1901 VFL season

1901 VFL Premiership season
Teams	8
Premiers	Essendon (2nd premiership)
Minor premiers	Geelong (2nd minor premiership)
Matches played	71
Highest attendance	30,000
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Fred Hiskins (Essendon)
← 1900 1902 →

The 1901 Victorian Football League season was the fifth season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1901, 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 1901 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the original Argus system.

Round 1

	Round 1
Saturday, 4 May (3:00 pm)	Fitzroy 8.13 (61)	def.	Carlton 2.7 (19)	Brunswick Street Oval
Saturday, 4 May (3:00 pm)	Essendon 1.15 (21)	def. by	Collingwood 9.10 (64)	East Melbourne Cricket Ground
Saturday, 4 May (3:00 pm)	Geelong 2.11 (23)	def.	Melbourne 3.3 (21)	Corio Oval
Saturday, 4 May (3:00 pm)	St Kilda 6.5 (41)	def. by	South Melbourne 6.13 (49)	Junction Oval

Round 2

	Round 2
Thursday, 9 May (3:00 pm)	Collingwood 13.16 (94)	def.	Carlton 0.7 (7)	Victoria Park
Thursday, 9 May (3:00 pm)	St Kilda 3.1 (19)	def. by	Essendon 9.14 (68)	Junction Oval
Thursday, 9 May (3:00 pm)	Fitzroy 5.8 (38)	def. by	Geelong 6.12 (48)	Brunswick Street Oval
Thursday, 9 May (3:00 pm)	Melbourne 5.6 (36)	def. by	South Melbourne 5.10 (40)	Melbourne Cricket Ground

Round 3

	Round 3
Saturday, 11 May (3:00 pm)	Carlton 3.8 (26)	def. by	Geelong 7.13 (55)	Princes Park
Saturday, 11 May (3:00 pm)	South Melbourne 9.4 (58)	def.	Collingwood 6.11 (47)	Lake Oval
Saturday, 11 May (3:00 pm)	Essendon 6.8 (44)	def. by	Fitzroy 7.5 (47)	East Melbourne Cricket Ground
Saturday, 11 May (3:00 pm)	Melbourne 7.16 (58)	def.	St Kilda 3.3 (21)	Melbourne Cricket Ground

Round 4

	Round 4
Saturday, 18 May (3:00 pm)	Carlton 4.3 (27)	def.	South Melbourne 3.7 (25)	Princes Park
Saturday, 18 May (3:00 pm)	Collingwood 6.8 (44)	def.	Melbourne 3.4 (22)	Victoria Park
Saturday, 18 May (3:00 pm)	Geelong 4.10 (34)	def.	Essendon 4.6 (30)	Corio Oval
Saturday, 18 May (3:00 pm)	Fitzroy 15.16 (106)	def.	St Kilda 3.5 (23)	Brunswick Street Oval

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

1901 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Geelong	17	14	3	0	853	597	142.88	56
2	Essendon (P)	17	12	5	0	1085	582	186.43	48
3	Collingwood	17	12	5	0	917	579	158.38	48
4	Fitzroy	17	9	7	1	877	666	131.68	38
5	Melbourne	17	9	7	1	716	610	117.38	38
6	South Melbourne	17	8	9	0	727	730	99.59	32
7	Carlton	17	2	15	0	476	1013	46.99	8
8	St Kilda	17	1	16	0	414	1288	32.14	4
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Semi finals

1st Semi Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Collingwood	2.3	3.5	5.8	6.9 (45)
Geelong	0.2	1.3	3.4	3.6 (24)

Crowd: 10,000 at EMCG, 31 August 1901

2nd Semi Final

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Essendon	0.1	3.2	5.7	6.10 (46)
Fitzroy	2.4	2.6	3.8	6.9 (45)

Crowd: 15,000 at Victoria Park, 31 August 1901

Grand final

Essendon defeated Collingwood 6.7 (43) to 2.4 (16). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Essendon	3.0	5.2	5.4	6.7 (43)
Collingwood	0.1	0.3	2.3	2.4 (16)

Crowd: 30,000 at Lake Oval, 7 September 1901

Awards

• The 1901 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Fred Hiskins of Essendon with 34 goals.
• St. Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1901.

Notable events

• Fitzroy lodged an official protest against the result of the Second Semi-Final, which it lost against Essendon by one point, alleging that the goal umpire had erred in awarding Essendon's first goal because the ball had hit the post. Later in the week, Fitzroy withdrew its protest against the result, and the scheduling of the Final was not affected;^[1] an inquiry later in September found that the goal umpire had made a mistake, but no change was made to the score after the finding.^[2]
• Against South Melbourne in Round 6, Essendon kicked 17 behinds between its first and second goals. Only Geelong against St. Kilda in 1919 and St. Kilda against Fitzroy in 1921 have beaten this unwanted record. Fred Hiskins kicked ten behinds.
• In the last home-and-away match between South Melbourne and Geelong, field umpire Henry "Ivo" Crapp experiments with clearly calling out his decisions.
• In Essendon's "Grand Final" victory against Collingwood, Albert Thurgood kicks three of Essendon's six goals. One of his goals was scored with an 86-yard (79 m.) drop-kick, and another (measured immediately after the match) was scored with a 93-yard (85 m.) place-kick into a strong head wind.
• VFL instituted the original Argus system to determine the season's premiers.

References

1. "Football - The Goal Umpiring Question". The Argus. 12 September 1901. p. 7.
2. "The Essendon-Fitzroy Football Match". The Argus. 24 September 1901. p. 6.

• 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

External links

• 1901 Season - AFL Tables