1913 VFL season

The 1913 VFL season was the 17th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured ten clubs, ran from 26 April until 27 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

1913 VFL premiership season
Fitzroy Football Club, Premiers
Teams	10
Premiers	Fitzroy 5th premiership
Minor premiers	Fitzroy 4th minor premiership
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Roy Park (University)
Matches played	94
Highest	59,479

The premiership was won by the Fitzroy Football Club for the fifth time, after it defeated St Kilda by 13 points in the 1913 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1913, 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 1913 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Home-and-away season

Ladder

(P)	Premiers
	Qualified for finals

#	Team	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	Pts
1	Fitzroy (P)	18	16	2	0	1137	788	144.3	64
2	South Melbourne	18	14	3	1	1256	977	128.6	58
3	Collingwood	18	13	5	0	1158	984	117.7	52
4	St Kilda	18	11	7	0	1149	1081	106.3	44
5	Geelong	18	10	8	0	1264	1016	124.4	40
6	Carlton	18	9	8	1	1110	1100	100.9	38
7	Richmond	18	6	12	0	1034	1090	94.9	24
8	Essendon	18	6	12	0	1072	1148	93.4	24
9	Melbourne	18	4	14	0	816	1143	71.4	16
10	University	18	0	18	0	907	1576	57.6	0

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 60.6
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

All of the 1913 finals were played at the MCG, so the home team in the semi-finals and preliminary final was 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

Main article: 1913 VFL Grand Final

Season notes

• The VFL formed an independent tribunal to hear charges against players.
• Prior to Melbourne's Round 4 match against Fitzroy, six of the club's players went on strike to protest the club committee's failure to support a player charged by police after striking a Carlton player in Round 3. After Melbourne President Dr. William C. McClelland entered the club rooms and personally informed the players they would be expelled from the club if they did not take the field, the players called off their strike.
• In the round 14 match against Fitzroy, controversy erupted after VFL Stewards incorrectly reported Essendon follower Bill Walker.
• University Football Club's full-forward Roy Park, who stood only 5"5" (165 cm), was selected as the Victorian Interstate team's full-forward, and kicked 53 of University's 115 goals for the season. Park was the second player to win the goalkicking when his team won the wooden spoon, after Charlie Baker of St Kilda in 1902, whose team also finished last without a win.

Awards

• The 1913 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Roy Park of University with 53 goals.
• University took the "wooden spoon" in 1913.

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

Sources

• 1913 VFL season at AFL Tables
• 1913 VFL season at Australian Football