1928 VFA season

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.

1928 VFA premiership season
Teams10
PremiersCoburg
(3rd premiership)
Minor premiersCoburg
(3rd minor premiership)

Association membership

After six seasons with limited on-field success, Geelong's supporter base had become very low, and its gate takings were unable to cover both running costs and the travel expenses of visiting teams. As such, the Association excluded Geelong from its senior ranks after the 1927 season, and sought applications from Melbourne-based replacements.[1]

The Association elected to admit the Yarraville Football Club from the Victorian Junior Football Association into its senior ranks. Yarraville had been a leading junior club was located in a strong industrial area, and was expected to attract former fans of the nearby Footscray Football Club who had rejected the club after it joined the League in 1925. After being admitted, but prior to the season, Yarraville amalgamated with neighbouring club Kingsville, which was also a leading club in the V.J.F.A – Kingsville had beaten Yarraville in the 1927 V.J.F.A. section Grand Final.[2][3] The other application to be seriously considered was from the Sandringham Council, which intended to establish a new senior club in its suburb, which was experiencing strong population growth at the time; but its attempts to join were ultimately hampered by the lack of a suitable home venue, after it was refused permission to fence the Beach Oval.[4] The Kew Football Club from the V.J.F.A. was also considered.[5]

The Victorian Junior Football Association, which had been affiliated with the V.F.A. since 1924, was reduced in size to ten teams, each of which was affiliated with a V.F.A. senior club and served as its second eighteen – and therefore effectively served for the first time as a dedicated Association seconds competition.[6] It retained the V.J.F.A. name until 1932, when it formally became the V.F.A. second eighteens.[7]

After having used the Motordrome for the previous three years, the Association staged each of its finals on different neutral Association ground.[8]

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
1928 VFA Ladder
TEAMPWLDPFPAPctPTS
1 Coburg (P) 18 15 3 0 1742 1052 60.4 60
2 Port Melbourne 18 14 4 0 1500 1016 67.7 56
3 Brighton 18 12 6 0 1412 1246 88.2 48
4 Preston 18 11 7 0 1376 1104 80.2 44
5 Camberwell 18 11 7 0 1270 1189 93.6 44
6 Yarraville 18 10 8 0 1212 1233 101.7 40
7 Brunswick 18 8 10 0 1208 1249 103.4 36
8 Northcote 18 3 15 0 1670 1648 141.2 12
9 Williamstown 18 3 15 0 974 1491 153.1 12
10 Prahran 18 3 15 0 1099 1732 157.6 12
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pct = Percentage; (P) = Premiers, PTS = Premiership points Source[9]

Finals
Semi Finals
Saturday, 25 August Port Melbourne 9.15 (69) def. Preston 9.11 (65) Coburg Cricket Ground (crowd: 12,000) [10]
Saturday, 1 September Coburg 11.16 (82) def. Brighton 12.7 (79) Port Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 8,000) [11]
1928 VFA Final
Saturday, 8 September Coburg def. Port Melbourne Brunswick Cricket Ground (crowd: 10,854) [12]
5.4 (34)
7.5 (47)
15.9 (99)
 17.12 (114)		 Q1
Q2
Q3
 Final		 3.4 (22)
10.7 (67)
12.9 (81)
 16.11 (107)		 Umpires: Murray
Plant 5, Stone 4, Colbert 3, Kerley 2, Gardiner, Huntington, Mears Goals McInnes 5, Kuhlken 4, Smith 2, Barnes, Bourke, Erridge, Hyde, Tuck
  • Had Port Melbourne won, minor premiers Coburg would have been entitled to a rematch the following Saturday to decide the premiership.

Awards

Notable events
  • The two home-and-home matches were replayed during the season. On each occasion, a timekeeping error resulted in the match being played over less than the required duration:
    • In the opening round – and Yarraville's first ever senior game – Yarraville 10.12 (72) defeated Camberwell 8.17 (65).[2] Camberwell protested that the timekeepers had called an end to the final quarter ten minutes early, so the result was nullified.[14] The replay was held on Monday 4 June (King's Birthday holiday), and Yarraville 11.12 (78) defeated Camberwell 8.15 (63).[15]
    • Then, on King's Birthday holiday, Brunswick 13.8 (86) defeated Brighton 8.16 (64).[15] Brighton protested that the timekeepers had called an end to the second quarter ten minutes early, and this result was also nullified.[16][17] The replay was held on Wednesday 18 July at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in which Brunswick 10.15 (75) defeated Brighton 10.9 (69).[18]
  • John Aikman, who had served as Association president since 1903,[19] died after a long illness on 29 July.[20] He was formally replaced the following year by J. J. Liston, who was elected at the annual general meeting in February 1929.[20]
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  • List of VFA premiers

References
  1. "Football – Association troubles". The Argus. Melbourne. 10 September 1927. p. 21.
  2. Onlooker (23 April 1928). "Association – keen interest shown". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 7.
  3. "Victorian Juniors". The Argus. Melbourne. 26 September 1927. p. 6.
  4. "Association Football – Yarraville club admitted". The Argus. Melbourne. 13 December 1927. p. 21.
  5. "Association change". The Argus. Melbourne. 4 October 1927. p. 11.
  6. "V.J.F.A. annual meeting". The Argus. Melbourne. 8 March 1928. p. 5.
  7. "V.F.A. seconds final". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. 21 September 1932. p. 14.
  8. "Football – Association semi-final". The Argus. Melbourne. 7 July 1928. p. 20.
  9. Onlooker (20 August 1928). "Association – final four unaltered". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 7.
  10. Onlooker (27 August 1928). "Association – first semi-final". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
  11. Onlooker (3 September 1928). "Association – Second Semi-Final". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 7.
  12. Onlooker (10 September 1928). "Association Final – Coburg successful". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 15.
  13. "Coburg wins Junior premiership". The Argus. Melbourne. 17 September 1928. p. 15.
  14. "The Association – Charge against player". The Argus. Melbourne. 28 April 1928. p. 19.
  15. Onlooker (5 June 1928). "Brunswick wins well". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
  16. "Rough football – two charges dismissed". The Argus. Melbourne. 9 June 1928. p. 2.
  17. "Football – Police control of grounds". The Argus. Melbourne. 19 June 1928. p. 7.
  18. "Football – Association replay". The Argus. Melbourne. 19 July 1928. p. 5.
  19. "Victorian Football Association". The Argus. Melbourne. 2 May 1903. p. 18.
  20. Onlooker (30 July 1928). "Association – All leaders win well". The Argus. Melbourne. p. 6.
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