1885 VFA season

The 1885 Victorian Football Association season was the 9th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the South Melbourne Football Club. It was the club's second VFA premiership.

1885 premiership season
Teams10
PremiersSouth Melbourne
(2nd premiership)

Association membership

The senior metropolitan membership of the Association (including Geelong) increased from eight to ten clubs in 1885. The two new clubs were Richmond and University, both of which were newly formed this season.

At this time, five other provincial senior clubs were full Association members represented on the Board of Management: Ballarat, Ballarat Imperial, South Ballarat, Horsham Trades and Horsham Unions. Due to distance, these clubs played too few matches against the rest of the VFA to be considered relevant in the premiership.[1]

1885 VFA premiership

The 1885 premiership was won by the South Melbourne Football Club, which finished the season undefeated from a total of 25 matches. Essendon, which lost only two of its 21 matches, finished as runner up, and the defending premiers Geelong finished third.

Club senior records

The below table details the playing records of the ten clubs in all matches during the 1885 season. Two sets of results are given:

  • Senior results: based only upon games played against other VFA senior clubs
  • Total results: including senior games, and games against intercolonial, up-country and junior clubs.

The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Sportsman newspaper. The VFA had no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised; however, the top three placings were later acknowledged in publications including the Football Record and are considered official.[2]

1885 VFA Results
Senior ResultsTotal Results
TEAMPWLDGFGAPWLDGFGA
1 South Melbourne (P) 16 14 0 2 101 24 25 22 0 3 158 39
2 Essendon 18 12 2 4 84 43 21 15 2 4 108 45
3 Geelong 17 8 4 5 61 51 21 12 4 5 81 60
Carlton 20 10 8 2 61 58 22 12 8 2 73 61
Fitzroy 19 8 8 3 51 51 23 10 9 4 59 58
Williamstown 15 6 7 2 35 45 18 9 7 2 45 49
Hotham 16 6 6 4 49 49 23 13 6 4 97 63
Melbourne 21 5 14 2 35 78 23 6 15 2 44 88
Richmond 17 4 11 2 30 64 17 4 11 2 30 64
University 17 1 14 2 24 68 18 2 14 2 28 69
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, (P) = Premiers Source:[3]

References
  1. Follower (9 October 1886). "The past season". Leader. Melbourne, VIC. p. 20.
  2. Caroline Wilson (20 June 2014). "History of the AFL could be turned on its head". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  3. Goal Post (30 September 1885). "Review of the Football Season". The Sportsman. Melbourne, VIC. p. 8.
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