1873 Victorian football season
| 1873 Victorian football Premiership season | |
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| Premiers | Carlton |
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The 1873 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1873. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier club was Carlton.
1873 premiership
Four metropolitan clubs participated in senior football during the 1873 season: Albert-park, Carlton, Melbourne and University – but University played very few games, so its record is not shown below.
Notable for its absence was the South Yarra Football Club; after being a powerhouse of the 1860s, the club folded in 1873. Many of its players went to the nearly and newly established junior St Kilda Football Club, which was later elevated to senior ranks in 1874.
Carlton and Melbourne were considered the dominant clubs in the city, so the premier club was decided based entirely on the head-to-head record between the clubs; in their four meetings, Carlton won two and two were drawn, so Carlton was recognised as the premier club for the season.[1]
Club senior records
The below table is set of results for senior clubs during the 1873 season. The list shows the record across all matches, including senior, junior and intercolonial matches. Not included in the table are the unfinished matches between Carlton and Albert-park and between Carlton and University.
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| No. | TEAM | P | W | L | D | GF | GA | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlton (P) | 12 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 6 | |||||||||
| 2 | Melbourne | 16 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 6 | |||||||||
| Albert-park | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, (P) = Premiers | Source:[1] | |||||||||||||||
Geelong was the strongest provincial team; it was undefeated in provincial matches, and suffered its only loss of the season against Melbourne. According to the official tables published in the Argus in the 1890s[2] and later in the Football Record, Geelong was the third-placed team in the Victorian premiership in 1873.[3]
Of the long list of junior clubs to compete at relatively even standard – Carlton Imperial, Collingwood, East Melbourne, Essendon, Hawthorn, North Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, Southern, South-park, Studley-park and Williamstown – there was no clear premier club, with none managing an unbeaten record in matches against the other juniors.[1] The numbers advantage to juniors clubs in matches at odds against senior clubs was reduced in 1873, with the junior club usually fielding eighteen men to the senior club's twenty.[4]
Notable events
- From 1873, clubs began wearing distinctive uniforms to assist in distinguishing between the two teams. Prior to 1873, the colour of the players' caps was usually the only distinguishing feature.[1]
- The sole match between Carlton and Albert-park was abandoned when Carlton disputed the umpire's decision to award a mark to Albert-park in front of goal. Albert-park refused to play another match against Carlton during the year following the incident.[1]
