The League resolved to reconvene on 18 October 1907 to select its tenth team from applications received in the interim.The Argus Football – Victorian Football League 5 October 1907 17 Melbourne Within the next week, three Association clubs had announced their intention to apply for entry to the League: , and an amalgamation between and West Melbourne – as well as the Brighton Football Club, runners-up to University in the 1907 MJFA season.The Argus Football – North and West Melbourne combine 14 October 1907 4 Melbourne Candidates West Melbourne and North Melbourne were considered to be a stronger chance of gaining admission to the League as an amalgamated entity than as separate clubs, but in reality there were other drivers which would likely have seen the clubs merged for 1908 even without the opportunity to join the League. North Melbourne was struggling on the field, and West Melbourne was struggling financially.The Mercury Hobart, TAS Football 12 October 1907 9 Furthermore, after years of sharing the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve as a home ground, West Melbourne had brokered a deal to play at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, sharing it with the Essendon (League) Football Club in 1907;The Argus 28 March 1907 4 Melbourne Football – Victorian League – Question of Grounds but, this deal was cancelled when University entered the League and assumed the co-tenancy of the ground, leaving West Melbourne homeless once again.The Argus Rival Football Bodies 17 October 1907 8 Melbourne North Melbourne and West Melbourne did share a strong history of collaboration as a result of proximity and sharing the same ground, and were seen as a natural fit for an amalgamation. Richmond had been one of the Association's strongest and most consistent clubs on and off the field since the turn of the century, and was considered a very strong candidate for the tenth position in the League on those merits. Additionally, there were VFL delegates who sought for the League to strategically dominate Melbourne's inner-city locations, leaving the outer or suburban locations for the Association, and Richmond's location fit well with this vision. Another club strongly rumoured to have been considering applying to join the League was the defending premiers Williamstown. Commentators thought Williamstown to be a strong candidate on its footballing merits, but that its remote location compared with the other inner-city teams was likely to limit its chances. Williamstown did not submit an application to the League, although whether it considered doing so is unknown. Outcome On 18 October 1907, the League formally accepted Richmond into its senior ranks from the 1908 season, and rejected the joint North Melbourne/West Melbourne application.The Argus Football League – the tenth club 19 October 1907 19 Melbourne Association response The Association reacted angrily to the League's actions, and to the clubs which attempted to defect. There was a feeling amongst many Association delegates that the League, by enticing its best senior clubs to defect and leaving a two-week opportunity for clubs to publicly fight for that position, was deliberately attempting to weaken and destabilise the Association just as it was building strength and popularity, to control a larger part of the money available in the game; and indeed, the popularity of the Association had been building in the previous few years, and in 1907 was the highest it had been since the original breakaway of the League in 1897. Because of this, clubs which attempted to defect were seen by many in the Association as deeply disloyal – particularly and , who had themselves been through the suffering caused by the breakaway of the League in 1897. The Association discussed and ultimately carried a motion that any clubs which attempted to defect to the League would not be welcomed back to the Association. This left the unsuccessful applicants, and West Melbourne, without a senior competition for 1908. Association expansion Left with seven clubs, the Association looked to increase its numbers, and welcomed two of the strongest junior clubs in the city into its senior ranks: the Brighton Football Club from the Metropolitan Junior Football Association,The Argus Football Grounds – the Premier takes a hand 9 April 1908 7 Melbourne and the Northcote Football Club from the Victorian Junior Football Association.The Argus Victorian Junior Association 14 March 1908 17 Melbourne This put the size of the Association at nine teams, and a fixture for the season was released in March 1908.The Argus Victorian Association 26 March 1908 7 Melbourne Re-admission of North Melbourne Still without a senior competition in February 1908, North Melbourne and West Melbourne re-applied to join the League as an eleventh team, as a merged entity which would be known as the City Football Club, and would play its matches in North Melbourne,The Argus Victorian Football League – Alteration of Rules 22 February 1908 16 Melbourne but they were again rejected. In March, they re-applied for the Association, but were again rejected for their disloyalty. At the end of March, both clubs were formally defunct.The Argus North Melbourne club 4 April 1908 15 Melbourne Less than a week later, a new group of stakeholders from the town of North Melbourne set about reforming the club. At a public meeting on 15 April, the new North Melbourne Football Club was formed,The Argus Football – New North Melbourne club 16 April 1908 4 Melbourne and on 16 April it applied to join the Association. The Association accepted the application, after adding the condition that no person who served on the former committees of North Melbourne or West Melbourne could serve on the new committee, and accepting the assurances of the new committee that it was loyal to the Association.The Argus Football – the Victorian Association 18 April 1908 6 Melbourne The reformed club is historically viewed as a continuation of the previous North Melbourne club. The new club adopted blue and white halves with a red sash as its guernsey, borrowing colours from both North Melbourne (blue and white) and West Melbourne (red and white). With its re-admission occurring two weeks before the start of the season, North Melbourne was accommodated by playing its match each week against whichever team was scheduled for a bye. Rule changes In a move which angered the Association, the League forbade Association matches from being played on League grounds in 1908 – a rule which followed West Melbourne's sharing of the East Melbourne Cricket Ground with Essendon (League) in 1907. The move strengthened the belief that the VFL's expansion and actions were aimed at undermining the increasing popularity of the Association. The Association reduced the number of players on the field from eighteen-a-side to seventeen-a-side in 1908, removing one of the ruck/follower positions from the game.The Argus Football Reform – seventeen a-side 18 April 1908 12 Melbourne Premiership The home-and-away season was played over eighteen rounds, with each club playing the others twice; then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended Argus system to determine the premiers for the season. Ladder main WDL Q 1908 VFA ladder true points y 4 2 Premiers FOO ESS Essendon WIL Williamstown BRU Brunswick PRA Prahran BRI Brighton PMB Port Melbourne PRE Preston NOR NCT Northcote 15 2 1 1086 683 P 12 5 1 1154 715 12 6 0 1199 733 12 6 0 1150 887 11 6 1 906 656 8 10 0 1022 883 6 11 1 846 1071 4 13 1 887 1120 4 14 0 631 1572 3 14 1 689 1351 #CCFFCC A A A A 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for. complete The Argus 17 August 1908 Association Matches – the minor premiership 8 Melbourne Umpire Finals Semi-finals Saturday, 22 August 6.9 (45) H Williamstown 4.6 (30) North Melbourne Recreation Reserve 12,000 The Argus Melbourne Association Football – semi-final Games 24 August 1908 4 Umpire Saturday, 22 August Essendon 5.7 (37) A Brunswick 5.16 (46) Carlton Oval 10,000 1908 VFA Final Monday, 31 August 1.2 (8) 3.4 (22) 6.5 (41) 9.10 (64) Launder 3, Cotton 2, Elliott 2, Sevior, Stewart H Brunswick 2.0 (12) 4.0 (24) 5.3 (33) 6.4 (40) Pears 2, H. Braid, L. Braid, Chase, Johnson Melbourne Cricket Ground 40,000–41,000 The Argus Melbourne Football – Association Premiership 1 September 1908 9 Old BoyThe Independent Footscray, VIC Premiership Final – Footscray premiers 5 September 1908 3 Lane Had Brunswick won, minor premiers Footscray would have been entitled to a rematch the following Saturday to decide the premiership. The final was rescheduled from Saturday 29 August to Monday 31 August to avoid a clash with the Jubilee Carnival which was going on at the time.The Argus Football – Victorian Association 20 August 1908 Melbourne 9 The attendance, given in different sources as either 40,000 or 41,000, set a record for the highest crowd in Association history; this record stood until the 1939 Grand Final.Williamstown Chronicle Williamstown, VIC 12 October 1945 2 Victory premiership to Williamstown. Notable events From this season, Brunswick moved its home ground from Park Street Oval to Brunswick Park (present-day Gillon Oval) in Victoria Street.The Coburg Leader Coburg, VIC The Brunswick Football Club 13 July 1907 3The Coburg Leader Coburg, VIC Football – Brunswick v. Northcote 25 April 1908 3 On 27 June, 28.20 (188) defeated 4.4 (28) by 160 points. Footscray's score set a new record for the highest in Association history. In the same game, Jack Hutchinson scored sixteen goals, also a new Association record.The Argus Melbourne 5 Old Boy Association matches External links Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League history (1877–2008) List of VFA premiers References Category:Victorian Football League seasons VFL