Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 season of 1917.

Premiership season

In 1917, the VFL competition consisted of six 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 of the six teams played each other three times in a 15 match home-and-away season (Geelong, Richmond, and South Melbourne each hosting eight games, while Carlton, Collingwood, and Fitzroy each hosted seven).

Once the 15 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1917 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Awards

• The 1917 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood
  Collingwood Football Club
  The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
  
  .
• The VFL's leading goalkicker
  Coleman Medal
  The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in regular-season matches in that year...
  
   was Dick Lee
  Dick Lee (footballer)
  Walter Henry "Dick" Lee was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League ....
  
   of Collingwood
  Collingwood Football Club
  The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...
  
   with 50 goals (54 after finals).
• Richmond
  Richmond Football Club
  The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,...
  
   took the "wooden spoon
  Wooden spoon (award)
  A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...
  
  " in 1917.

Notable events

• Geelong
  Geelong Football Club
  The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
  
   and South Melbourne
  Sydney Swans
  The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
  
  , having refused to compete in 1916 on "patriotic grounds" return to the VFL competition, having concluded that the drop in the number of recruits in 1916 indicated that the VFL competition had no effect on military recruitment. The Geelong team members met their own expenses and played as amateurs, with the club donating all of its 1918 profits to war funds.
• In 1917, whilst winning nine of its 15 home-and-away matches, the South Melbourne
  Sydney Swans
  The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
  
  team is notorious for its inaccurate kicking and finishes the season with 214 behinds and only 122 goals.
• On 12 May 1917, recruiting officers visiting VFL grounds are heckled by spectators. On another occasion a Fitzroy crowd attacks a recruiting sergeant,
• On 4 August, the entire thirteenth round was put back a week, at the request of the State War Council, so that recruiting meetings could be held at each VFL ground.

External links

• 1917 Season - AFL Tables