1906 VFL season explained

Year:	1906
Date:	5 May—22 September 1906
Teams:	8
Premcount:	1
Mpcount:	1
Leadinggoalkicker:	Mick Grace
Goals:	50
Matches:	71

The 1906 VFL season was the tenth 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 5 May to 22 September, comprising a 17-match home-and-away season followed by a two-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.

won the premiership, defeating by 49 points in the 1906 VFL grand final; it was Carlton's first VFL premiership. Carlton also won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 14–3 win–loss record. Carlton's Mick Grace won the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker, becoming the first player to kick 50 goals in a VFL season.

Background

In 1906, 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 17 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1906 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Home-and-away season

Round 1

|- bgcolor="#CCCCFF"| Home team| Home team score| Away team| Away team score| Venue| Date|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 8.20 (68)| | 1.8 (14)| Brunswick Street Oval| 5 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 8.12 (60)| | 9.13 (67)| EMCG| 5 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 12.19 (91)| | 5.7 (37)| Victoria Park| 5 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 12.11 (83)| | 8.8 (56)| Princes Park| 5 May 1906

Round 2

|- bgcolor="#CCCCFF"| Home team| Home team score| Away team| Away team score| Venue| Date|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 8.5 (53)| | 10.13 (73)| MCG| 12 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 5.12 (42)| | 11.14 (80)| Corio Oval| 12 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 12.5 (77)| | 8.9 (57)| Lake Oval| 12 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 5.5 (35)| | 15.10 (100)| Junction Oval| 12 May 1906

Round 3

|- bgcolor="#CCCCFF"| Home team| Home team score| Away team| Away team score| Venue| Date|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 10.16 (76)| | 6.6 (42)| EMCG| 19 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 16.10 (106)| | 6.7 (43)| Princes Park| 19 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 10.14 (74)| | 9.7 (61)| Lake Oval| 19 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 7.7 (49)| | 14.8 (92)| Brunswick Street Oval| 19 May 1906

Round 4

|- bgcolor="#CCCCFF"| Home team| Home team score| Away team| Away team score| Venue| Date|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 5.9 (39)| | 5.4 (34)| MCG| 26 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 4.7 (31)| | 8.9 (57)| Corio Oval| 26 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 6.8 (44)| | 1.7 (13)| Junction Oval| 26 May 1906|- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"| | 4.13 (37)| | 8.9 (57)| Victoria Park| 26 May 1906

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Pre-sectional ladder

style=width:1em bgcolor=E6E6FA		Section A
style=width:1em bgcolor=FEEAD3		Section B

|- style=background:#E6E6FA| 1 || align=left | || 14 || 11 || 3 || 0 || 922 || 641 || 143.8 || 44|- style=background:#FEEAD3| 2 || align=left | || 14 || 10 || 4 || 0 || 827 || 590 || 140.2 || 40|- style=background:#E6E6FA| 3 || align=left | || 14 || 10 || 4 || 0 || 832 || 629 || 132.3 || 40|- style=background:#FEEAD3| 4 || align=left | || 14 || 9 || 5 || 0 || 1020 || 728 || 140.1 || 36|- style=background:#E6E6FA| 5 || align=left | || 14 || 6 || 8 || 0 || 790 || 800 || 98.8 || 24|- style=background:#FEEAD3| 6 || align=left | || 14 || 5 || 9 || 0 || 603 || 720 || 83.8 || 20|- style=background:#E6E6FA| 7 || align=left | || 14 || 4 || 10 || 0 || 631 || 1003 || 62.9 || 16|- style=background:#FEEAD3| 8 || align=left | || 14 || 1 || 13 || 0 || 584 || 1098 || 53.2 || 4|}

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

Round 17 (Sectional round 3)

Ladder

(P)	Premiers
bgcolor=FFFFBB		Qualified for finals

|- style=background:#FFFFBB| 1 || align=left | (P) || 17 || 14 || 3 || 0 || 1171 || 763 || 153.5 || 56|- style=background:#FFFFBB| 2 || align=left | || 17 || 13 || 4 || 0 || 1058 || 690 || 153.3 || 52|- style=background:#FFFFBB| 3 || align=left | || 17 || 11 || 6 || 0 || 1232 || 878 || 140.3 || 44|- style=background:#FFFFBB| 4 || align=left | || 17 || 10 || 7 || 0 || 959 || 833 || 115.1 || 40|-| 5 || align=left | || 17 || 8 || 9 || 0 || 965 || 966 || 99.9 || 32|-| 6 || align=left | || 17 || 6 || 11 || 0 || 796 || 904 || 88.1 || 24|-| 7 || align=left | || 17 || 5 || 12 || 0 || 775 || 1206 || 64.3 || 20|-| 8 || align=left | || 17 || 1 || 16 || 0 || 681 || 1397 || 48.7 || 4|}

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 56.2
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Grand final

See main article: 1906 VFL Grand Final.

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Carlton	3.2	7.4	9.4	15.4 (94)
Fitzroy	1.6	1.7	6.8	6.9 (45)

Season notes

In Round 4, St Kilda defeated Essendon for the first time in its history after 36 winless matches (15 in the VFA for four draws and 11 losses and 21 in the VFL for one draw and 20 losses) over 20 years of competition (1878 and 1888–1906).
On Saturday 23 June, between Rounds 7 and 8, the VFL representative team 17.13 (115) defeated the Ballarat Football Association 10.10 (70) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Frank Caine kicked seven goals for Victoria.^[1] In the return game, held at the City Oval in Ballarat during the second week of Round 13 (11 August), the BFA 11.7 (73) defeated the VFL 6.7 (43); this VFL team was limited to players from, and, with the other five teams either playing or on interstate tours at the time.^[2] On 15 September, the weekend of the semi-finals, a VFL team selected from non-finalists defeated the Bendigo Football Association 15.14 (104) d. 2.2 (14) at the Upper Reserve in Bendigo.^[3]
In Round 8, formally protested the result of its five point loss against, on the grounds that the timekeeper had rung the final bell thirty seconds prematurely. The protest was dismissed three weeks later owing to a lack of evidence.^[4]
A vacant Saturday was originally scheduled on 11 August in the fixture between Rounds 13 and 14, to accommodate the second game against Ballarat and to allow clubs to complete interstate tours. However, after South Australian club Norwood's tour was brought forward, the VFL turned Round 13 into a split round at less than two weeks notice, postponing the Carlton vs Fitzroy and St Kilda vs Melbourne games by a week.^[5]
Mick Grace of Carlton was the first VFL player to score 50 goals in a season.

Awards

The 1906 VFL Premiership team was Carlton.
The VFL's leading goalkicker was Mick Grace of Carlton with 50 goals.
Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1906.

References

Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998.
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.

Sources

1906 VFL season at AFL Tables
1906 VFL season at Australian Football

Notes and References

News: Table Talk. Football – Last Saturday's actions. 28 June 1906. 27. Melbourne, VIC.
News: The Herald. World of Sport – Football. 10 August 1906. 4. Melbourne, VIC.
News: The Bendigo Advertiser. Sporting – Football. 17 September 1906. 6. Melbourne, VIC.
News: The Argus. Victorian Football League – protests dismissed. 21 July 1906. 15. Melbourne, VIC.
News: The Argus. A football dispute – League and Association. 2 August 1906. 3. Melbourne, VIC.