1919 VFL season

1919 VFL Premiership season
Vic Thorp
Teams	9
Premiers	Collingwood (5th premiership)
Minor Premiers	Collingwood (6th minor premiership)
Matches played	76
Highest attendance	51,798
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Dick Lee (Collingwood)
← 1918 1920 →

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1919.

Premiership season

In 1919, the VFL competition consisted of nine 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 (i.e., 16 matches and 2 byes).

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1919 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

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Ladder

Finals

All of the 1919 finals were played at the MCG 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.

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Collingwood defeated Richmond 11.12 (78) to 7.11 (53), in front of a crowd of 45,413 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1919 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Dick Lee of Collingwood with 56 goals.
• Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1919.

Notable events

• Melbourne returned to the VFL competition.
• Unhappy that its nine-team competition brings one bye each week, the VFL seeks expressions of interest from clubs wishing to join the VFL. Whilst there was talk of an Ex-Servicemen's Club and a Public Servants' Club, an application was actually lodged on behalf of a combined Ballarat Football League team, as well applications on behalf of the VFA clubs Brunswick Football Club, Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne, and Prahran.
• The VFL introduced a Second Eighteen competition between its constituent clubs.
• At to the start of the 1919 season, the VFL had already donated ₤9,436-0-0 to the Patriotic Fund since the start of the war.
• In its round 12 match against St Kilda, South Melbourne set the enduring record for highest score in a quarter, kicking 17.4 (106) in the last quarter of the match. This remains two goals better than any other team has managed since.
• Other records which have since been broken were set in that same match: South Melbourne full-forward Harold Robertson kicked a record 14 goals in the match (a record until 1929); South Melbourne kicked a record match score of 29.15 (189) (a record until 1931), with a record winning margin of 171 points (record until 1979), breaking the records set by Geelong in 1899.
• In round 16, Collingwood defeat Carlton 17.11 (113) to 5.16 (46). No team had scored 100 points against Carlton since round 1 in 1904; thus Carlton had played 292 consecutive games without conceding 100 points.
• St Kilda's win at Collingwood in Round 2 was its first win over Collingwood on the road since the two sides had left the VFA to form the VFL in 1897, ending a losing streak of 20 straight matches at Collingwood (the two sides having not played in 1916 or 1917 due to World War I and St. Kilda's decision not to play in those two seasons).

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

• 1919 Season - AFL Tables