1905 VFL season

The 1905 VFL season was the ninth season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs and ran from 6 May to 30 September, comprising a 17-match home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.

1905 VFL premiership season
Fitzroy 1905 VFL premiership team
Date	6 May—30 September 1905
Teams	8
Premiers	Fitzroy 4th premiership
Minor premiers	Collingwood 3rd minor premiership
Leading goalkicker medallist	Charlie Pannam (Collingwood) 38 goals
Matches played	72

Fitzroy won the premiership, defeating Collingwood by 13 points in the 1905 VFL grand final; it was Fitzroy's second consecutive premiership and fourth VFL premiership overall. Collingwood won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 15–2 win–loss record. Collingwood's Charlie Pannam won the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.

Background

In 1905, 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. Then, based on ladder positions after those 14 rounds, three further 'sectional rounds' were played, with the teams ranked 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th playing in one section and the teams ranked 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th playing in the other.

Once the 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1905 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Home-and-away season

Pre-sectional ladder

	Section A
	Section B

#	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Collingwood	14	12	2	0	867	519	167.1	48
2	Fitzroy	14	10	3	1	693	517	134.0	42
3	Carlton	14	9	5	0	739	636	116.2	36
4	Essendon	14	7	7	0	782	690	113.3	28
5	South Melbourne	14	6	7	1	638	725	88.0	26
6	Geelong	14	5	9	0	623	720	86.5	20
7	Melbourne	14	3	11	0	631	764	82.6	12
8	St Kilda	14	3	11	0	518	920	56.3	12

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Source: AFL Tables

Ladder

(P)	Premiers
	Qualified for finals

#	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Collingwood	17	15	2	0	1111	635	175.0	60
2	Fitzroy (P)	17	12	4	1	884	653	135.4	50
3	Carlton	17	11	6	0	1005	789	127.4	44
4	Essendon	17	9	8	0	976	853	114.4	36
5	South Melbourne	17	7	9	1	816	975	83.7	30
6	Geelong	17	6	11	0	747	946	79.0	24
7	St Kilda	17	4	13	0	690	1076	64.1	16
8	Melbourne	17	3	14	0	736	1038	70.9	12

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 51.2
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Grand final

Main article: 1905 VFL Grand Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Collingwood	0.1	1.3	2.4	2.5 (17)
Fitzroy	0.3	1.3	4.6	4.6 (30)

Season notes

• Collingwood used only 24 players to play its nineteen games – the smallest number of players to represent one club in a VFL/AFL season.
• The Australasian Football Council was formed.
• VFL decides to pay field umpires 30 shillings per match, and boundary umpires seven shillings per match (approx $75.00 and $20.00 in 2008 buying power).

Awards

• The 1905 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Charlie Pannam of Collingwood with 38 goals.
• Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1905.

References

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• 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

Sources

• 1905 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1905 VFL season at Australian Football