1927 VFA season

1927 VFA Premiership season
Teams	10
Premiers	Coburg (2nd premiership)
Minor premiers	Coburg (2nd minor premiership)
Matches played	96
Attendance	386,000 (4,021 per match)
← 1926 1928 →

The 1927 Victorian Football Association season was the 49th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Coburg Football Club, after it defeated Brighton by 34 points in the Grand Final on 15 October. It was the club's second VFA premiership, achieved in only its third season of senior competition, and was the second in a sequence of three premierships won consecutively from 1926 until 1928; and, it came after the team was undefeated in the home-and-home season.

Association membership

In the off-season, the Brunswick Football Club was re-admitted to the Association, after having withdrawn from the competition in late 1926 in protest at suspensions given to two of its players. As such, the Association membership remained the same as it had been at the start of 1926.^[1][2]

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds, with each club playing the others twice; then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended Argus system to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder

1927 VFA Ladder
	TEAM	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	Pct	PTS
1	Coburg (P)	18	18	0	0	2005	1051	52.4	72
2	Brighton	18	14	4	0	1454	1100	75.7	58
3	Port Melbourne	18	13	5	0	1394	1012	72.6	52
4	Preston	18	12	6	0	1587	1323	83.4	48
5	Northcote	18	11	7	0	1378	1205	87.4	44
6	Williamstown	18	7	10	1	1013	1289	127.2	30
7	Brunswick	18	6	12	0	1037	1330	128.2	24
8	Camberwell	18	5	13	0	1261	1552	123.1	20
9	Prahran	18	2	15	1	1133	1665	146.1	10
10	Geelong	18	1	17	0	889	1623	182.6	4
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points								Source[3]

Finals

	Semi Finals
Saturday, 3 September	Brighton 8.14 (62)	drew with	Preston 7.20 (62)	Motordrome (crowd: 6,000)	[4]
Saturday, 10 September	Coburg 15.10 (100)	drew with	Port Melbourne 15.10 (100)	Motordrome (crowd: 10,000)	[5]
Saturday, 17 September	Brighton 12.13 (85)	def.	Preston 9.17 (71)	Motordrome (crowd: 10,000)	[6]
Saturday, 24 September	Coburg 7.6 (48)	def. by	Port Melbourne 14.13 (97)	Motordrome (crowd: 13,000)	[7]

	Preliminary final
Saturday, 1 October (postponed)	Brighton	vs.	Port Melbourne	Motordrome (crowd: 2,000)	[8]
Saturday, 8 October	Brighton 11.14 (80)	def.	Port Melbourne 9.15 (69)	Motordrome (crowd: 23,000)	[9]

	1927 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 15 October	Coburg	def.	Brighton	Motordrome (Crowd: 20,000[10])	[11]
	5.1 (31) 9.3 (57) 13.6 (84) 19.10 (124)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	1.4 (10) 6.6 (42) 10.7 (67) 13.12 (90)
Gardiner 10, Forbes 3, Kerley 2, Charleston, Harris, Huntington, Rogers		Goals	Walsh 7, Hunt 2, De Aurugo 2, Arthur, May
		Injuries	Irwin (broken leg), Garcia (thigh), Dainty (leg), De Aurugo (leg)

Awards

• P. Gardiner (Coburg) was the leading goalkicker for the season, with 82 goals in the home-and-home matches and 97 overall. He finished ahead of J. Walsh (Brighton), who kicked 78 goals in the home-and-home matches and 92 goals overall.^[3][11]
• Ernie Martin (Coburg) won the Recorder Cup as the best and fairest player in the Association for the season. Woods (Northcote) finished second.^[4]

Notable events

• Prior to this season, Brighton moved its home ground from the Brighton Beach Oval in southern Brighton to Elsternwick Park in northern Brighton.^[12]
• Due to errors by the scoreboard attendants in the drawn semi-final between Brighton and Preston, those present at the ground were unsure of the result of the game until the goal umpires confirmed the score after the final bell.^[4]
• The preliminary final was postponed by one week because extremely heavy rain on the day made the surface unplayable.^[8] The rain was so heavy that the League Grand Final, which was played that day in spite of the rain, was the lowest scoring League match of the 20th century.
• Because of the two drawn semi-finals and the postponed preliminary final, the finals series was spread over a total of seven weekends.

External links

• List of VFA/VFL Premiers

References

1. "Football sensation – club leaves Association". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 21 August 1926. p. 32.
2. "Brunswick's position". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 18 January 1927. p. 7.
3. Onlooker (29 August 1927). "Football – Collingwood defeated". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 6.
4. Scorer (5 September 1927). "The Association – first semi-final". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 6.
5. Scorer (12 September 1927). "Association Semi-Final – Second Drawn Game". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). pp. 6–7.
6. Scorer (19 September 1927). "The Association – Brighton wins replay". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 5.
7. Scorer (26 September 1927). "The Association – Grand Final necessary". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 6.
8. Scorer (3 October 1927). "The Association – first match postponed". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 6.
9. Scorer (10 October 1927). "A stirring game – Brighton too strong". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 9.
10. "Association attendances". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 18 October 1927. p. 13.
11. Old Boy (17 October 1927). "Association Grand Final – Coburg premiers again". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). p. 6.
12. "Football – Brighton Club's New Ground". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 16 December 1926. p. 4.