1898 VFL Grand Final

The 1898 VFL Grand Final was the first time the Victorian Football League (VFL) premiership was decided by a "grand finale" match.

It was played between teams from the Essendon Football Club and the Fitzroy Football Club on Saturday September 24, 1898, under atrocious ground conditions, in front of 16,538 people, at the St Kilda Cricket Ground. The reason for this was because both clubs thought is was unfair if it was played at either home ground because one team would have an unfair advantage.

Essendon, exercising the season's minor premier team's right of "challenge", had challenged Fitzroy, the winner of the previous Saturday's "Sectional Final" match against Collingwood, 5.8 (38) to 3.5 (23).

Fitzroy won the "Grand Final", scoring 5.8 (38) to Essendon's 3.5 (23). Neither side scored a goal in the last quarter of the match.

The Season

During the 1898 home-and-away season, all teams played each other twice. The final end-of season ladder was::Essendon Team Captain: George Stuckey

Umpire - Henry "Ivo" Crapp [ [http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060A0E0009145A4C5A71784456587D710A08050408030D Australian Football League Umpires Association: VFL Grand Finals 1898-1909] .]

The Match

Essendon had beaten Fitzroy in their round 1 and round 8 matches by 53 and 43 points respectively. Fitzroy had beaten Essendon by 29 points in the third match of their round-robin Sectional matches. [cite web
url=http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1898.html#s3
title=Sectional Round 3 - AFL Tables
publisher=stats league.com
accessdate=2008-04-16]

Both teams had great difficulty playing football in the appalling ground conditions — as can be seen by the low scores — and the tough, bustling Fitzroy team handled the conditions far better than the Essendon team that had hoped to spread the game out as far as possible.Fitzroy took the lead in the first few minutes of the match, and Essendon were never able to catch up. [Maplestone, (1966), p.53-54.]

Essendon were further demoralized when Fitzroy champion forward and follower, Mick Grace, renowned for his marking skill and kicking prowess, flew high over a pack to take a spectacular high mark and kicked a long range goal.

In a very tight, defensive second half, as the playing conditions deteriorated even further, only one goal was scored. Fitzroy went on to beat Essendon 5.8 (38) to 3.5 (23).

tatistics

Score

Goals

* Fitzroy: J. Grace 2, M. Grace, McDougall, McSpeerin.
* Essendon: Collins 2, Moore.

Best Players

* Fitzroy: M. Grace, Reid, Hickey, Drohan, Potter, Sloan, Descrimes, McSpeerin, J. Grace.
* Essendon: Forbes, Stuckey, Jackson, Cleghorn, Hastings, Gavin, Officer, Kearney.

ee also

* 1898 VFL season

Footnotes

References

* Main, J. & Allen, D., "Fallen — The Ultimate Heroes: Footballers Who Never Returned From War", Crown Content, (Melbourne), 2002. ISBN 1-740-95010-0
* Maplestone, M., "Flying Higher: History of the Essendon Football Club 1872-1996", Essendon Football Club, (Melbourne), 1996. ISBN 0-959-17402-8
* 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

* [http://stats.rleague.com/afl/seas/1898.html#fin 1898 Finals - AFL Tables]
* [http://stats.afl.com.au/public/statistics/player_roundbyround/1898/16/player_roundbyround_16_1898.shtml?club_idIndex=4&season_idIndex=109 AFL Player Statistics (Round by Round): Essendon Football Club 1898]
* [http://stats.afl.com.au/public/statistics/player_roundbyround/1898/7/player_roundbyround_7_1898.shtml?club_idIndex=5&season_idIndex=109 AFL Player Statistics (Round by Round): Fitzroy Football Club 1898]
* [http://cms.lions.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/5085/Default.aspx?newsId=23724 "1898" (Brisbane Lions Website, 1 May, 2006)]
* [http://lions.com.au/TheClub/History/FitzroyLions/FitzroyFirsts/tabid/5177/Default.aspx "Fitzroy Firsts: Etched in History" (Brisbane Lions Website, 1 May, 2006)]
* [http://www.aflua.com.au/index.asp?d=5A4C5A717251477C7008060A0E0009145A4C5A71784456587D710A08050408030D Australian Football League Umpires Association: VFL Grand Finals 1898-1909]