The 1902 VFL season was the sixth season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 3 May until 20 September, and comprised a 17-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.
1902 VFL premiership season | |
---|---|
Teams | 8 |
Premiers | Collingwood 1st premiership |
Minor premiers | Collingwood 1st minor premiership |
Leading Goalkicker Medallist | Charlie Baker (St Kilda) |
Matches played | 72 |
Highest | 35,202 |
The premiership was won by the Collingwood Football Club for the first time, after it defeated Essendon by 33 points in the 1902 VFL Grand Final.
In 1902, 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 1902 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended Argus system.
Round 1 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saturday, 3 May (3:00 pm) | Carlton 6.4 (40) | def. by | Geelong 11.12 (78) | Princes Park | |
Saturday, 3 May (3:00 pm) | South Melbourne 3.7 (25) | def. by | Collingwood 5.13 (43) | Lake Oval | |
Saturday, 3 May (3:00 pm) | Essendon 5.9 (39) | def. by | Fitzroy 7.10 (52) | East Melbourne Cricket Ground | |
Saturday, 3 May (3:00 pm) | Melbourne 15.15 (105) | def. | St Kilda 7.9 (51) | Melbourne Cricket Ground | |
Section A | |
Section B |
# | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Collingwood | 14 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 838 | 461 | 181.8 | 48 |
2 | Essendon | 14 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 690 | 506 | 136.4 | 40 |
3 | Fitzroy | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 783 | 553 | 141.6 | 36 |
4 | Melbourne | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 618 | 610 | 101.3 | 28 |
5 | Geelong | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 604 | 667 | 90.6 | 28 |
6 | Carlton | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 494 | 653 | 75.7 | 24 |
7 | South Melbourne | 14 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 522 | 535 | 97.6 | 20 |
8 | St Kilda | 14 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 408 | 972 | 42.0 | 0 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Source: AFL Tables
(P) | Premiers |
Qualified for finals |
# | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Collingwood (P) | 17 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 1121 | 562 | 199.5 | 60 |
2 | Essendon | 17 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 885 | 625 | 141.6 | 52 |
3 | Fitzroy | 17 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 914 | 726 | 125.9 | 40 |
4 | Melbourne | 17 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 800 | 735 | 108.8 | 36 |
5 | South Melbourne | 17 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 700 | 704 | 99.4 | 28 |
6 | Carlton | 17 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 594 | 770 | 77.1 | 28 |
7 | Geelong | 17 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 702 | 914 | 76.8 | 28 |
8 | St Kilda | 17 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 490 | 1170 | 41.9 | 0 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 45.6
Source: AFL Tables
Grand final | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Saturday, 20 September (2:50 pm) | Collingwood 9.6 (60) | def. | Essendon 3.9 (27) | Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 35,202) | |
The following table can be sorted from biggest winning margin to biggest losing margin for each round. If two or more matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage (i.e. the lowest-scoring winning team is ranked highest and the lowest-scoring losing team is ranked lowest). Opponents are listed above the margins and home matches are in bold.
By having the best overall record for the season following the second week of finals, Collingwood won the right to challenge the preliminary final winner for the premiership.[1]
+ | Win | Qualified for finals | |
- | Loss | X | Bye |
Draw | Eliminated |
Team | Home-and-away season | Ladder | Finals series | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | SF | PF | GF | ||
Carlton | GEE -38 |
SM -53 |
STK +8 |
MEL -11 |
ESS -20 |
FIT -38 |
COL -38 |
GEE +4 |
SM +13 |
STK +23 |
MEL -3 |
ESS +17 |
FIT +14 |
COL -37 |
MEL -34 |
STK +23 |
ESS -6 |
6 (7–10–0) |
|||
Collingwood | SM +18 |
MEL +17 |
GEE +61 |
FIT -33 |
STK +7 |
ESS -25 |
CAR +38 |
SM +36 |
MEL +30 |
GEE +40 |
FIT +23 |
STK +117 |
ESS +11 |
CAR +37 |
SM +40 |
FIT +53 |
GEE +89 |
1 (15–2–0) |
FIT -16 |
X | ESS +33 |
Essendon | FIT -13 |
GEE +53 |
MEL +23 |
SM +3 |
CAR +20 |
COL +25 |
STK +24 |
FIT +6 |
GEE -19 |
MEL +21 |
SM +7 |
CAR -17 |
COL -11 |
STK +62 |
STK +49 |
MEL +21 |
CAR +6 |
2 (13–4–0) |
MEL +10 |
FIT +11 |
COL -33 |
Fitzroy | ESS +13 |
STK +68 |
SM +6 |
COL +33 |
MEL +13 |
CAR +38 |
GEE +36 |
ESS -6 |
STK +61 |
SM -12 |
COL -23 |
MEL -4 |
CAR -14 |
GEE +21 |
GEE +15 |
COL -53 |
SM -4 |
3 (10–7–0) |
COL +16 |
ESS -11 |
|
Geelong | CAR +38 |
ESS -53 |
COL -61 |
STK +44 |
SM +17 |
MEL +1 |
FIT -36 |
CAR -4 |
ESS +19 |
COL -40 |
STK +16 |
SM -10 |
MEL +27 |
FIT -21 |
FIT -15 |
SM -45 |
COL -89 |
7 (7–10–0) |
|||
Melbourne | STK +54 |
COL -17 |
ESS -23 |
CAR +11 |
FIT -13 |
GEE -1 |
SM +1 |
STK +31 |
COL -30 |
ESS -21 |
CAR +3 |
FIT +4 |
GEE -27 |
SM +36 |
CAR +34 |
ESS -21 |
STK +44 |
4 (9–8–0) |
ESS -10 |
||
South Melbourne | COL -18 |
CAR +53 |
FIT -6 |
ESS -3 |
GEE -17 |
STK +34 |
MEL -1 |
COL -36 |
CAR -13 |
FIT +12 |
ESS -7 |
GEE +10 |
STK +15 |
MEL -36 |
COL -40 |
GEE +45 |
FIT +4 |
5 (7–10–0) |
|||
St Kilda | MEL -54 |
FIT -68 |
CAR -8 |
GEE -44 |
COL -7 |
SM -34 |
ESS -24 |
MEL -31 |
FIT -61 |
CAR -23 |
GEE -16 |
COL -117 |
SM -15 |
ESS -62 |
ESS -49 |
CAR -23 |
MEL -44 |
8 (0–17–0) |
Source: AFL Tables