The1923 VFL season was the 27th season of theVictorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level seniorAustralian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured nine clubs and ran from 5 May to 20 October, comprising a 16-match home-and-away season followed by a four-weekfinals series featuring the top four clubs.
In 1923, the VFL competition had nine 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 (i.e., 16 matches and 2 byes).
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1923 VFLPremiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of theamended "Argus system".
New scoreboards are erected at each home ground by the VFL's publication,The Football Record. With the help of a key published in that Saturday afternoon'sRecord, spectators can decipher the coded quarter-by-quarter scores of the other three matches as they appear on these scoreboards throughout the afternoon.
After the round 13 match againstEssendon atWindy Hill, at an after-match function in the Essendon rooms,Carlton roverGeorge Bolt and backmanJack Morrissey (who had not played in that game) came to blows. The Carlton Committee met the next day and suspended both players indefinitely. Bolt never played for Carlton again (he reappeared with Hawthorn in 1925, then he played for North Melbourne in 1926 and 1927); Jack Morrissey played his next game for Carlton on 27 June 1925 (round 9).
The 1922 Victorian Interstate team captain, and Carlton star ruckman,Bert Boromeo was overheard being intensely critical of the Carlton captain-coachHorrie Clover at the same function. The Carlton Committee was upset at such behaviour occurring on the premises of another club, and suspended Boromeo immediately; eventually, in 1926, Carlton cleared Boromeo to Richmond for whom he played 14 games.
FollowingGeelong's two-point loss againstEssendon in Round 17, Geelong protested the result and sought that the game be replayed, arguing that the game had been played short of its full duration because the umpire had failed to blowtime on on several occasions. Although the timekeepers agreed that the final quarter had been played at least 90 seconds short of full time, the protest was dismissed.[1]
The Essendon Premiership team was known as the "Mosquito Fleet", due to the number of small, very fast players in the side. Six were 5'6" (167 cm) or less:Charlie Hardy 5'1" (155 cm), who played his first VFL game at the age of 34,George Shorten 5'5" (165 cm),Jack Garden 5'5" (165 cm),Frank Maher 5'6" (167.5 cm),Vince Irwin 5'6" (167.5 cm), andJimmy Sullivan 5'6" (167.5 cm).
In Round 10 against St. Kilda, Essendon kicked the season's lowest score, but they still won the premiership. They became the first premier team to have also kicked the season's lowest score, an occurrence replicated in 1968, 1970, 1992 and 1995.
The Challenge Final match had to be postponed for a week as theMelbourne Cricket Ground was under water due to intense rain. This meant that the Challenge Final was played on Saturday 20 October 1923,Caulfield Cup Day.
Hogan, P.,The Tigers Of Old, The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996.ISBN0-646-18748-1
Maplestone, M.,Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872–1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996.ISBN0-9591740-2-8
Rogers, S. & Brown, A.,Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998.ISBN0-670-90809-6
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.ISBN0-670-86814-0
