1907 VFL season

The 1907 Victorian Football League season was the 11th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1907, 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.

Once the 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1907 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

Semi finals

First Semi Final

Second Semi Final

Grand final

Carlton defeated South Melbourne 6.14 (50) to 6.9 (45). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1907 VFL Premiership team was Carlton.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Dick Lee of Collingwood with 47 goals.
• Essendon took the "wooden spoon" in 1907.

Notable events

• The VFL played two inter-provincial matches against Ballarat and Bendigo, winning both matches. It was the first such match against Bendigo.
• Due to the "Special" football train arriving late, the start of the third match between Fitzroy and Geelong at Brunswick Street Oval was delayed by twenty minutes.
• In round 6, St. Kilda defeated Melbourne 15.18 (108) to 7.9 (51); It was the first time in the club's 173 VFL matches to that point that St. Kilda scored 100 points.
• In Round 8, Fitzroy kicked eleven goals without a behind against Collingwood, before three misses in the last quarter. They actually did not score in the second and third quarters after kicking 7.0 (42) in the first quarter.
• In Round 11, Geelong defeated St. Kilda despite having ten fewer scoring shots; before this, no VFL team had won with a deficit in scoring shots greater than eight. They repeated the feat of winning with ten fewer shots against Collingwood in the last round.
• During that last match, Collingwood actually succumbed to Geelong despite being 38 points ahead at three quarter time; this record was not beaten until 1936.
• The playing surface in each of the season's Semi-Finals that had been played on the Melbourne Cricket Ground (South Melbourne v. Collingwood, and Carlton v. St. Kilda) had been so rock hard and dusty that the two match winners demanded that the MCG be watered before the next Saturday, unless there was substantial rain. The VFL acquiesced to this request, and the ground was watered; the ensuing Premiership final, which Carlton won by 5 points, was on significantly softer ground.
• In the 1907 pre-season, then VFA team Richmond played a practice match against VFL team Geelong at Corio Oval, in direct defiance of a VFA edict. On 22 October 1907, Richmond, who had become quite dissatisfied with the VFA, applied to join the VFL; their application was unanimously accepted at a meeting nine days later, and Richmond competed for the first time in the 1908 VFL season.
• St Kilda qualify for their first VFL Finals appearance.

References

• 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

External links

• 1907 Season - AFL Tables