1923 VFA season

The 1923 Victorian Football Association season was the 45th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club, after it defeated Port Melbourne by 14 points in the Grand Final on 1 October. It was the club's eighth VFA premiership, which meant that the club surpassed Geelong (L.) for the most premierships won in VFA history.

1923 VFA premiership season
Teams	10
Premiers	Footscray 8th premiership
Minor premiers	Footscray 7th minor premiership
← 1922 1924 →

Rule changes

In 1923, the League and Association entered into a new agreement in which players could not transfer from one competition to the other without a clearance from his club and a permit from his current competition. Such a rule had existing prior to 1918, but since it had lapsed a refusal by one competition to permit a transfer was not binding in the other.^[1] The League was motivated to enter into the agreement by the aggressive recruiting of some Association clubs over the previous few years. The agreement was intended to last for five years, but it was broken prior to the 1925 season during the off-field machinations which led to Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne leaving the Association and joining the League.^[2]

Premiership

The home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds, with each club playing the others twice; then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended Argus system to determine the premiers for the season.

Ladder

1923 VFA ladder

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	D	PF	PA	PP	Pts
1	Footscray (P)	18	16	2	0	1527	910	59.6	64
2	Port Melbourne	18	15	2	1	1399	930	66.5	62
3	Williamstown	18	12	6	0	1187	966	81.4	48
4	Hawthorn	18	11	7	0	1203	975	81.0	44
5	Brunswick	18	9	8	1	1120	1109	99.0	38
6	North Melbourne	18	9	8	1	1143	1132	99.0	38
7	Brighton	18	8	10	0	1170	1213	103.7	32
8	Prahran	18	3	14	1	861	1535	178.3	14
9	Northcote	18	3	15	0	952	1217	127.8	12
10	Geelong	18	2	16	0	855	1439	168.3	8

Source: ^[3]
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) percentage; 3) number of points for.
(P) Premiers

Finals

	Semifinals
Saturday, 8 September	Port Melbourne 14.11 (95)	def.	Hawthorn 9.13 (67)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 12,000)	[4]
Saturday, 15 September	Footscray 12.7 (79)	def.	Williamstown 6.11 (47)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 15,000)	[5]

	Final
Saturday, 22 September	Footscray 5.11 (41)	def. by	Port Melbourne 8.9 (57)	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 20,000)	[6]

	1923 VFA Grand Final
Saturday, 29 September	Footscray	def.	Port Melbourne	North Melbourne Recreation Reserve (crowd: 18,000)	[7][8]
	3.4 (22) 3.4 (22) 6.9 (45) 7.10 (52)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	0.0 (0) 2.1 (13) 2.2 (14) 5.8 (38)	Umpires: Jones
Mullins 2, Eason, Howell, O'Brien, Samson, Scanlon		Goals	Kerley 2, Barfoot, Cruddin, Taylor
C. Howell, for elbowing H. Bissett C. Howell for fighting with H. Bissett V. Samson, for striking G. Dobrigh A. Smith, for retaliating against G. Dobrigh after being struck		Reports	G. Ogilvie, for striking L. Zinnick J. Garbutt, for striking L. Mullins H. Bissett, for fighting with C. Howell G. Dobrigh, for charging A. Smith G. Dobrigh, for retaliating against V. Samson after being charged G. Dobrigh, for striking A. Smith G. Dobrigh, for using bad language with the umpire

Awards

• Carpenter (Williamstown) was the leading goalkicker for the home-and-home matches, with 61 goals, narrowly beating George Taylor (Port Melbourne), who kicked 58 goals.^[3] Across all matches including finals, Taylor (65) led from Carpenter (63).

See also

• List of VFA premiers