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1904 VFL season
Fitzroy premiership captain Gerald Brosnan
Clubs	8
Home-and-Away Season	14 rounds
Premiership Team	Fitzroy (3rd premiership)
Minor Premiers	Fitzroy (3rd)
VFL Leading Goalkicker	Vin Coutie (39)

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1904.

Premiership season

In 1904, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their place on the field at any time during the match.

Each team played each other twice in a home-and-away season of 14 rounds.

Once the 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1904 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Ladder

All teams played 14 games during the home and away season, for a total of 56. A sectional round of 3 games per team was then played, for a total of 12. An additional 3 games were played during the finals series.

Home and away ladder

Pre-finals ladder

Grand final

Fitzroy defeated Carlton 9.7 (61) to 5.7 (37). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

• The 1904 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Vince Coutie of Melbourne with 39 goals.
• St Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1904.

Notable events

• The final home-and-away match between South Melbourne and Fitzroy at the Lake Oval was a torrid affair; Billy McGee of South Melbourne and Harry Clarke of Fitzroy were each suspended for three matches, whilst South Melbourne's Billy Gent who had run amok during the match, charging at players and punching them in the face, was suspended for the remainder of the 1904 season and the whole of the 1905 season.
• After the drawn match between Geelong and Carlton at Corio Oval on 9 July 1904, a spectator is arrested for attacking the field umpire, Henry "Ivo" Crapp.
• The VFL introduces boundary umpires.
• In round four, Essendon plays Melbourne in Sydney in front of only 6,000 spectators at the Sydney Cricket Ground, loses to Melbourne, takes five days to return to Melbourne by sea, then loses again to Fitzroy in their Saturday's round five match.
• In the Final Premiership match Carlton was surging ahead of Fitzroy, and one of the Carlton forwards (Ross, 1996, does not name him, but it was most likely Mick Grace) took a powerful high overhead mark with his knees in his opponent's back. The field umpire, Henry "Ivo" Crapp, obeying the VFL rules of the day, paid a free kick to the Fitzroy player for "interference". Fitzroy steadied and went on to win the game. There was such an outcry after the match that the VFL immediately amended its rules to allow for what it now termed "unintentional interference".

References

• 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

• 1904 Season - AFL Tables