1912 VFA season

The 1912 VFA season was the 36th season of the Victorian Football Association (VFA). The premiership was won for the second consecutive time by Essendon (Association), after it defeated Footscray in the Grand Final by 21 points on 28 September. It was the club's second and last VFA premiership.

1912 premiership season
Teams	10
Premiers	Essendon (A.) 2nd premiership
Minor premiers	Footscray 2nd minor premiership
← 1911 1913 →

Association membership

After several years of unsuccessful on-field performances by both clubs, the Association was keen to see an amalgamation between the Preston and Northcote clubs;^[1] amalgamations between the two clubs, which represented neighbouring northern suburbs of Melbourne, had been mooted on several occasions since 1908, even before Northcote had joined the Association.^[2][3] For the first few years of their amalgamation, the club was formally known as the Northcote and Preston Football Club;^[4] but, it played its games in Northcote, retained Northcote's colours, and its team in the VFA was known as Northcote.^[5] The merged entity is considered a continuation of the Northcote Football Club.

At the same time, the Association had been keen for many years to field a team in the inner city, an area historically dominated by League clubs. This vision was finally realised in 1912, with the establishment of the Melbourne City Football Club, which played its games at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[6]

With these two changes, the size of the Association remained constant at ten teams.

Rule changes

The Association reduced the number of players on the field seventeen-a-side to sixteen-a-side in 1912.^[7] The change came only four years after reducing the numbers from eighteen to seventeen in 1908.^[8]

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds, with each club playing the others twice; then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended Argus system to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder

1912 VFA ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Footscray	18	15	3	0	1559	900	173.2	60
2	North Melbourne	18	15	3	0	1269	907	139.9	60
3	Essendon (P)	18	13	5	0	1458	867	168.2	52
4	Brunswick	18	11	7	0	1140	1082	105.4	44
5	Brighton	18	10	8	0	1111	1085	102.4	40
6	Port Melbourne	18	8	10	0	985	1086	90.7	32
7	Williamstown	18	7	11	0	1027	1115	92.1	28
8	Northcote	18	6	12	0	1030	1230	83.7	24
9	Prahran	18	5	13	0	1125	1327	84.8	20
10	Melbourne City	18	0	18	0	762	1866	40.8	0

Source: ^[9]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Finals

	Semi Finals
Saturday, 24 August	North Melbourne 9.6 (60)	drew with	Brunswick 9.6 (60)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 15,000)	[10]
Saturday, 31 August	Footscray 6.12 (48)	def. by	Essendon 10.11 (71)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 20,000)	[11]
Saturday, 7 September	North Melbourne 6.12 (48)	drew with	Brunswick 6.12 (48)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 11,000)	[12]
Saturday, 14 September	North Melbourne 12.11 (83)	def.	Brunswick 9.14 (68)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 11,000)	[13]

	Preliminary Final
Saturday, 21 September	North Melbourne 14.14 (98)	def. by	Essendon 16.6 (102)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 20,000)	[14]

	1912 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 28 September	Footscray	def. by	Essendon	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 25,000)	[15]
	1.2 (8) 2.7 (19) 2.9 (21) 5.11 (41)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	2.3 (15) 3.6 (24) 7.8 (50) 9.8 (62)	Umpires: Kendall
Banbury, Borthwick, Cotton, Craddock, Knight		Goals	Clarke 3, McNamara 3, Hoare, Lewis, Sevior

Notable events

Interstate matches

A representative Association team toured Broken Hill in June and July, playing two matches against a Barrier Ranges Football Association representative team. Jack McKenzie (Brunswick) was captain of the Association team.

	1912 Interstate Matches
Saturday, 29 June	Barrier Ranges 8.12 (60)	def. by	Victoria (VFA) 9.16 (70)	Jubilee Oval, Broken Hill (crowd: 5,000)	[16]
Wednesday, 3 July (morning)	Barrier Ranges 8.10 (58)	def.	Victoria (VFA) 6.6 (42)	Jubilee Oval, Broken Hill	[17]

Other notable events

• Dave McNamara (Essendon) set two new Association goalkicking records during the season. On 20 July, he kicked eighteen goals against Melbourne City, setting a new record for most goals in a game.^[18] Then he set a new record for most goals in a season, kicking 107 goals in all matches (including finals) to break his own record of 81 goals from 1911. So dominant was McNamara that he kicked more goals than the next best two players combined.^[19]
• The semi-final between North Melbourne and Brunswick on 24 August finished as a draw, the first ever VFA final to finish as such. A replay was scheduled for two weeks later (the week after the other scheduled semi-final). The replay was also drawn, so another replay was held the following week.
• The premiership trophy, which had first been presented in 1910, was awarded permanently to the Essendon (A.) Football Club.^[15] The trophy was to be awarded to the first team to win it either three times overall, or twice consecutively.^[20]

References

1. "Preston's weak team". The Argus. Melbourne. 16 September 1911. p. 17.
2. "Football – City of Melbourne Club". The Argus. Melbourne. 3 November 1908. p. 7.
3. Old Boy (9 September 1910). "Football – the semi-finals". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 4.
4. "Football – Northcote and Preston Club". The Argus. Melbourne. 14 March 1913. p. 9.
5. "Football". Weekly Times. Melbourne, VIC. 20 April 1912. p. 22.
6. "Brevities". The Independent. Footscray, VIC. 25 November 1911. p. 2.
7. Old Boy (4 April 1912). "Thursday, 4 April, 1912". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
8. "Football Reform – seventeen a-side". The Argus. Melbourne. 18 April 1908. p. 12.
9. Old Boy (19 August 1912). "Football – South Melbourne's victory". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 10.
10. Old Boy (26 August 1912). "Association Semi-Final – a drawn game". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 16.
11. Old Boy (2 September 1912). "Association Semi-Final – Footscray beaten". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 5.
12. Old Boy (9 September 1912). "The second tie – a desperate game". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 5.
13. Old Boy (16 September 1912). "Association Semi-Final – the third trial". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 11.
14. Old Boy (23 September 1912). "The Association Game – Essendon's great victory". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
15. Old Boy (30 September 1912). "The Association – Essendon premiers". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
16. "Interstate football". The Barrier Miner. Broken Hill, NSW. 1 July 1912. p. 6.
17. "Victorians at Broken Hill". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 July 1912. p. 10.
18. "The country week". Western Mail. Perth, WA. 27 July 1912. p. 29.
19. Old Boy (30 September 1912). "Leading Goalkickers". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
20. "Grand Final – North Melbourne v. Brunswick". North Melbourne Courier and West Melbourne Chronicle. Melbourne. 14 October 1910. p. 3.