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The 1928 VFL season was the 32nd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs and ran from 21 April to 29 September, comprising an 18-match home-and-away season followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.
| 1928 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Date | 21 April—29 September 1928 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Collingwood 7th premiership |
| Runners-up | Richmond 4th runners-up result |
| Minor premiers | Collingwood 10th minor premiership |
| Brownlow Medallist | Ivor Warne-Smith (Melbourne) 8 votes |
| Leading goalkicker medallist | Gordon Coventry (Collingwood) 78 goals |
| Attendance | |
| Matches played | 112 |
| Total attendance | 2,053,432 (18,334 per match) |
| Highest (H&A) | 41,402 (round 15, Melbourne v Carlton) |
| Highest (finals) | 66,381 (semi-final, Richmond v Carlton) |
Collingwood won the premiership, defeating Richmond by 33 points in the 1928 VFL grand final; it was Collingwood's second consecutive premiership and seventh VFL premiership overall. Collingwood also won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 15–3 win–loss record. Melbourne's Ivor Warne-Smith won his second Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and Collingwood's Gordon Coventry won his third consecutive leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.
In 1928, 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 18 rounds; matches 12 to 18 were the "home-and-way reverse" of matches 1 to 7.
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1928 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
Round 18
| (P) | Premiers |
| Qualified for finals |
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collingwood (P) | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 1540 | 1144 | 134.6 | 60 |
| 2 | Richmond | 18 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1640 | 1228 | 133.6 | 56 |
| 3 | Melbourne | 18 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1507 | 1233 | 122.2 | 56 |
| 4 | Carlton | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1598 | 1316 | 121.4 | 44 |
| 5 | Essendon | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1441 | 1275 | 113.0 | 44 |
| 6 | St Kilda | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 1499 | 1470 | 102.0 | 44 |
| 7 | Footscray | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 1465 | 1340 | 109.3 | 36 |
| 8 | Fitzroy | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 1480 | 1675 | 88.4 | 28 |
| 9 | Geelong | 18 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 1336 | 1343 | 99.5 | 24 |
| 10 | South Melbourne | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1461 | 1709 | 85.5 | 20 |
| 11 | North Melbourne | 18 | 5 | 13 | 0 | 1058 | 1563 | 67.7 | 20 |
| 12 | Hawthorn | 18 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 1171 | 1900 | 61.6 | 0 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 79.6
Source: AFL Tables
All of the 1928 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.
Semi-finals
Grand final
- In Round 4, Footscray beat Geelong for the first time in its history after 25 winless matches (19 in the VFA for two draws and 17 losses and six in the VFL for six losses) over 14 years of competition (1886, 1888–1896, and 1925–1928).
- "Player Blows Umpire's Whistle. Something never before seen at a football match occurred at [the round 6 match between Hawthorn and Footscray at] Hawthorn on Saturday [26 May 1928]. The field umpire was knocked out when the ball struck him on the face, but a Footscray player dashed down the field with the ball. A Hawthorn player took in the situation at a glance and as the umpire was unable to rise this player rushed to his side, seized his whistle and blew a blast which stopped the play. -- The Herald, 1 June 1928.[1]
- One of the most unusual games was played at Corio Oval in round 6, between Fitzroy and Geelong. The game finished with Fitzroy scoring 2.27 (39): they hit the post five times, and only scored their second goal in time on of the fourth quarter. With 25 more behinds than goals, this remains the least accurate performance from any team by this metric. Geelong, on the other hand, scored 19.8 (122), giving them two fewer scoring shots than the Maroons, but they won by 83 points. As of 2020, this remains the record winning margin for a team with fewer scoring shots than their opponent.
- In the round 7 match between Richmond and Geelong, played under atrocious weather conditions on a slushy, wet Punt Road Oval, Richmond players wore fingerless gloves (mittens) to help them control the slippery football.
- On Saturday 16 June, three separate VFL combined teams played representative matches at three different locations: the first VFL team beat a Combined Ovens and Murray Football League side 16.15 (111) to 15.14 (104) at Wangaratta, Victoria, the second beat a Combined New South Wales Australian Football Association side 26.13 (169) to 14.11 (95) at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and the third drew with a Combined South Australian Football League team 13.10 (88) to 11.22 (88) in Adelaide once an incorrectly attributed behind had been deducted from Victoria's scoreboard score by the goal umpires.
- In round 17, Melbourne lodged an official protest against the result of its one-point loss against St Kilda, arguing that Bert Smedley's winning goal was kicked about seven seconds after the final bell had rung.[2] The timekeepers agreed that the goal had been scored after the bell, but the protest was dismissed as league rules specified that the field umpire was the sole judge of the sound of the bell.[3]
- The second semi-final match between Collingwood and Melbourne finished in a draw, the first of eight draws in the history of VFL/AFL finals. A full replay was staged the following week, which was won by Collingwood. The draw meant that Richmond, who had won the first semi-final, endured a second consecutive bye week before the final.
- The 1928 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
- The VFL's leading goalkicker was Gordon Coventry of Collingwood with 89 goals.
- The winner of the 1928 Brownlow Medal was Ivor Warne-Smith of Melbourne with 8 votes.
- Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1928.
- The seconds premiership was won by Carlton for the third consecutive year. Carlton 18.18 (126) defeated Geelong 14.11 (95) in the final, played as a stand-alone game on Thursday 27 September (Show Day holiday) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 8,000.[4] Carlton received permanent possession of the seconds premiership trophy, the Rosen Cup, as the first team to win it three times.[5]
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