Grand Final History

A year unlike any other. Committee room coups, on field violence, players arrested and charged in court, umpires assaulted at the tribunal hearings and bribery allegations during the final series. It has to be a bumper episode to fit all this in, so put your headphones on and find out what happened in the most controversial season of all time.  And on a positive note, the New York Times publishes...

The Grand Final is held in October for the first time. This year also saw a visit from a touring American team playing Australian rules, would they help grow the game in the USA? Carlton have to deal with dissent and disunity as they chase their fourth premiership in a row, St Kilda select a suspended player and lose one of their few victories for the year. And with the introduction of Half Day Tr...

The first two expansion clubs, Richmond and University, join the VFL to make a ten team competition. Victoria wins the International Football Jubilee held at the MCG to celebrate the 50th year of the Australian Game.  During the 1908 season St Kilda was caught up in two separate dramas. Were committee members and players caught up in gambling? Was there a game lost deliberately against a less esta...

The season starts a week earlier and not everyone is happy. St Kilda has their most successful season yet while South Melbourne also make a move up the ladder. The VFL continues to talk up international expansion and also finds a new way to get more people to attend each semi final. Melbourne tries to appoint a coach but the sticky issue of professionalism causes more problems. And when it gets to...

A supplementary program that takes a quick look at the first 10 years of the VFL looking at  The Different Finals Systems used and the Grand Final Venues The efforts of the VFL to promote the game nationally and internationally The emerging challenges of player payments and gambling It is a way of looking at some of the trends of the first decade and see how the VFL developed in its early years. 

The tenth year of the VFL saw the competition healthy and popular. The crowds had returned but there were growing rumblings about clubs breaching the original salary cap. No one was supposed to be paid when the rules said it was an amateur competition. But with big gate takings and the desire to win if you could get the best players. One reporter called it the world's most expensive form of amateu...

The VFL was sending money to Queensland to help support the Australian game in Brisbane and beyond. (Perhaps this investment paid off in 2020 when many clubs were able to relocate to Queensland during the Corona Virus affected season?) Some clubs in 1905 were not happy about the Grand Final being played at the MCG every year, disadvantaging the teams that had succeeded during the year and costing...

The game is getting too fast for one umpire, it is time to bring in boundary umpires, who will signal out of bounds by waving white handkerchiefs.  Carlton had some challenges when the committee tried to sack the coach but the players backed their man and it was the committee members who were pushed out. Many more committee room coups to come. The VFL learns that it can increase the price of final...

The first push to promote the game in Sydney. A game for premiership points payed in the harbour town, with no radio or TV to follow the game, some supporters were not too happy about losing a chance to watch their team play. And in an preview of 2020 one club has to cancel games and change their travel schedule because of a deadly contagious virus. 

The Grand Final is played at the MCG, the Home of Football for the first time. And see which club employed the first coach. The Argus Finals system was updated and the specter of gambling and its influence over the game was raised again, possibly leading to the end of a champions career. 

Australia became a united country. So we would have interstate games instead of inter colonial games.  The final system updated again and the first use of the term Grand Final as the first version of the "Argus System" made its debut. And see why Geelong were unhappy about the lack of a challenge option for the team finishing on top of the ladder, the only time this happened in normal finals until...

The process for deciding the premiership continued to be criticized, St Kilda would win a game with the decision being made at league headquarters in the week after the game, just like 2008 Sirengate affair in York Park Tasmania and one team makes a late run for the premiership which results in more changes to the finals in years to come. 

The third season of the VFL and the number of players on the ground was reduced from 20 to 18 to reduce congestion and open the game up. There were fears about the influence of gambling and the role of bookmakers and allegations that the VFL was more focused on money than spectators when it came to selecting a ground for the Grand Final

The second year of the VFL saw the first Grand Final. But only after one of the competing teams decided not to follow through with their threat to boycott the match.

The very first year of the VFL and there wasn't even a Grand Final.  Start the journey here at the beginning of the VFL as they established a new competition for Australian Rules Football in Victoria that would eventually grow into the AFL we know today.

Welcome to Grand Final History, a Podcast that explores every VFL and AFL premiership since 1897. Each episode takes you through a summary of the season, the changing rules, emerging trends, controversies and highlights. Then into the finals culminating in two teams challenging each other in a Grand Final to become the premiers for the year (Apart from the seasons where a round robin system replac...