“1897 VFL finals series”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

The Victorian Football League's 1897 finals series determined the top four final positions of the 1897 VFL season. It began on the weekend of August 21, 1897, and ended on the weekend of September 3, 1897. Essendon were crowned the 1897 VFL premiers, finishing the finals series on top of the mini-ladder.

Final ladder

Finals system

Abandoned systems

When the VFL was initially established at the end of 1896, it immediately announced that a finals series would be played. However, there were two other announcements of different finals formats, before the system used was ultimately decided upon late in the season.

The format that was originally announced in October 1896 was that after fourteen weeks of home-and-away matches, a finals series would be played as a simple four-team knock out tournament amongst the top four clubs, and the gate takings from the semi-finals would be donated to charity.^[3]

By February 1897, the knock-out tournament had been abandoned in favour of a system which bore some similarities to the Page–McIntyre system which would ultimately come into use in 1931.^[4] In it, matches were to be played as follows:

Drawn matches would be decided by twenty minutes of extra time, or if still drawn after extra time, by a replay the following week.

It was realized during the season that this finals system was not entirely fair, particularly since the results of the first week of finals were somewhat meaningless; nevertheless, the league was prepared to proceed with the system right up to its scheduled commencement on 14 August. However, when inclement weather on that weekend forced the postponement of the charity round, the league used this opportunity to abandon this finals system and develop a new one.^[5]

1897 finals system

On 17 August 1897, a new system was decided upon. The new system comprised a round-robin amongst the top four, with the provision for a play-off match for the premiership depending on the results of that round-robin.^[6] The finals system was as follows:

As originally planned, the takings for the first week of the finals were donated to charity; the remaining takings were divided amongst the league.

Venue controversy

The venues were originally to be drawn by lot, but in early August, the league decided to fix the venues in advance, and in doing so did not schedule a final at Geelong's home ground of Corio Oval, which offered much lower gate takings than the four venues in Melbourne where the matches were originally scheduled (the MCG, the Brunswick Street Oval, the Lake Oval and the East Melbourne Cricket Ground).^[7]

This decision was later reversed after Geelong, who had won the minor premiership, lodged an official complaint with the league stating that this arrangement would be unfair to the club and its supporters.

The league agreed with this assessment, and when the finals system was determined on August 17, Geelong was scheduled to host its match in the first week.

Week One

First Round Final (Essendon vs Geelong)

First Round Final (Collingwood vs Melbourne)

Week Two

Second Round Final (Essendon vs Collingwood)

Essendon played brilliantly to account for Collingwood, kicking five goals five to three points in the final term. Essendon became the only unbeaten team after round two.

Second Round Final (Geelong vs Melbourne)

Geelong finished the stronger to down Melbourne, with a goal by Eddy James near the end winning the game for them.^[8] The loss eliminated Melbourne from premiership contention.

Week Three

Third Round Final (Essendon vs Melbourne)

Entering this game, Essendon could clinch the premiership with a victory, while Melbourne was already eliminated from premiership contention. In the low-scoring encounter, Melbourne hit the post three times and a goal by Essendon player Waugh was disallowed after the bell. Edgar Croft scored the only goal of the match after marking a skewed kick in the forward pocket.

Third Round Final (Geelong vs Collingwood)

Entering this game, it was known that if {{AFL Ess}} lost to {{AFL Mel}} in the other match (played at the same time), then the winner of this match would face {{AFL Ess}} in a playoff the following week to decide the premiership. Geelong's brilliant first-quarter burst meant Collingwood's chances of making it back into the match were near impossible. However, in a thrilling match, Geelong ran out winners by less than a goal.^[8]

Finals series ladder

Premiership Finals teams

These are the finals teams for the top two teams in the round robin series; and, rather than being "Grand Finalists" (because there was no Grand Final match in 1897), they played to decide the premiership. The players that are listed are players used in any one of the three round robin finals played.

Essendon

The players listed below are in no particular order, however the captain and vice-captain appear first.

Geelong

The players listed below are in no particular order, however the captain appears first.

Series records

See also

References

1. ^{{Cite web|url=http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/C/Charlie_Coles.html |title=Charlie Coles |publisher=AFL Tables |accessdate=2009-07-05 |archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/5iQJdcBpW?url=http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/players/C/Charlie_Coles.html |archivedate=2009-07-21 |deadurl=no |df= }}
2. ^{{Cite web | url = http://afltables.com/afl/seas/1897.html| title = AFL Tables - 1897 Season Scores | publisher = AFL Tables | accessdate = 2008-12-23| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20090114221113/http://afltables.com/afl/seas/1897.html| archivedate= 14 January 2009 | deadurl= no}}
3. ^{{cite news|title=New Football Association – Limited to eight clubs|date=3 October 1896|page=10|newspaper=The Argus}}
4. ^{{cite news|title=The New Football League – Its Plan of Campaign|date=4 February 1897|page=6|newspaper=The Argus}}
5. ^{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9167558 |title=THE FOOTBALL SEASON. POSTPONEMENT OF CHARITY MATCHES. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=16 August 1897 |accessdate=14 October 2014 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}
6. ^{{cite news|date=18 August 1897|title=Football – Victorian Football League – the Premiership Question|newspaper=The Argus|page=3}}
7. ^{{cite news|date=7 August 1897|title=The Football Premiership - Arrangements for the finals|newspaper=The Argus|page=11}}
8. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷{{cite book|last=Atkinson|first=Graeme|title=The Complete Book of AFL Finals|publisher=The Five Mile Press|year=2002|pages=|isbn=978-1-86503-892-6}}
9. ^{{cite news|title=Essendon win at Geelong|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9170424|accessdate=6 July 2010|newspaper=The Argus|date=23 August 1897|location=Melbourne|page=6}}
10. ^{{cite book |title=Our Game: 150 Years of Footy - Part 1: It's in our blood |last=Grant |first=Trevor |authorlink= |year=2008 |publisher=The Herald and Weekly Times |location=Southbank, Victoria |isbn= |page=5 |pages= |url= }} "Peter Burns was regarded by many as footy's first superstar. He was so idolised by youngsters, folklore has it that many of their night-time prayers finished: "God bless Peter Burns."
11. ^¹Main, J. & Connolly, R. (2005). More than a century of AFL Grand Finals, 4th ed.. (Pennon Publishing) {{ISBN|1-877029-95-5}}
12. ^{{cite web|url=http://afltables.com/afl/teams/allteams/gamer.html|title=AFL Tables - Game records|accessdate=19 May 2012|publisher=AFL Tables}}
13. ^¹Holmesby, R. & Main, J. (2007). The Encyclopedia of AFL Footballers, 7th ed.. (Bas Publishing) {{ISBN|978-1-920910-78-5}}
14. ^{{Cite web |url=http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/r.htm#Edward%20Rankin%20(Geelong) |title=Edward Rankin (Geelong) |publisher=Full Points Footy |accessdate=2009-07-05 |archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/5iQJbx8xa?url=http://www.fullpointsfooty.net/r.htm#Edward%20Rankin%20(Geelong)#Edward%20Rankin%20(Geelong) |archivedate=21 July 2009 |deadurl=yes |df=dmy-all }}