1898 VFL season

The 1898 VFL season was the second season of the Victorian Football League, 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".
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 finals system.

Home-and-away season

Round 8

Ladder

	Premiers
	Section A
	Section B

Finals series

The VFL introduced a new system of finals for the 1898 season. The new system, which was used from 1898–1900, allowed all clubs to compete for the major premiership, with the minor premiers having the right to challenge for the premiership.

Sectional rounds

Section A ladder

Section B ladder

Finals

All starting times are local time. Source:

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. 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:

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 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.