| 1888 VFA premiership season | |
|---|---|
 South Melbourne FC team, Premiers | |
| Teams | 16 |
| Premiers | South Melbourne 3rd premiership |
The 1888 Victorian Football Association season was the 12th season of the Australian rules football competition.
The premiership was won by the South Melbourne Football Club. It was the third premiership in the club's history, and the first out of a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1888 to 1890.
Prior to 1888, the Williamstown and South Williamstown clubs amalgamated, with the merged entity known as Williamstown. The South Williamstown club had been established in 1886 as the result of a dispute between the Williamstown Football Club and Williamstown Cricket Club over the use of the Williamstown Cricket Ground for football; [1] this schism persisted for two seasons, with unsatisfactory outcomes, including poor onfield performances resulting from the fact that Williamstown, which was then a small fishing village, could not supply enough talented players to sustain two competitive senior teams. The football and cricket clubs came to agreeable terms over the 1887-88 summer, and formed a single entity which fielded one senior cricket team and one senior football team, both of which played at the cricket ground. [2] The amalgamated club went on to finish third for the season.
Additionally, the neighbouring clubs of Prahran and St Kilda, which had both begun competing as senior clubs in 1886, amalgamated into one club; the merged entity retained the name and history of St Kilda, and adopted St Kilda's red, white and black guernsey with Prahran's blue trousers as its uniform. [3]
As a result of these two amalgamations, the size of the Association contracted from eighteen senior teams to sixteen in 1889.
The borough of Hotham was renamed North Melbourne, and the Hotham Football Club was accordingly renamed the North Melbourne Football Club.
For the first time, the senior clubs were formally ranked into a full premiership ladder of the type understood in the modern era. The teams were ranked under a new system designed by Theo Marshall: [4]
This system meant that for the first time, the premiership was an official title conferred and endorsed by the Association, replacing the previous approach whereby the premier club was determined by an unofficial consensus but was conventionally understood to be won by the club which suffered the fewest defeats for the season – a system which was flawed because it treated wins and draws as equal in value. [4] The Association also instituted the awarding of a premiership cap – in the Association's navy blue and gold colours – to players of the premiership team. [5]
The full ladder is shown below. Of the sixteen clubs, Footscray, University and the three Ballarat-based clubs failed to play the minimum eighteen matches required to qualify for the premiership; they are still shown ranked by adjusted points, but are not given a finishing position.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | GF | GA | Pts | Adj Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Melbourne (P) | 19 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 138 | 45 | 64 | 74.10 |
| 2 | Geelong | 19 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 97 | 73 | 56 | 64.84 |
| 3 | Williamstown | 22 | 13 | 8 | 1 | 77 | 57 | 54 | 59.40 |
| 4 | Carlton | 19 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 103 | 74 | 50 | 57.89 |
| – | Ballarat | 16 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 61 | 45 | 40 | 55.00 |
| – | South Ballarat | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 47 | 38 | 30 | 50.76 |
| 5 | Richmond | 21 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 86 | 76 | 48 | 50.28 |
| 6 | Port Melbourne | 22 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 97 | 80 | 50 | 50.00 |
| 7 | North Melbourne | 20 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 80 | 80 | 42 | 46.20 |
| 8 | St Kilda | 21 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 87 | 78 | 38 | 39.80 |
| 9 | Essendon | 19 | 7 | 11 | 1 | 60 | 80 | 30 | 34.73 |
| 10 | Fitzroy | 18 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 64 | 71 | 28 | 29.33 |
| – | Footscray | 15 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 33 | 70 | 20 | 29.33 |
| 11 | Melbourne | 19 | 4 | 14 | 1 | 52 | 117 | 18 | 20.84 |
| – | Ballarat Imperial | 14 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 38 | 75 | 10 | 15.71 |
| – | University | 15 | 0 | 14 | 1 | 16 | 77 | 2 | 2.93 |
The Prahran Football Club, nicknamed the Two Blues, is an Australian rules football club based at Toorak Park in Armadale, Melbourne, Victoria. The club is currently in Division 1 of the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). The nickname Two Blues comes from the club uniform which has been royal blue and sky blue since the club formed in 1886.
Australian rules football was first organised in Victoria in 1859 when its rules were codified by the Melbourne Football Club.
The 1877 Victorian Football Association season was the first in which the Australian rules football competition in Victoria was run under a properly constituted administrative body. The Association was formed with the view to governing the sport via a collective body, made up of delegates representing the clubs. It was the second such body to have been formed; the South Australian National Football League having been formed just 17 days prior to the VFA.
The 1886 Victorian Football Association season was the 10th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club. It was the club's seventh VFA premiership, and the last won by its senior team.
The 1899 Victorian Football Association season was the 23rd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club; it was the second premiership in the club's history, and the second in a sequence of three premierships won consecutively from 1898 to 1900.
The 1902 Victorian Football Association season was the 26th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Richmond Football Club; it was the first premiership in the club's history.
The 1907 Victorian Football Association season was the 31st season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, after it defeated West Melbourne in the final by eighteen points. It was the first premiership won by Williamstown, in its 24th season of senior competition.
The 1921 Victorian Football Association season was the 43rd season of the Australian rules football competition.
The 1922 Victorian Football Association season was the 44th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Port Melbourne Football Club, after it defeated Footscray by two points on 23 September, in a controversial Grand Final which several of its players were offered money to throw. It was the club's third VFA premiership.
The 1924 Victorian Football Association season was the 46th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club, after it defeated Williamstown by 45 points in the final on 20 September. It was the club's ninth and last VFA premiership before it, along with North Melbourne and Hawthorn, joined the Victorian Football League the following year; this marked the end of a long period of dominance for Footscray, which had seen it win five minor premierships in a row and four major premierships in six years.
The 1928 Victorian Football Association season was the 50th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Coburg Football Club, after it defeated Port Melbourne by seven points in the final on 8 September. It was the club's third VFA premiership, achieved in only its fourth season of senior competition, and was the third in a sequence of three premierships won consecutively from 1926 until 1928.
The 1931 Victorian Football Association season was the 53rd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Oakleigh Football Club, after it defeated Northcote by three points in the Grand Final on 26 September. It was the club's second VFA premiership, achieved in only its third season of senior competition, and it was Oakleigh's second premiership in a row.
The 1936 Victorian Football Association season was the 58th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Northcote Football Club, after it came from fourth on the ladder to defeat Prahran by 15 points in the Grand Final on 12 September. It was the club's fifth VFA premiership, all won between 1929 and 1936, and it was the last top division VFA premiership ever won by the club before it left the Association in 1987.
The 1939 Victorian Football Association season was the 61st season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, which came from fourth on the ladder to defeat Prahran by nine points in the Grand Final on 7 October. It was the club's third VFA premiership, and it was a strong revival after having won the wooden spoon in 1938.
The 1945 Victorian Football Association season was the 64th season of the Australian rules football competition, and it was the first season played since the Association went into recess during World War II. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, which defeated Port Melbourne by 37 points in the Grand Final on 6 October. It was the club's fourth VFA premiership.
The 1946 Victorian Football Association season was the 65th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Sandringham Football Club, which defeated Camberwell by seven points in the Grand Final on 5 October. It was the first premiership in the club's history.
The 1953 Victorian Football Association season was the 72nd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Port Melbourne Football Club, after it defeated Yarraville by 60 points in the Grand Final on 3 October. It was Port Melbourne's seventh VFA premiership, and it was the only premiership that the club won during a sequence of eight consecutive Grand Finals played from 1950 until 1957, and five consecutive minor premierships won from 1951 until 1955.
The 1958 Victorian Football Association season was the 77th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club, after it defeated Moorabbin in the grand final replay on 4 October by 32 points. It was Williamstown's ninth premiership, drawing it level with Footscray for the most premierships won in VFA history, and it was the fourth of five premierships won in six seasons between 1954 and 1959.
The 1959 Victorian Football Association season was the 78th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Williamstown Football Club after it defeated Coburg in the Grand Final on 10 October by 35 points. It was Williamstown's tenth premiership, taking it past Footscray to become the club with the most premierships won in VFA history, a title it held until it was passed by Port Melbourne in 1976; it was also the fifth of five premierships won in six seasons between 1954 and 1959, and the club's fourth consecutive minor premiership.
The 1960 Victorian Football Association season was the 79th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Oakleigh Football Club, after it defeated Sandringham in the Grand Final on 1 October by 60 points. It was Oakleigh's fifth premiership.