1898 VFL season

The 1898 VFL season was the second season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs and ran from 14 May to 24 September, comprising a 14-round home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring all eight clubs.

won the premiership, defeating by 15 points in the 1898 VFL grand final; it was Fitzroy's first VFL premiership. Essendon won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with an 11–3 win–loss record. 's Archie Smith won the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.

Background
In 1898, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 20 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" (although any of the 20 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 1898 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the 1898 VFL Premiership System.

Ladder

 * - style=background:#E6E6FA
 * 1 || align=left | || 14 || 11 || 3 || 0 || 756 || 374 || 202.1 || 44
 * - style=background:#FEEAD3
 * 2 || align=left | || 14 || 10 || 4 || 0 || 657 || 363 || 181.0 || 40
 * - style=background:#E6E6FA
 * 3 || align=left | (P) || 14 || 10 || 4 || 0 || 568 || 467 || 121.6 || 40
 * - style=background:#FEEAD3
 * 4 || align=left | || 14 || 9 || 5 || 0 || 645 || 425 || 151.8 || 36
 * - style=background:#E6E6FA
 * 5 || align=left | || 14 || 7 || 7 || 0 || 482 || 538 || 89.6 || 28
 * - style=background:#FEEAD3
 * 6 || align=left | || 14 || 5 || 8 || 1 || 529 || 545 || 97.1 || 22
 * - style=background:#E6E6FA
 * 7 || align=left | || 14 || 3 || 10 || 1 || 382 || 634 || 60.3 || 14
 * - style=background:#FEEAD3
 * 8 || align=left | || 14 || 0 || 14 || 0 || 339 || 1012 || 33.5 || 0
 * }

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Average score: 38.9 Source: AFL Tables

Section A ladder

 * - style=background:#FFFFBB
 * 1 || align=left | || 3 || 3 || 0 || 0 || 182 || 56 || 325.0 || 12
 * 2 || align=left | || 3 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 132 || 77 || 171.4 || 8
 * 3 || align=left | || 3 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 104 || 110 || 94.5 || 4
 * 4 || align=left | || 3 || 0 || 3 || 0 || 37 || 212 || 17.5 || 0
 * }
 * 4 || align=left | || 3 || 0 || 3 || 0 || 37 || 212 || 17.5 || 0
 * }
 * }

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Source: AFL Tables

Section B ladder



 * - style=background:#FFFFBB
 * 1 || align=left | || 3 || 3 || 0 || 0 || 203 || 98 || 207.1 || 12
 * 2 || align=left | || 3 || 2 || 1 || 0 || 210 || 88 || 238.6 || 8
 * 3 || align=left | || 3 || 1 || 2 || 0 || 95 || 150 || 63.3 || 4
 * 4 || align=left | || 3 || 0 || 3 || 0 || 71 || 243 || 29.2 || 0
 * }
 * 4 || align=left | || 3 || 0 || 3 || 0 || 71 || 243 || 29.2 || 0
 * }
 * }

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Source: AFL Tables

Finals
All starting times are local time. Source: AFL Tables

Win–loss table
The following table can be sorted from biggest winning margin to biggest losing margin for each round. If two or more matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage (i.e. the lowest-scoring winning team is ranked highest and the lowest-scoring losing team is ranked lowest). Opponents are listed above the margins and home matches are in bold.

By winning the minor premiership and accruing at least eight premiership points from its three sectional matches, Essendon won the right to challenge the semi-final winner for the premiership.

Source: AFL Tables

Season notes

 * On 21 May 1898, playing against St Kilda Football Club, Geelong's Firth McCallum eluded 12 opponents to score a goal.
 * In round 3, Carlton and Essendon kicked a combined 0.4 (4) in the second half. This stands as the lowest-scoring half in VFL/AFL history.
 * On 12 August 1898, the League issues a directive that all field umpires are banned from playing, after umpire Samuel Hood plays for Footscray against North Melbourne in a VFA match on the 6th of August.
 * A VFL representative team played two matches against a combined Ballarat Football League team. The VFL won their home match, and lost their away match.
 * Essendon player Corrie Gardner, who also played for Melbourne Football Club from 1900 to 1903 and in 1905, and who represented Australia in the hurdles and the long jump at the 1904 Summer Olympics at St. Louis, Missouri in the USA, won the Australian Amateur Athletics hurdle championship in 1898.
 * At the end of the home-and away season, Essendon had a VFL record percentage of 202.2%.
 * 1898 was the first VFL season that the premiership had been decided in a "challenge" match.
 * A set of brothers played for Fitzroy in the 1898 "Grand Final Match": Jim Grace and Mick Grace.

Awards

 * The 1898 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
 * The VFL's leading goalkicker was Archie Smith of Collingwood with 31 goals.
 * The wooden spoon went to St Kilda.