1877 VFA season

VFA foundation

The Victorian Football Association was established on 17 May 1877 to provide administration of the game in Victoria. It was the second such body to have been formed, after the South Australian Football Association (SAFA) was formed 17 days prior to the VFA. Prior to 1877, the laws of the game had been agreed to at an annual meeting of club secretaries, however the clubs remained entirely independent and unaffiliated. This meant that when a dispute existed between two clubs, there was no formal means of resolving it or enforcing a decision.

Disputes in the 1870s were common and were often left unresolved for this reason: for example, in 1876, a rule existed to prevent any player from playing with more than one club during the season, but when broke the rule against Albert-park, there was no means of recourse against it, and the result of a disputed match between and was unresolved, with each club ultimately reporting a different score in its annual report and no central body existing to declare one score as official. Additionally, the matter of whether or not won the Challenge Cup in 1870 was never formally resolved.

The new Association was established, and was modelled in large part on the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA), which had been established in September 1875 to provide a similar level of centralised administration over Victorian cricket. The Victorian Football Association comprised one delegate from each senior metropolitan club (and from senior country clubs by proxy) and a vote of those club delegates could make a decision which was binding on any associated club. Junior clubs were also managed by the Association, but did not have representation on the board.

The Association was established with the power to:

• Decide upon the Laws of the Game
• Provide management of local and intercolonial football matches
• Provide a ruling on disputes between clubs
• Act as a tribunal to suspend players for misconduct

Association membership

The Association comprised a range of senior and junior clubs from Melbourne and around the colony of Victoria. There were five inaugural metropolitan senior clubs: , , , and . Hotham was a revival of the former North Melbourne Football Club, which had disbanded and seen many of its players and members join Albert-park in 1876; the new club was mostly made up of players from the former North Melbourne Football Club as well as some from the Carlton Imperial Football Club, which had folded at the end of 1876.

Provincial senior teams included , Ballarat Albion, , Kyneton and Sandhurst. There was also a wide range of affiliated junior clubs, including , Clifton, Coburg, , Excelsior, Hotham United, Sandridge, Toorak, Sandridge, , Victorian Railways, Warwick, , and .

Metropolitan

The 1877 premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club, which played twenty-one matches during the year, winning fourteen and drawing four. finished second, having played twenty-three matches, winning sixteen and drawing four. At the time, Melbourne and Carlton were considered to be by far the strongest senior clubs, so Carlton's position as the top club was based almost entirely on head-to-head matches between the two clubs – of which Carlton won two, Melbourne won one, and one was drawn.

Club records

The below table is set of results for the 1877 season, showing the records of the five senior metropolitan clubs. The list shows the record across all matches, including senior, junior and intercolonial matches. The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in The Australasian.

The VFA had no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised; however, the top three placings were later acknowledged in publications including the Football Record and are considered official.

Provincial

In the provincial competition, was the strongest team, while was second.

Club records

The below shows the record of provincial clubs against senior metropolitan clubs.

Source: (P) Premiers

Juniors

In the junior competition, was the strongest club, going undefeated against junior clubs with its sole loss coming against senior club . was second, with five wins and six draws from its 17 games. Both clubs were admitted into the VFA's senior ranks for the following season. was undefeated in all its matches.

Club records

Source: (P) Premiers

Notable events

• Sir William Clarke, MLC became the inaugural president of the Association.
• , and each went on intercolonial trips during the season:
  • Carlton was hosted by the Waratah club in New South Wales. On 23 June, Waratah defeated Carlton 2–0 under the rugby rules which were prevalent in New South Wales at the time, and on 25 June, Carlton defeated Waratah 6–0 under Victorian rules.
  • Melbourne was hosted by the Victorian SAFA club in South Australia, where Victorian rules were played. Melbourne defeated Victorian (SAFA) 1–0 on 11 August, then defeated a composite South Australian SAFA team 5–0.
  • St Kilda was hosted by the Adelaide (SAFA) club in South Australia. St Kilda defeated Adelaide 5–2 on 18 August, then defeated a composite South Australian SAFA team 7–2 on 20 August.
• The leading goalkicker for the season was Charles Baker (), who kicked 14 goals.

References

References

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