1923 VFA season

The 1923 Victorian Football Association season was the 45th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club, after it defeated Port Melbourne by 14 points in the Grand Final on 1 October. It was the club's eighth VFA premiership, which meant that the club surpassed Geelong (L.) for the most premierships won in VFA history.

1923 VFA premiership season
Teams10
PremiersFootscray
(8th premiership)
Minor premiersFootscray
(7th minor premiership)

Rule changes

In 1923, the League and Association entered into a new agreement in which players could not transfer from one competition to the other without a clearance from his club and a permit from his current competition. Such a rule had existing prior to 1918, but since it had lapsed a refusal by one competition to permit a transfer was not binding in the other.[1] The League was motivated to enter into the agreement by the aggressive recruiting of some Association clubs over the previous few years. The agreement was intended to last for five years, but it was broken prior to the 1925 season during the off-field machinations which led to Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne leaving the Association and joining the League.[2]

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds, with each club playing the others twice; then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended Argus system to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder
1923 VFA Ladder
TEAMPWLDPFPAPctPTS
1 Footscray (P) 18 16 2 0 1527 910 59.6 64
2 Port Melbourne 18 15 2 1 1399 930 66.5 62
3 Williamstown 18 12 6 0 1187 966 81.4 48
4 Hawthorn 18 11 7 0 1203 975 81.0 44
5 Brunswick 18 9 8 1 1120 1109 99.02 38
6 North Melbourne 18 9 8 1 1143 1132 99.04 38
7 Brighton 18 8 10 0 1170 1213 103.7 32
8 Prahran 18 3 14 1 861 1535 178.3 14
9 Northcote 18 3 15 0 952 1217 127.8 12
10 Geelong 18 2 16 0 855 1439 168.3 8
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points Source[3]

Finals
Semi Finals
Saturday, 8 September Port Melbourne 14.11 (95) def. Hawthorn 9.13 (67) North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 12,000) [4]
Saturday, 15 September Footscray 12.7 (79) def. Williamstown 6.11 (47) North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 15,000) [5]
Final
Saturday, 22 September Footscray 5.11 (41) def. by Port Melbourne 8.9 (57) North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 20,000) [6]
1923 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 29 September Footscray def. Port Melbourne North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 18,000) [7][8]
3.4 (22)
3.4 (22)
6.9 (45)
 7.10 (52)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 0.0 (0)
2.1 (13)
2.2 (14)
 5.8 (38)		 Umpires: Jones
Mullins 2, Eason, Howell, O'Brien, Samson, Scanlon Goals Kerley 2, Barfoot, Cruddin, Taylor
C. Howell, for elbowing H. Bissett
C. Howell for fighting with H. Bissett
V. Samson, for striking G. Dobrigh
A. Smith, for retaliating against G. Dobrigh after being struck		 Reports G. Ogilvie, for striking L. Zinnick
J. Garbutt, for striking L. Mullins
H. Bissett, for fighting with C. Howell
G. Dobrigh, for charging A. Smith
G. Dobrigh, for retaliating against V. Samson after being charged
G. Dobrigh, for striking A. Smith
G. Dobrigh, for using bad language with the umpire

Awards
  • Carpenter (Williamstown) was the leading goalkicker for the home-and-home matches, with 61 goals, narrowly beating George Taylor (Port Melbourne), who kicked 58 goals.[3] Across all matches including finals, Taylor (65) led from Carpenter (63).
  • List of VFA premiers

References
  1. "Football Control". The Argus. Melbourne. 20 January 1923. p. 20.
  2. Old Boy (28 January 1925). "Football prospects – the broken agreement". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 9.
  3. Observer (3 September 1923). "The Association". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 14.
  4. Observer (10 September 1923). "Association semi-final". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 14.
  5. Observer (17 September 1923). "Exit Williamstown". The Argus. Melbourne. pp. 18–19.
  6. Observer (24 September 1923). "Preliminary Final". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 8.
  7. Observer (1 October 1923). "The Association – Footscray premiers". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 12.
  8. Observer (2 October 1923). "Rough football – seven men reported". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 9.
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