1910 VFL season

1910 VFL Premiership season
Dick Lee
Teams	10
Premiers	Collingwood (3rd premiership)
Minor premiers	Carlton (4th minor premiership)
Matches played	94
Highest attendance	42,577
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Dick Lee (Collingwood) Percy Martini (Geelong)
← 1909 1911 →

The 1910 Victorian Football League season was the 14th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1910, the VFL competition comprised ten 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 18 rounds.

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1910 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Ladder

1910 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Carlton	18	15	3	0	1167	729	160.08	60
2	Collingwood (P)	18	13	5	0	993	812	122.29	52
3	South Melbourne	18	12	6	0	1080	884	122.17	48
4	Essendon	18	12	6	0	1113	963	115.58	48
5	Geelong	18	10	7	1	1008	952	105.88	42
6	University	18	10	8	0	994	979	101.53	40
7	Richmond	18	7	10	1	937	913	102.63	30
8	Fitzroy	18	5	13	0	952	1048	90.84	20
9	Melbourne	18	4	14	0	802	1347	59.54	16
10	St Kilda	18	1	17	0	692	1111	62.29	4
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Finals

All of the 1910 finals were played at the MCG so the home team in the Semi Finals and Preliminary Final is purely the higher ranked team from the ladder but in the Grand Final the home team was the team that won the Preliminary Final.

Semi finals

Preliminary Final

Grand final

Collingwood defeated Carlton 9.7 (61) to 6.11 (47), in front of a crowd of 42,577 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Team	1 Qtr	2 Qtr	3 Qtr	Final
Carlton	1.2	2.6	4.9	6.11 (47)
Collingwood	4.3	5.3	8.5	9.7 (61)

Awards

• The 1910 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Dick Lee of Collingwood with 58 goals.
• St Kilda, took the “wooden spoon” in 1910.

Notable events

• Former Carlton coach Jack Worrall is appointed umpires' coach, with a view to raising standards and decreasing violence.^[1]
• Round 2, originally scheduled for 7 May, was postponed by one week, and remaining rounds pushed back by one week, due to the death of Edward VII on 6 May.^[2]
• In the last quarter of the round 4 match between Carlton and South Melbourne, Carlton's George Topping king-hit South Melbourne's Bert Streckfuss behind the play, causing spectators to jump the fence and participate in an all-in melee with players and officials. Topping was suspended for the remainder of 1910 and all of 1911 as a result of the incident.^[1]
• Field umpire A. Noseda awards 100 free kicks in a single match (round 8 match between South Melbourne and St Kilda).^[1]
• VFL conducts an inquiry into allegations that particular players from Carlton, Fitzroy, Melbourne, and South Melbourne had been paid to play "dead". In particular, Carlton's Doug Gillespie, Alex "Bongo" Lang, and Doug Fraser were investigated (the inquiry dealt with Lang and Fraser behind closed doors). Gillespie was exonerated, while Lang and Fraser were each suspended for five years.^[1]
• St. Kilda, after losing its first seventeen games, defeated minor premier Carlton in a major upset in the last round to avoid its expected fifth winless season. It remains the worst start by a VFL/AFL team that did not finish winless, though equalled in 2001 by Fremantle.
• Carlton player and Secretary Arthur Charles "Shooter" Ford was charged with abusing and physically threatening the field umpire (off the field) after Carlton's round 14 match against Fitzroy; Ford was suspended for 12 months and debarred from his role as Club Secretary.^[1] There was speculation that the issue between the two was connected with the suspension of George Topping earlier in the season.
• T.W Sherrin manufactures special footballs for the Premiership Finals.^[1]

References

1. Ross, John (1996). 100 Years of Australian Football. Ringwood, Australia: Viking Books. p. 382. ISBN 9781854714343.
2. Rodgers, Stephen, Every Game Ever Played, VFL/AFL Results 1897–1991, Ringwood, VIC: Viking O'Neal, p. 78

External links

• 1910 Season - AFL Tables