The 1927 VFL season was the 31st season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs and ran from 30 April to 1 October, comprising an 18-match home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.
| 1927 VFL premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Date | 30 April—1 October 1927 |
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers | Collingwood 6th premiership |
| Runners-up | Richmond 3rd runners-up result |
| Minor premiers | Collingwood 9th minor premiership |
| Brownlow Medallist | Syd Coventry (Collingwood) 7 votes |
| Leading goalkicker medallist | Gordon Coventry (Collingwood) 88 goals |
| Attendance | |
| Matches played | 111 |
| Total attendance | 1,862,068 (16,775 per match) |
| Highest (H&A) | 42,000 (round 6, Richmond v Carlton) |
| Highest (finals) | 63,620 (semi-final, Richmond v Carlton) |
Collingwood won the premiership, defeating Richmond by twelve points in the 1927 VFL grand final; it was Collingwood's sixth VFL premiership. Collingwood also won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 15–3 win–loss record. Collingwood's Syd Coventry won the Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and his brother and teammate Gordon Coventry won his second consecutive leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.
Background
editIn 1927, the VFL competition consisted of twelve 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.
Teams played each other in a home-and-away season of 18 rounds; matches 12 to 17 were the "home-and-away reverse" of matches 1 to 6, and match 18 the "home-and-away reverse" of match 11.
Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1927 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".
Home-and-away season
editRound 1
editRound 2
editRound 3
editRound 4
editRound 5
editRound 6
editRound 7
editRound 8
editRound 9
editRound 10
editRound 11
editRound 12
editRound 13
editRound 14
editRound 15
editRound 16
editRound 17
editRound 18
editLadder
edit| (P) | Premiers |
| Qualified for finals |
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Collingwood (P) | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 1559 | 1035 | 150.6 | 60 |
| 2 | Richmond | 18 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1483 | 1102 | 134.6 | 56 |
| 3 | Geelong | 18 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 1863 | 1208 | 132.0 | 56 |
| 4 | Carlton | 18 | 13 | 5 | 0 | 1434 | 1178 | 121.7 | 52 |
| 5 | Melbourne | 18 | 12 | 6 | 0 | 1548 | 1169 | 132.4 | 48 |
| 6 | South Melbourne | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 1373 | 1431 | 95.9 | 36 |
| 7 | St Kilda | 18 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1178 | 1564 | 75.3 | 32 |
| 8 | Essendon | 18 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 1198 | 1237 | 96.8 | 26 |
| 9 | Fitzroy | 18 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 1335 | 1558 | 85.7 | 26 |
| 10 | Footscray | 18 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 1131 | 1325 | 85.4 | 24 |
| 11 | North Melbourne | 18 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 1085 | 1476 | 73.5 | 12 |
| 12 | Hawthorn | 18 | 1 | 17 | 0 | 1087 | 1722 | 63.1 | 4 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 74.1
Source: AFL Tables
Finals series
editAll of the 1927 finals were played at the MCG so the home team in the semi-finals and Preliminary Final is purely the higher ranked team from the ladder but in the Grand Final the home team was the team that won the Preliminary Final.
Semi-finals
editGrand final
editSeason notes
edit- In round 9, remembered as "Duncan's Match", Carlton's centre-halfback Alex Duncan took at least 33 marks (some claim he took as many as 45) in a single match.
- South Melbourne Football Club introduced a popular innovation: selling reserved grandstand seats.
- After the round 10 match, the Secretary of the Richmond Football Club, Percy "Pip" Page of "Page–McIntyre system fame, had his jaw broken in a fight that erupted during a club dance.
- The Grand Final was played under atrocious weather conditions on a Melbourne Cricket Ground that resembled a swamp. The two teams scored a combined 38 points, and it was the lowest combined score of any VFL/AFL game (Grand Final or otherwise) played in the 20th century. Including the four seasons played in the 19th century (1897–1900), it was the equal 11th lowest-scoring game of all time.
Awards
edit- The 1927 VFL Premiership team was Collingwood.
- The VFL's leading goalkicker was Gordon Coventry of Collingwood with 97 goals.
- The winner of the 1927 Brownlow Medal was Syd Coventry of Collingwood with 7 votes.
- Hawthorn took the "wooden spoon" in 1927.
- The seconds premiership was won by Carlton for the second straight year. Carlton 12.22 (94) defeated South Melbourne 11.9 (75) in the challenge Grand Final, played as a stand-alone game on 8 October at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 4,210.[1]
References
edit- ^ "League Seconds: Carlton Wins Premiership". The Argus. Melbourne. 10 October 1927. p. 9. Retrieved 11 June 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
- 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
Sources
edit- 1927 VFL season at AFL Tables
- 1927 VFL season at Australian Football