1887 VFA season

11th season of the Victorian Football Association December 2017 December 2017 1887 30 April – 1 October 1887 Carlton fc 1887.jpg 250px Carlton – 1877 VFA premiers 18 2 Tom McShane( – 24 goals) white 1886 VFA season 1886 white 1888 VFA season 1888 The 1887 VFA season was the eleventh season of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. won the premiership for the second time, after finishing the season with 15 wins from its 18 matches.1887 https://www.blueseum.org/1887 Blueseum 8 June 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250608060115/https://www.blueseum.org/1887 8 June 2025 It was the club's last VFA premiership.History of Achievement https://www.carltonfc.com.au/club/history/history-of-achievement Carlton Football Club 8 June 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250604070158/https://www.carltonfc.com.au/club/history/history-of-achievement 4 June 2025 Association membership The metropolitan membership of the Association (including Geelong) remained unchanged from the fifteen clubs which contested the premiership in 1886. The three Ballarat-based clubs (Ballarat, Ballarat Imperial and South Ballarat) also remained senior clubs; however, unlike in previous years, they were included in the premiership lists by all of the major sportswriters.September 2024 1887 VFA premiership thumb|right|200px|Tom Leydin and Bill Strickland, captain and vice-captain of Carlton FC The premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club, which played eighteen matches for the season for fifteen wins, two draws and a loss. The runner-up was , which played twenty-one matches for sixteen wins, three draws and two losses. was ranked third. No official system for deciding the premiership existed, but it was conventional for the club which suffered the fewest defeats during the season to be named premier.The Argus Opening of the Football Season 5 May 1888 14 Melbourne, VIC Ballarat Imperial vs Geelong match On Saturday 2 July, a weakened , which was missing eight of its best twenty due to unavailability, suffered one of its two losses for the season when Ballarat Imperial beat them 3.4 to 0.2 at the Eastern Oval in Ballarat.The Argus Melbourne, VIC Ballarat Imperial v. Geelong 7 4 July 1887 As the season progressed, questions were raised by the Geelong club and many spectators over whether or not this match should be counted towards the premiership. Reasons why Geelong supporters believed it should have been excluded were: The match had been arranged informally as part of a country trip after a planned tour of Adelaide was cancelled, and was not included in the Association fixture at the beginning of the season. That the club had not expected the match to be counted when it was played. There were procedural irregularities related to the appointment of the umpires. Since the premiership was still an unofficial title conferred largely by press consensus, there was nothing within laws of the Association to deal specifically with the matter of the premiership; and, therefore there was no formal avenue through which to protest its inclusion. The Sportsman newspaper published a lengthy opinion on the matter in late July, favouring the inclusion of the match in the premiership. It referred in particular to Association Rule 3 which stated: 3. The Football Season shall commence on the first Saturday in May, and terminate on the 30th September. (a) Week-day matches – except 24th May [Queen's Birthday] – shall not be recognised by the Association. and concluded that since the match wasn't specifically excluded by Rule 3a that it should be included. The Sportsman also noted that while Rule 18 related to the appointment of the umpires was contravened, that this should have been resolved by penalising the clubs, not by invalidating the match.The Sportsman Melbourne, VIC Do they count? 27 July 1887 5 The matter was discussed at the Association's general meeting on 12 August. Although there was no formal protest and the Association had no rules governing the premiership, delegates noted that "it was desirable, for the sake of the public, to answer the question of whether or not the match counted." Following discussion, a motion was carried that the match should be counted.The Sportsman 17 August 1887 Melbourne, VIC Victorian Football Association 8 Had Geelong been successful in having the match excluded from the premiership, ceteris paribus, it and Carlton would each have finished with only one defeat for the season, and a playoff match would likely have been arranged to decide the premiership.The Argus Melbourne, VIC 6 26 September 1887 The Football Season The 1887 season was the last premiership decided in this informal manner, and a formal Association-endorsed method for determining the premiership was introduced from 1888. Senior club records The below table details the records of the eighteen clubs in senior matches during the 1887 season. Saturday matches and matches played on Queen's Birthday were counted towards the premiership, but matches played on the celebration the Golden Jubilee were not counted.Leader Melbourne, VIC Football – The past season Follower 1 October 1887 20 The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Sportsman newspaper. The VFA had no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised; however, the top three placings were later acknowledged in publications including the Football Record and are considered official.Wilson Caroline History of the AFL could be turned on its head https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/history-of-the-afl-could-be-turned-on-its-head-20140620-zsglu.html The Age 12 April 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20230929215206/https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/history-of-the-afl-could-be-turned-on-its-head-20140620-zsglu.html 29 September 2023 20 June 2014 main WDL Q true no none Premiers CAR GEE SM FIT PMB Port Melbourne WIL Williamstown RIC HOT Hotham ESS MEL PRA Prahran UNI University BIM Ballarat Imperial BAL Ballarat STK StK SWI South Williamstown SBA South Ballarat FOO 15 1 2 94 43 P 16 2 3 110 57 12 4 4 103 53 11   4 5 71 56 12   6 2 97 50 9   8 2 64 73 8   8 3 63 70 6   8 4 73 79 5   9 2 49 67 6   10 2 64 80 5   11 2 42 75 4   13 0 45 94 6   4 3 52 44 5   6 2 49 43 4   13 1 48 95 3   13 2 35 78 3   2 5 50 40 2   10 2 25 47 #CCFFCC #F8F9FA P WD complete Follower The past season https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196495072 Leader 8 June 2025 20 1 October 1887Follower The past season https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196495070/21386347 Leader 8 June 2025 21 1 October 1887THE PREMIERSHIP TABLES https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196494913 Leader 8 June 2025 21 1 October 1887Goal Post The past football season https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/227678419 Sportsman 8 June 2025 2 5 October 1887 Notable events president Frank Grey Smith replaced James Garton as president of the Association. Garton had presided since 1882.Marc Fiddian 2004 The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995 21 Prior to the season, the distance between each goalpost and its adjacent kick-off post (behind post) was reduced from twenty yards to ten yards, greatly reducing the area through which a team would be credited a behind.Adelaide Observer Adelaide, SA Intercolonial Football Conference 13 November 1886 16 See also 1887 Victorian football season References Category:Victorian Football League seasons VFA