1880 VFA season

The 1880 Victorian Football Association season was the fourth season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club. It was the club's third VFA premiership, and the last in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1878 to 1880; Geelong lost two matches for the season, its first losses since 1877, having been unbeaten through the previous two years.

1880 VFA premiership season
Teams8
PremiersGeelong
(3rd premiership)

Association membership

Between the 1879 and 1880 seasons, the Albert-park and South Melbourne football clubs amalgamated, with the merged entity known as South Melbourne.[1] East Melbourne entered the senior ranks of the association. As such, the senior membership of the Association remained at eight clubs.

1880 VFA premiership

The 1880 premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club, which finished with a record of 9–1–2 in senior games and 14–2–2 overall. Geelong finished ahead of the newly amalgamated South Melbourne club, whose senior record of 9–2–3 was similarly meritorious, but whose overall record of 13–5–2 fell short of Geelong's. Carlton finished third.

Club senior records

The below table details the playing records of the eight clubs in all matches during the 1880 season. Two sets of results are given:

  • Senior results: based only upon games played against other VFA senior clubs
  • Total results: including senior games, and games against intercolonial, up-country and junior clubs.

The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Australasian newspaper. The VFA had no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised; however, the top three placings were later acknowledged in publications including the Football Record and are considered official.[2]

Some scoring data is missing from the below table based on the availability of information.

1880 VFA Results
Senior ResultsTotal Results
TEAMPWLDPWLDGFGA
1 Geelong (P) 12 9 1 2 18 14 2 2 81 17
2 South Melbourne 14 9 2 3 20 13 5 2 52 17
3 Carlton 12 7 2 3 22 16 2 4 88 20
Melbourne 15 4 4 7 22 9 5 3 43 27
Hotham 11 4 4 3 19 10 4 5 30 17
Essendon 15 3 7 4 19 8 7 4 39
West Melbourne 9 1 7 1 14 4 9 1 18
East Melbourne 11 0 10 1 22 6 15 1
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, (P) = Premiers Source:[1]

Awards

Intercolonial matches

An Association representative team toured South Australia in August, playing three intercolonial matches – two at even strength against the South Australian Football Association representative team, and one against a team of twenty-three South Australian-born players – and winning all three. J. Gibson (South Melbourne) served as captain of the Association team.[3]

1880 Intercolonial Matches
Saturday, 14 August South Australia 2.7 def. by Victoria 5.13 Adelaide Oval (crowd: 4,000) [4]
Wednesday, 18 August South Australian-born (23) 1.1 def. by Victoria 5.17 Adelaide Oval (crowd: 1,500) [3]
Saturday, 21 August South Australia 0.6 def. by Victoria 3.21 Adelaide Oval (crowd: 2,500) [5]

References
  1. Peter Pindar (16 October 1880). "The Football Season of 1880". The Australasian. XXIX (759). Melbourne, VIC. p. 492.. The microfilm version of this reference kept at the State Library of Victoria was missing a few Goals For and Goals Against numbers near the margin, which accounts for the information which is missing from this article.
  2. Caroline Wilson (20 June 2014). "History of the AFL could be turned on its head". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  3. "Intercolonial Football Match". South Australian Register. Adelaide, SA. 19 August 1880. p. 6.
  4. "The Intercolonial Football Match". South Australian Register. Adelaide, SA. 16 August 1880. p. 6.
  5. "Intercolonial Football Match". The South Australian Advertiser. Adelaide, SA. 23 August 1880. p. 6.
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