1902 VFL season

Infobox Victorian Football League season
year = 1902


imagesize = 120px
caption = Ted Rowell
clubs = 8
home-and-away season = 14 rounds
premiership team = Collingwood
count = 1st
minor premiers = Collingwood
mpcount = 1st
champion of the season = Ted Rowell
cclub = Collingwood
top goal kicker = Charlie Baker (30)

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1902.

Premiership season

In 1902, the VFL competition was comprised 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 1902 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

Grand Final

"See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list."

Collingwood defeated Essendon 9.6 (60) to 3.9 (27). (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

Awards

* The 1902 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Ted Rowell of Collingwood with 33 goals.
* Despite having been accused of "tanking" in Collingwood's (24 May) fourth home-and-away match against Fitzroy, "The Argus" newspaper's "Player of the Year", Collingwood's Ted Rowell, was declared 1902 Champion of the Season.
* St Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1902.

Notable Events

* Due to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, Victoria was no longer a "Colony". Thus, the former "Champion of the Colony" award was renamed the "Champion of the Season".
* The VFL institutes the amended "Argus" system to determine the season's premiers.
* Collingwood's Charlie Pannam becomes the first VFL player to play 100 VFL games (at the end of the 1902 season, he had played in 104 of the 106 VFL games that Collingwood had played since the VFL's first round of games in 1897).

References

* Hogan, P., "The Tigers Of Old", The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
* 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/1902.html 1902 Season - AFL Tables]