1903 VFL Grand Final
Encyclopedia
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collingwood Collingwood Football Club The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League... |
2.3 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 4.7 (31) |
| Fitzroy Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897... |
2.2 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.11 (29) |
The 1903 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
game contested between the Collingwood Football Club
Collingwood Football Club
The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
and Fitzroy Football Club
Fitzroy Football Club
The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...
, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
on 12 September 1903. It was the 6th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
, staged to determine the premiers for the 1903 VFL season
1903 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1903.-Premiership season:In 1903, 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...
. The match, attended by 32,263 spectators, was won by Collingwood by a margin of 2 points, marking that club's second successive premiership victory.
Gerald Brosnan
Gerald Brosnan
Gerald Brosnan was an Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy in the VFL. He played as a key position forward and had an accurate left foot kick....
had a chance to win Fitzroy the premiership with a set shot for goal off the last kick of the game but missed narrowly to give Collingwood back-to-back flags.
Collingwood's Jim Addison, despite playing in just his third game, was the only multiple goalkicker. Both Ern Jenkins and Bert Sharpe of Fitzroy were celebrating their 100th VFL games.
Lead-up
After the home-and-away season (which lasted for seventeen matches, including the "first round" of fourteen matches and a "second round" of three matches), Collingwood was top of the ladder with a record of 15–2 and a percentage of 159.4; Fitzroy finished second with a record of 14–3 and a percentage of 171.6.The finals were contested using the variation of the Argus System
Early VFL Final systems
Throughout its history, the Victorian Football League has used a system of finals after playing a regular season to determine the winner of the premiership....
seen between 1902–1906. Fitzroy faced fourth-placed in the First Semi-Final, and won by 52 points, and Collingwood faced third-placed in the Second Semi-Final and won by four points. Collingwood and Fitzroy then faced off to decide the premiers.
Right to challenge
The winner of this match would automatically win the premiership; no team had the right to challenge for the premiership this season. Under the variation of the Argus System in use between 1902–1906, the club with the best record in all matches (including finals) could have challenged for the premiership if it had not won this game. However, whichever team won this game would have become the team with the best record, depriving the other of any right to challenge. Entering the match, Collingwood had a record of 16–2, and Fitzroy had a record of 15–3 but a superior percentage: in the event of a Collingwood win, Collingwood's 17–2 record would have ranked above Fitzroy's 15–4; in the event of a Fitzroy win, both clubs would have been level on 16–3, and Fitzroy would have been ranked above Collingwood with a superior percentage.This is different from the ruling which would have been used under the more widely known variation of the Argus System, which was in use from 1907–1930. In that variation, the team with the best record in matches excluding finals had the right to challenge; as Collingwood had the best record after 17 weeks, it would have retained the right to challenge, regardless of finals results.
Teams
- Umpire - Dick GibsonDick Gibson (footballer)Dick Gibson was an Australian rules footballer who played with South Melbourne in the Victorian Football League .Gibson was a member of the inaugural South Melbourne team in 1897 and vice-captained the club in his two seasons. He became the first VFL player to umpire a Grand Final in 1903 when he...
Goalkickers
Collingwood:
|
Fitzroy:
|
See also
- 1903 VFL season1903 VFL seasonResults and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1903.-Premiership season:In 1903, 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...