1879 VFA season

Melbourne FC team

The South Melbourne Football Club entered the senior ranks of the Association in 1879; and, while St Kilda was nominally a senior club to begin the year, it was in a weakened state and dropped out of competition midway through the year.[1]

The status of the Geelong Football Club also changed subtly in 1879. It had been a senior Association club since 1877, but it had played primarily against other provincial teams during 1877 and 1878. In its first premiership year of 1878, it played only four senior matches against metropolitan clubs;[2] in 1879, it played nine senior matches against metropolitan clubs. As such, although there was no formal change in its senior status, Geelong effectively shifted from being a provincial team, to being a provincially based team competing in the metropolitan competition.

The 1879 premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club, the club's second in succession, finishing the season unbeaten with fifteen wins and one match, against West Melbourne, being abandoned as a draw five minutes from half-time after torrential rain swept the ground. Carlton finished second with sixteen wins and drew two draws from twenty-two games, and new senior club South Melbourne finished third.[1]

• The leading goalkicker for the season was George Coulthard (Carlton), who kicked 21 goals.[1]

During 1879, a team representing the South Australian Football Association) toured Victoria, and played two intercolonial matches against an Association representative team; the first on a public holiday Tuesday, and the other on the following Saturday. The games were the first ever intercolonial matches between colony representative teams.

• A night match was staged between Melbourne and Carlton on Wednesday 13 August at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The match was played under electric light, a new invention of which proponents were keen to display the effectiveness, and which had been successfully trialled for night football matches in England during the previous year.[7] The trial in Melbourne proved much less successful, as the field was unevenly illuminated, making it impossible for spectators to see much of the play. A white football was used to make the ball more visible, except for a brief period in the first half when the initial ball deflated and a normal football – which was barely visible in the dim light – was used until it could be replaced. Carlton won the match, which did not count towards the premiership, by the score 3–0 before a crowd of around 5,000.[8][9][10] The match was the second night football match played in Melbourne: a military match between Collingwood Rifles and East Melbourne Artillery had been played on Tuesday 5 August before a crowd of 10,000.[11]
• In the 27 September match between Melbourne and Carlton, Melbourne intended to field Sandilands, a former Geelong player it claimed had moved to Melbourne, entitling him to a residential clearance; Carlton objected, on the understanding that Sandilands was en route to another colony and was therefore not entitled to the residential clearance. When the two clubs reached an impasse on the matter of Sandilands' inclusion, Melbourne left the ground and the match was called off, despite 8,000 spectators already being present.[12]

• Wyoming Seminary vs. Mansfield State Normal (1892), the first night game in American football
• History of Australian rules football in Victoria (1859–1900)
• List of VFA premiers