The1906 VFL season was the tenth season of theVictorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level seniorAustralian 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-weekfinals series featuring the top four clubs.
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 VFLPremiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of theamended "Argus system".
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 theBallarat Football Association 10.10 (70) at theMelbourne 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 fromEssendon,South Melbourne andGeelong, 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 theBendigo Football Association 15.14 (104) d. 2.2 (14) at the Upper Reserve in Bendigo.[3]
In Round 8,St Kilda formally protested the result of its five point loss againstFitzroy, 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 clubNorwood'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 ofCarlton was the first VFL player to score 50 goals in a season.
^"Football – Last Saturday's actions".Table Talk. Melbourne, VIC. 28 June 1906. p. 27.
^"World of Sport – Football".The Herald. Melbourne, VIC. 10 August 1906. p. 4.
^"Sporting – Football".The Bendigo Advertiser. Melbourne, VIC. 17 September 1906. p. 6.
^"Victorian Football League – protests dismissed".The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 21 July 1906. p. 15.
^"A football dispute – League and Association".The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 2 August 1906. p. 3.
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
