| 1929 VFA premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Northcote 1st premiership |
| Minor premiers | Northcote 1st minor premiership |
The1929 VFA season was the 51st season of theVictorian Football Association (VFA), anAustralian rules football competition played in the state ofVictoria.
Northcote won theVFA premiership for the first time, after defeatingPort Melbourne by 42 points in the1929 VFA Grand Final.
Two new clubs −Oakleigh andSandringham − entered the VFA, bringing the size of the Association to twelve clubs (the largest it had been since1896).[1] This was the last change to the Association membership until 1951.
In November 1928, theOakleigh Football Club applied to join the Association. Oakleigh had been a successful club in the Sub-District Association, had a good quality ground, the growing suburb of Oakleigh provided the team strong support, and the club had been previously considered for Association membership. Oakleigh's application was accepted unanimously.[2][3]
The first steps towards establishing a semi-professional football team from theSandringham area were made in 1927, with theBlack Rock Football Club (Black Rock Amateurs), the Hampton Football Club, the Sandringham Amateur Football Club and the Sandringham District Football Club discussing the viability of amalgamating to form a team in the VFA.[4] The proposal failed after a meeting of club representatives on 17 February 1927 despite Sandringham Amateurs "unreservedly" favouring the concept, as Black Rock was unable to field a team, Hampton opposed the merger on the grounds of losing local identity, and Sandringham District wanted at least three clubs involved.[5] All four clubs competed in theMetropolitan Amateur Football Association (MAFA) for the1927 season.[6] On 15 August 1927, four other clubs merged to form the Sandringham Football Club.[7]
On 17 February 1928, Sandringham, Sandringham District and the Sandringham United Football Club amalgamated to form a new Sandringham Football Club.[8][9] This was, however, effectively a continuation of the Sandringham Amateurs.[10][11] The club entered two teams in theMAFA and one team in theFederal Football Association (FFA) junior competition for the 1928 season.[12][13] The second Sandringham team in the MAFA (known as Sandringham B) withdrew fromC Section in August 1928 after having a record score kicked against them.[14][15]
Sandringham was told by the VFA in November 1928 that it would be admitted into the competition if it obtained permission to build a fence aroundBeach Road Oval; the lack of a fence had prevented the club from entering for the1928 VFA season.[16][17] In January 1929, theSandringham Council supported a bid from an (apparently new) senior Sandringham Football Club to enter the VFA.[18][19][20] The bid was successful, and Sandringham was accepted into the Association on 4 February 1929.[21][22][23]
Despite the admission, the club still faced a challenge prior to its first game.[24] Sandringham applied for the use of Beach Road Oval for itsreserves team (Second Eighteen) on Saturdays, but Sandringham Amateurs − returning to the MAFA for the1929 season − also applied for its use, having played at the ground for 20 years.[25][26] Sandringham Amateurs requested for use on alternate Saturdays and during the week for training purposes, while Sandringham said its VFA bid would have to be abandoned if it did not have access to the ground.[27][28] Ultimately, Sandringham Council choose to allow the Amateurs to continue using the ground.[29][30] Sandringham'sVFA reserves team instead played its home games at Tulip Street Reserve.[31][32] The club wore the colours of gold, black and blue, taken from Sandringham Amateurs, Black Rock and Hampton.[33]To accommodate a balanced fixture with the two extra clubs, the home-and-home season was extended from eighteen matches to twenty-two matches, the longest it had been since fixed-length seasons were first introduced in1894. Then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under theamendedArgus system to determine the premiers for the season.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northcote(P) | 22 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 2099 | 1400 | 66.7 | 68 |
| 2 | Port Melbourne | 22 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 1804 | 1391 | 77.1 | 68 |
| 3 | Preston | 22 | 16 | 6 | 0 | 1992 | 1461 | 73.3 | 64 |
| 4 | Brunswick | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 1931 | 1615 | 83.6 | 62 |
| 5 | Oakleigh | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 1717 | 1381 | 80.4 | 60 |
| 6 | Coburg | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 1726 | 1476 | 85.5 | 58 |
| 7 | Yarraville | 22 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 1804 | 1636 | 90.7 | 44 |
| 8 | Williamstown | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 1473 | 1605 | 109.0 | 36 |
| 9 | Brighton | 22 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 1716 | 1805 | 105.2 | 34 |
| 10 | Prahran | 22 | 5 | 16 | 1 | 1543 | 1768 | 114.6 | 22 |
| 11 | Camberwell | 22 | 2 | 20 | 0 | 1438 | 2347 | 163.2 | 8 |
| 12 | Sandringham | 22 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 1336 | 2803 | 209.8 | 4 |
| Semifinals | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 14 September | Port Melbourne 10.15 (75) | def. | Brunswick 9.14 (68) | Coburg Cricket Ground (crowd: 17,000) | [35] |
| Saturday, 21 September | Northcote 9.10 (64) | def. | Preston 7.8 (50) | Brunswick Cricket Ground (crowd: 13,500) | [36] |
| Final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 28 September | Northcote 9.17 (71) | drew with | Port Melbourne 10.11 (71) | Coburg Cricket Ground (crowd: 13,500) | [37] |
| Saturday, 5 October | Northcote 6.15 (51) | def. by | Port Melbourne 8.7 (55) | Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 21,217) | [38] |
| 1929 VFA Grand Final | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 12 October | Northcote | def. | Port Melbourne | Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 17,304) | [39] |
| 3.3 (21) 10.10 (70) 12.13 (85) 15.21 (111) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 2.5 (17) 5.5 (35) 8.9 (57) 10.9 (69) | Umpires: McKinnon | ||
| Pruser 4,Seymour 3, Cole 2,Gray 2,Heenan,Koop, Milne,Rowe | Goals | Kuhlken 4, Plumridge 2, Carpenter, Hyde, Perrett, Skilton | |||
| Wilson (hip) | Injuries | Perrett (ankles), Crompton (hip), Crossan (arm) | |||
| Towers, for fighting with Lovett | Reports | Lovett, for fighting with Towers | |||