1925 VFL season

1925 VFL Premiership season
Brownlow Medal winner Colin Watson
Teams	12
Premiers	Geelong (1st premiership)
Minor Premiers	Geelong (3rd minor premiership)
Matches played	106
Highest attendance	64,288
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Lloyd Hagger (Geelong)
Brownlow Medallist	Colin Watson (St Kilda)
← 1924 1926 →

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1925.

New Teams

In 1915, and from 1919 to 1924, there were nine teams in the VFL competition. In these seasons each team played each other twice in a home-and-away season of 18 rounds (i.e., they played 16 matches and had 2 byes).

In 1919, in order to eliminate these unsatisfactory byes, the VFL had sought 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, applications were actually lodged on behalf of a combined Ballarat Football League team and VFA clubs Brunswick, Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne, and Prahran.

The VFL took six years to make a decision.

At the end of 1924, the VFL considered applications from Brighton, Brunswick, Camberwell, Caulfield (not the Caulfield Football Club that played in the VFA 1965-1987), Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, and Prahran. By its 9 January 1925 meeting, the VFL had short listed four candidates: Footscray, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, and Prahran. Three weeks later, the VFL announced that it was admitting Footscray, Hawthorn, and North Melbourne to its competition.

Premiership season

In 1925, the VFL competition consisted of twelve 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.

Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 17 rounds; matches 12 to 17 were the "home-and-away reverse" of matches 1 to 6.

Once the 17 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1925 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

Ladder

Finals

All of the 1925 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. Although Geelong lost to Melbourne in the Semi-final, Geelong still went onto the grand final. The explanation is unknown.

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Geelong defeated Collingwood 10.19 (79) to 9.15 (69), in front of a crowd of 64,288 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1925 VFL Premiership team was Geelong.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Lloyd Hagger of Geelong with 78 goals.
• The winner of the 1925 Brownlow Medal Colin Watson of St Kilda, with 9 votes.
• Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1925.

Notable events

• The laws of the game were altered so that the last player to touch the ball before it went out of bounds was penalized by the award of a free kick to the opposing team. This meant that almost all of the play was directed up the centre of the ground along the goal-to-goal line, and very little was directed along the flanks at the sides of the ground. This brought a considerable advantage to full-forwards.
• At half-time in the spiteful Round 12 match at Arden Street between North Melbourne and Geelong, Fred Rutley of North Melbourne knocked Lloyd Hagger of Geelong to the ground with a round-arm action; Hagger's teammates, Arthur Coghlan and Stan Thomas, then remonstrated with Rutley, and the three exchanged punches, starting an all-in brawl which involved players and team officials. Coghlan was hit in the knee with a missile thrown from the crowd, while Geelong captain Cliff Rankin and teammate Sid Hall were left unconscious and having to be carried from the field on stretchers. Geelong were also threatened and pelted with missiles by angry North Melbourne fans while leaving the field at the end of the match. Six players were reported on a total of seventeen offences:
  • Fred Rutley of North Melbourne: Charged with two counts of kicking Sid Hall, striking Lloyd Hagger, striking Arthur Coghlan, striking Stan Thomas, and melee involvement. Suspended for life (Rutley was reinstated by the VFL in 1930, having served 89 matches).
  • Stan Thomas of Geelong: Charged with elbowing Bill Russ, striking Fred Rutley and melee involvement. Suspended until 31 December 1926 (26 matches).
  • Arthur Coghlan of Geelong: Charged with striking Fred Rutley and melee involvement. Suspended until 31 December 1926 (26 matches).
  • Bill Russ of North Melbourne: Charged with striking Cliff Rankin and melee involvement. Suspended until 31 December 1925 (5 matches).
  • Tim Trevaskis of North Melbourne: Charged with striking Les Smith and melee involvement. Suspended for 3 matches.
  • Harold Johnston of North Melbourne: Charged with striking Stan Thomas and melee involvement. Reprimanded.

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

• 1925 Season - AFL Tables