The 1907 VFL season was the eleventh season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs and ran from 27 April to 21 September, comprising a 17-match home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.
In 1907, 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 1907 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".
In November 1906, the VFL was a founding member of the Australasian Football Council, which served as the new national administrative body governing the sport.[1]
The rules concerning kick-ins were amended, such that if the full back crossed outside the goal square before kicking the ball, a ball-up would be called on the top of the goal square. Previously, the full-back was given a second opportunity to kick legally, before a free kick would be awarded.[2]
Due to the "Special" football train arriving late, the start of the Round 3 match between Fitzroy and Geelong at Brunswick Street Oval was delayed by twenty minutes.
In round 6, St Kilda defeated Melbourne 15.18 (108) to 7.9 (51); it was the first time in the club's 173 VFL matches to that point that St Kilda had scored 100 points or more.
The VFL played two representative matches on Saturday 8 June, in the week between Rounds 6 and 7: on the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the VFL 25.20 (170) defeated the Ballarat Football Association 3.7 (25); and at Bendigo, the VFL 14.10 (94) defeated the Bendigo Football League 7.11 (53).[3] The VFL also played a return match against the Ballarat Association on the Ballarat City Oval on Saturday 27 July, the week between Rounds 12 and 13; in a rain-affected game, the VFL 8.4 (52) defeated Ballarat 3.7 (25).[4]
In Round 8, Fitzroy kicked eleven goals without a behind against Collingwood, before three misses in the last quarter. They did not score in the second and third quarters after kicking 7.0 (42) in the first quarter.
In Round 11, Geelong defeated St Kilda despite having ten fewer scoring shots; before this, no VFL team had won with a deficit in scoring shots greater than eight. They repeated the feat of winning with ten fewer shots against Collingwood in the last round.
During that last match, Collingwood succumbed to Geelong despite being 38 points ahead at three quarter time; this record was not beaten until 1936.
Owing to rough play – and, in some observers' opinions, an over-correction after no players were reported in the particularly rough round 14 match between South Melbourne and St Kilda[5] – eight players were reported during the matches in Sectional Round 1: three by the matches' central umpires, and five (all in the Carlton vs South Melbourne match) by the club delegates. The VFL Investigation Committee took three full evenings to complete the hearings, with Friday evening's session forced to run until almost 5am to complete it in time for Saturday's matches. Seven of the eight reported players were suspended, most notably South Melbourne's Billy Gent who was disqualified for life.[6] The four suspensions from the Carlton vs South Melbourne match – Fred Elliott, Jim Marchbank, Bert Franks and Billy Gent – were later overturned on procedural grounds in May 1908, after it was determined that the historical VFL practice of players being reported by club delegates was not allowed under the Australasian Football Council rules which the VFL had adopted in 1907.[7]
The playing surface in each of the season's semi-finals that had been played on the Melbourne Cricket Ground (South Melbourne vs Collingwood, and Carlton vs St Kilda) had been so rock hard and dusty that the two match winners demanded that the MCG be watered before the next Saturday, unless there was substantial rain. The VFL acquiesced to this request, and the ground was watered; the ensuing premiership final, which Carlton won by five points, was on significantly softer ground.
In the 1907 pre-season, then VFA team Richmond played a practice match against VFL team Geelong at Corio Oval, in direct defiance of a VFA edict. On 22 October 1907, Richmond, who had become quite dissatisfied with the VFA, applied to join the VFL: their application was unanimously accepted at a meeting five days later, and Richmond competed for the first time in the 1908 VFL season.
St Kilda qualified for its first VFL finals appearance.
^"Football – a National Council formed". The Express and Telegraph. Adelaide, SA. 8 November 1906. p. 3.
^"Victorian Football League – a Football Squabble". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 16 April 1907. p. 16.
^"Sporting News". The Ballarat Star. Melbourne, VIC. 10 June 1907. p. 4.
^Follower (29 July 1907). "Victorian League v Ballarat". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 10.
^Follower (31 August 1907). "Football Gossip". The Leader. Melbourne, VIC. p. 18.
^"Rough football". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 26 August 1907. p. 6.
^"Football disqualifications – cases of Ghent (sic) and Franks". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 16 May 1908. p. 15.
Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897–1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN0-670-90809-6
Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN0-670-86814-0
