1923 VFL season

Infobox Victorian Football League season
year = 1923


imagesize = 150px
caption = Premiership player Fred Baring
clubs = 9
home-and-away season = 18 rounds
premiership team = Essendon
count = 5th
minor premiers = Essendon
champion of the season = Tom Fitzmaurice
top goal kicker = Greg Stockdale (64)Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1923.

Premiership season

In 1923, the VFL competition had nine 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 18 rounds (i.e., 16 matches and 2 byes).

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1923 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

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Ladder

Finals

First Semi Final

econd Semi Final

Final

Challenge Final

Awards

* The 1923 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Greg Stockdale of Essendon with 68 goals.
* "The Argus" newspaper's "Player of the Year", Tom Fitzmaurice of Essendon, was declared 1923 Champion of the Season.
* Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1923.

Notable Events

* New scoreboards are erected at each home ground by the VFL's publication, "The Football Record". With the help of a key published in that Saturday afternoon's "Record", spectators can decipher the coded quarter-by-quarter scores of the other three matches as they appear on these scoreboards throughout the afternoon.
* After the round 13 match against Essendon at Windy Hill, at an after-match function in the Esendon rooms, Carlton rover George Bolt and backman Jack Morrissey (who had not played in that game) came to blows. The Carlton Committee met the next day and suspended both players indefinitely. Bolt never played for Carlton again (he reappeared with Hawthorn in 1925, then he played for North Melbourne in 1926 and 1927); Jack Morrissey played his next game for Carlton on 27 June 1925 (round 9).
* The 1922 Victorian Interstate team captain, and Carlton star ruckman, Bert Boromeo was overheard being intensely critical of the Carlton captain-coach Horrie Clover at the same function. The Carlton Committee was upset at such behaviour occurring on the premises of another club, and suspended Boromeo immediately; eventually, in 1926, Carlton cleared Boromeo to Richmond for whom he played 14 games.
* The Essendon Premiership team was known as the "Mosquito Fleet", due to the number of small, very fast players in the side. Six were 5'6" (167 cm) or less: Charlie Hardy 5'1" (155cm), who played his first VFL game at the age of 34, George Shorten 5'5" (165cm), Jack Garden 5'5" (165cm), Frank Maher 5'6" (167.5cm), Vince Irwin 5'6" (167.5cm), and Jimmy Sullivan 5'6" (167.5cm).
* The Challenge Final match had to be postponed for a week as the Melbourne Cricket Ground was under water due to intense rain. This meant that the Challenge Final was played on Saturday 20 October 1923, Caulfield Cup Day.

References

* Hogan, P., "The Tigers Of Old", The Richmond Football Club, (Richmond), 1996. ISBN 0-646-18748-1
* 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/1923.html 1923 Season - AFL Tables]