1872 Victorian football season
| 1872 Victorian football Premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Premiers | Melbourne |
|
← 1871
1873 →
|
|
The 1872 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1872. The season consisted of matches between football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The Melbourne Football Club was the premier club for the season.
1872 season
Four clubs participated in senior football during the 1870 season: Albert-park, Carlton, Melbourne and South Yarra.
Melbourne was the premier club for the season; Carlton was placed second. The two clubs were the dominant senior clubs in the colony, and the premiership was mostly determined based on the win-loss record in matches between the two: their four matches yielded two wins for Melbourne, one win for Carlton and one draw. Albert-park was placed third, and South Yarra once again failed to win a game against any of the other principal clubs. There was no Challenge Cup contested by the senior clubs during the 1872 season.[1]
In the junior competition, a Junior Challenge Cup was established, contested and paid for equally by the four leading junior clubs: Collingwood, East Melbourne, Richmond and Southern. The cup was contested as a round-robin amongst the four teams, with each club playing the others twice, earning two premiership points for a win and one for a draw. Richmond won the cup with eight points; Collingwood was second with seven points; East Melbourne was third with six points; and Southern was fourth with three points. The junior clubs played several games at odds against the seniors, with the seniors usually fielding sixteen men to the juniors' twenty, compared with fifteen-to-twenty in 1871.[1]
Notable events
- The ball-up was introduced to the rules of the game in 1872. Until 1871, a scrimmage would be allowed to continue until the ball was won; but from 1872, the central umpire was able to intervene and throw the ball into the air for a neutral contest whenever a scrimmage formed.[1]
- On 14 September, a match was played at even strength between Melbourne and a team comprising five players from each of the four main junior clubs. The match was drawn 1–1.[2]
