1902 VFA season

The 1902 Victorian Football Association season was the 26th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Richmond Football Club; it was the first premiership in the club's history.

1902 premiership season
Richmond FC, premiers
Teams9
PremiersRichmond
(1st premiership)

Ladder

The premiership was decided on the basis of the best record across sixteen rostered matches, with each club playing the others twice; in the event of a tie for first place, a playoff match would have been held to determine the premiership.

Richmond and Port Melbourne were in a close battle for the premiership, and for the second consecutive season the clubs had equal records entering the final weekend of games, making a playoff match a likely outcome. However, in the matches on the final Saturday, Richmond 7.10 (52) defeated Prahran 3.9 (27), and Port Melbourne 3.9 (27) lost to Williamstown 7.3 (45), so the premiership was decided in Richmond's favour without a playoff match.[1]

1902 VFA Ladder
TEAMPWLDPFPAPTS
1 Richmond (P) 16 15 1 0 814 346 60
2 Port Melbourne 16 14 2 0 774 456 56
3 North Melbourne 16 10 5 1 682 540 42
4 Williamstown 16 8 8 0 673 587 32
5 Footscray 16 7 9 0 672 584 28
6 Essendon Town 16 5 10 1 484 732 22
7 West Melbourne 16 5 11 0 482 704 20
8 Prahran 16 5 11 0 604 818 20
9 Brunswick 16 2 14 0 483 911 8
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points Source[1]

Notable events
  • On 9 August at the Port Melbourne Cricket Ground, Port Melbourne 9.22 (76) defeated Footscray 0.0 (0), the latter failing even to attempt a shot on goal in the match.[2] As of 2015, it is the only time a club has been held scoreless in a senior Association match since the modern scoring system was adopted in 1897.[3]
  • On Thursday 4 September, a match was played between a combined Association team and a combined League team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The match was played for the benefit of Fred McGinis, who had played for Melbourne in both competitions but through illness had become almost blind during the year; a crowd of around 7,000 attended, and more than £200 was raised. The League 9.17 (71) defeated the Association 4.3 (27) by 44 points. It was the first time that teams representing the rival competitions had played against each other since the breakaway of the League in 1897; another would not be played until 1915.[4]

References
  1. Old Boy (1 September 1902). "The Association Clubs - Richmond Premiers". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. p. 9.
  2. "The Association Games". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 11 August 1902. p. 11.
  3. Atkinson, Graeme (1982). Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Australian Rules Football ... The Five Mile Press, Melbourne. ISBN 0-86788-009-0..
  4. Old Boy (5 September 1924). "Football – M'Ginis benefit match". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. p. 8.
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