1924 VFL season

Infobox Victorian Football League season
year = 1924


imagesize = 150px
caption = Essendon's premiership captain-coach Syd Barker
clubs = 12
home-and-away season = 18 rounds (two byes per club)
premiership team = Essendon
count = 6th
minor premiers = Essendon
brownlow medalist = Edward Greeves
champion of the season = Tom Fitzmaurice
top goal kicker = Jack Moriarty (82)

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1924.

Premiership season

In 1924, the VFL competition was comprised of 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 1924 VFL "Premiers" were determined by the specific format and conventions of the 1897 round-robin format which the VFL had experimentally reinstated for the 1924 season alone.

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

Grand Final

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

No grand final was held in 1924.

League Ladder

1924 Round-Robin Premiership Competition

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

In 1924, there was no "Grand Final" match, because the VFL experimented with the reinstatement of the round-robin format it had used in its inaugural 1897 season to determine the premiership. The format did not live up to expectations, and the VFL reverted to the "amended "Argus" system" format for the 1925 season.

Essendon finished on top of the ladder at the conclusion of the round-robin final series on the basis of its greater percentage; and, as a consequence, Essendon was awarded the 1924 premiership.

Round-Robin Premiership Competition Ladder

Round-Robin Premiership Competition Team Squads

The experiment with the 1897 round-robin format, with no "Grand Final", also meant that there were no "Grand Final" teams in 1924; [Due to the fact that one of the last pair of round-robin matches that were played on Saturday 27 September, 1924 — Richmond vs. Essendon, at the Lake Oval, and South Melbourne vs. Fitzroy, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground — was between Essendon and Richmond, the eventual premiers and runners up respectively, the Richmond-Essendon match is sometimes mistakenly (and anachronistically) spoken of as being a "Grand Final"] ) instead there was an "Essendon Finals Squad", a "Fitzroy Finals Squad", a "Richmond Finals Squad", and a "South Melbourne Finals Squad".Listed in alphabetical order the four squads were:
* Essendon Squad: Fred Baring, Syd Barker, Sr. (captain), Norm Beckton, Clyde Donaldson, Charlie Farrell, Tom Fitzmaurice, Jack Garden, Harry Gregory, Charlie Hardy, Harry Hunter, Tommy Jenkins, Roy Laing, Frank Maher, Charlie May, Justin McCarthy, George Rawle, George Shorten, Greg Stockdale, Jimmy Sullivan, and Rowley Watt.
* Fitzroy Squad: Bill Adams, Jim Atkinson (captain), Arthur Batchelor, Les Bryant, Charlie Chapman, Goldie Collins, Tommy Corrigan, Arch Dickens, Steve Donnellan, Ern Elliott, Clive Fergie, Jimmy Freake, Len Gale, Tom Hickey, Horrie Jenkin, Gordon McCracken, Stan Molan, Jack Moriarty, Gordon Rattray, Jim Tarbolton, Len Wigraft, and Fred Williams.
* Richmond Squad: Jack Barnett, Ted Bourke, Ralph Empey, Clarrie Hall, Joe Harrison, Doug Hayes, Gordon Hislop, Max Hislop, Jim Karthaus, Bob McCaskill, Norm McIntosh, Angus MacIsaac, Keith Millar, Dan Minogue (captain), Mel Morris, Reuben Reid, George Rudolph, James Smith, Jim Spain, Ernie Taylor, Vic Thorp, and George Valentine.
* South Melbourne Squad: Harry Alexander, Bobby Allison, Phil Brooks, Martin Brown, Roy Cazaly (captain), Bill Condon, Fred Fleiter, Arthur Hando, Jacky Harris, Ted Johnson, Tom Joyce, Frank Laird, Harold Mahony, Herb Matthews, Bob McDonald, Charles McDonald, Gil Miller, Charlie Nicholls, Jack O'Connell, Ted O'Meara, Frank Ross, Joe Scanlan, Paddy Scanlan, Mark Tandy, and Les Woodfield.

Awards

* The 1924 VFL Premiership team was Essendon.
* The VFL's leading goalkicker was Jack Moriarty of Fitzroy with 82 goals; a VFL record. (Moriarty had played 13 senior games for Essendon in 1922, he played in Essendon's Second Eighteen for the entire 1923, and was released to Fitzroy at the end of 1923).
* "The Argus" newspaper's "Player of the Year", Tom Fitzmaurice of Essendon, was declared 1924 Champion of the Season.
* The winner of the 1924 (inaugural) Brownlow Medal was Edward "Carji" Greeves of Geelong with 7 votes.
* St Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1924.

Notable Events

* Charles Brownlow dies on 23 January 1924; the Charles Brownlow Trophy, more commonly known as the "Brownlow Medal", is intituted in his memory. The trophy is to be awarded to "the fairest and best player" in the VFL as determined by the votes of each field umpire at the end of each home-and-away match. In 1924, there was a single vote cast per match (Greeves won the inaugural medal with a total of 7 votes).
* Bill Twomey, Sr. who played for Collingwood (1918-1922) and would play for Hawthorn (1933-1934) — the father of Collingwood's Bill Twomey (1945-1958), Pat Twomey (1947-1949; 1952-1953), and Mick Twomey (1951-1961), and the grandfather of Collingwood's David Twomey (1987-1995) — wins the 1924, 130-yard Stawell Gift in 12.1 seconds, off a handicap of 8½ yards.
* The VFL adopts the convention of "home" teams wearing black shorts and "away" teams wearing white shorts.
* The 1924 Premiership was determined by a round-robin system for the first time since the 1897 VF Premiership. This meant that Essendon, who were easily beaten by Richmond 9.13 (67) to 6.11 (47) in the last of their three matches, went on to become premiers because their percentage (142.7%) was higher than that of Richmond (115.5%). This system was never used again.
* Many of the Essendon players had been far from happy at the poor performances of some of their team-mates against Richmond and there were heated arguments and fist-fights in the rooms after the match, as well as after a post-match function later that evening, related to accusations of "tanking" and receiving bribes.
* The following Saturday, Essendon (in its role as 1924 VFL Premiers) was challenged by 1924 VFA Premiers Footscray Football Club to a match in aid of "Dame Nellie Melba's Disabled Soldiers' Fund", purportedly (but not officially) for the championship of Victoria. Footscray unexpectedly thrashed Essendon 9.10 (64) to 4.12 (36). Again there were accusations of "tanking" and bribery and fist-fights in the change-rooms. The Essendon team almost did not take the field for the second half of the match. Champion centre half-back Tom Fitzmaurice, Champion of the Season in 1923 and 1924 was so disgusted with many of his team-mates having, in his view, deliberately lost the match, he never played again for Essendon.

References

* Hogan P: "The Tigers Of Old", Richmond FC, (Melbourne), 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/1924.html 1924 Season - AFL Tables]
* [http://afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=32977 Frost, L., "Did the 1924 Bombers throw their last game?", (25 September, 2006), AFL Official Website]