1922 VFL season

1922 VFL Premiership season
Teams	9
Premiers	Fitzroy (7th premiership)
Minor premiers	Collingwood (7th minor premiership)
Matches played	76
Highest attendance	64,148
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Horrie Clover (Carlton)
← 1921 1923 →

The 1922 Victorian Football League season was the 26th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

Premiership season

In 1922, the VFL competition consisted of nine 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 (i.e., 16 matches and 2 byes).

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1922 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

1922 VFL Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	%	PTS
1	Collingwood	16	12	4	0	1178	922	127.77	48
2	Essendon	16	10	5	1	1147	1028	111.58	42
3	Fitzroy (P)	16	10	5	1	1091	1003	108.77	42
4	Carlton	16	10	6	0	1232	1092	112.82	40
5	Richmond	16	7	9	0	1039	1129	92.03	28
6	Melbourne	16	7	9	0	1005	1131	88.86	28
7	St Kilda	16	5	10	1	1090	1164	93.64	22
8	Geelong	16	5	11	0	1080	1285	84.05	20
9	South Melbourne	16	4	11	1	1127	1235	91.26	18
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points for, PA = Points against

Finals

All of the 1922 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

Fitzroy defeated Collingwood 11.13 (79) to 9.14 (68), in front of a crowd of 50,064 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1922 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Horrie Clover of Carlton with 54 goals (56 after finals).
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1922.
• The Victorian Junior League premiership, which is today recognised as the VFL reserves premiership, was won by Collingwood's team, Collingwood District. Collingwood District 8.10 (58) defeated Essendon Juniors 1.9 (15) in the challenge Grand Final, played as a curtain-raiser to the senior Grand Final on 14 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[1]

Notable events

• Essendon began playing its home games at the Essendon Recreation Reserve (known today as Windy Hill) from this season, after the closure of the East Melbourne Cricket Ground at the end of 1921.
• Boundary umpires became responsible for bringing the ball back to the centre after a goal has been scored.
• Angry Richmond fans invaded the field after Richmond's 10-point loss against Essendon in Round 5. Field umpire Arthur Norden, later received a letter threatening his life, and he retired.
• The first issue of the "pink paper", the Saturday evening newspaper, The Sporting Globe, was published on 22 July 1922.
• In the round 17 match against Geelong, St Kilda's centre half-forward Dave McNamara had 12 kicks for the match. From the twelve kicks he scored ten goals, nine of them with place-kicks (one 70 yards, another 65 yards), and tenth with a punt-kick. By contrast with that accurate kicking, on the following Saturday, in the round 18 match against Richmond, McNamara kicked 1.13 (19).
• South Melbourne's percentage is the highest ever by the team finishing last.

References

1. "Junior League Final". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 16 October 1922. p. 3.

• Maplestone, M., Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996, Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-9591740-2-8
• Rogers, S. & Brown, A., Every Game Ever Played: VFL/AFL Results 1897-1997 (Sixth Edition), Viking Books, (Ringwood), 1998. ISBN 0-670-90809-6
• 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. ISBN 0-670-86814-0

External links

• 1922 Season - AFL Tables