Results and statistics for 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...

 season of 1912.

Premiership season

In 1912, the VFL competition consisted of ten 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 18 rounds.

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1912 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Finals

All of the 1912 finals were played at the MCG

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...

 so the home team in the Semi Finals and Preliminary Final is purely the higher ranked team from the ladder but in the Grand Final the home team was the team that won the Preliminary Final.

Grand final

Essendon

Essendon Football Club

The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 defeated South Melbourne

Sydney Swans

The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 5.17 (47) to 4.9 (33), in front of a crowd of 54,463 people. (For an explanation of scoring see 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...

).

Awards

• The 1912 VFL Premiership team was Essendon
  Essendon Football Club
  The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
  
  .
• The VFL's leading goalkicker
  Coleman Medal
  The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...
  
   was Harry Brereton
  Harry Brereton
  Harry Brereton was an Australian rules footballer who played with Melbourne and South Melbourne in the VFL. Originally recruited from Port Melbourne, Brereton made a startling entry into VFL football in 1909. After a slow start, he kicked nine goals against Geelong in only his seventh match...
  
   of Melbourne
  Melbourne Football Club
  The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
  
   with 56 goals.
• University
  Melbourne University Football Club
  Melbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University is an Australian rules football club.The club achieved prominence by being a member of the game's most elite competition in the early 20th century, the Victorian Football League between 1908 and 1914.Although there are no records...
  
   took the "wooden spoon
  Wooden spoon (award)
  A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...
  
  " in 1912.

Notable events

• On 27 April 1912, the first issue of the VFL's Football Record is published.
• For the first time. all VFL players wear a number on the back of their guernsey. The number designates the player himself, rather than his position and, in most cases, he plays his entire career with the same number on his back (however, if he changed clubs, his number would also alter).
• South Australia defeat Victoria 9.8 (62) to 6.7 (43) in Adelaide on 10 August 1912.
• In a match against Collingwood, Essendon's Dan Hanley
  Dan Hanley (footballer)
  Dan Hanley was an Australian rules footballer who played with Essendon in the VFL.Before he came to Essendon, Hanley played his football at South Ballarat. He was used mostly as a defender during his VFL career but also spent some time as a follower...
  
   was impeded from taking part in a contest for the ball along one of the boundary lines, when a boundary umpire grasped him by the hand. There were no "official" witnesses to this incredible incident, and the boundary umpire went unpunished.
• The captains of the two 1912 Second Semi-Final teams, Alan Belcher
  Alan Belcher (footballer)
  Alan Belcher was an Australian rules footballer who played with and coached Essendon in the VFL. He was the brother of South Melbourne player Vic Belcher....
  
    of Essendon
  Essendon Football Club
  The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
  
   and Vic Belcher
  Vic Belcher
  Vic Belcher was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League.Belcher was a tireless ruckman for the South Melbourne Football Club who could also play in a key position...
  
   of South Melbourne
  Sydney Swans
  The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
  
  , were brothers. This is a VFL/AFL record.
• VFL decides to appoint 2 stewards to each match. They have the power to report players.

External links

• 1912 Season - AFL Tables