The 1903 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the V ...

, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

on 12 September 1903. It was the 6th annual

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

of the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

, staged to determine the

premiers Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

for the

1903 VFL season The 1903 VFL season was the seventh season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 2 May until 12 September, and comprised a 1 ...

. The match, attended by 32,263 spectators, was won by Collingwood by a margin of 2 points, marking that club's second successive premiership victory.

Gerald Brosnan Gerald Brosnan (14 August 1877 – 29 July 1965) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the early years of the Victorian Football League (VFL). He played as a key position forward and had an accurate lef ...

had a chance to win Fitzroy the premiership with a set shot for goal off the last kick of the game but missed narrowly to give Collingwood back-to-back flags. Collingwood's Jim Addison, despite playing in just his third game, was the only multiple goalkicker. Both Ern Jenkins and Bert Sharpe of Fitzroy were celebrating their 100th VFL games.

Lead-up

After the home-and-away season (which lasted for seventeen matches, including the "first round" of fourteen matches and a "second round" of three matches), Collingwood was top of the ladder with a record of 15–2 and a percentage of 159.4; Fitzroy finished second with a record of 14–3 and a percentage of 171.6. The finals were contested using the variation of the amended ''Argus'' system seen between 1902–1906. Fitzroy faced fourth-placed in the First Semi-Final, and won by 52 points, and Collingwood faced third-placed in the Second Semi-Final and won by four points. Collingwood and Fitzroy then faced off to decide the premiers.

Right to challenge

Under the variation of the ''Argus'' System in use between 1902–1906, the club with the best record in all matches (including finals) could have challenged for the premiership if it had not won this game. However, the team that won this game would have become the team with the best record, depriving the other team of the right to challenge, meaning the winner of this match would automatically win the premiership. Entering the match, Collingwood had a record of 16–2, and Fitzroy had a record of 15–3, but a superior percentage. Therefore, a Collingwood win would have their 17–2 record have ranked above Fitzroy's 15–4, and while a Fitzroy win would have left both clubs level on 16–3, Fitzroy would have been ranked above Collingwood on percentage. This is different from the ruling which would have been used under the more widely known variation of the ''Argus'' System, which was in use from 1907–1930. In that variation, the team with the best record in matches ''excluding'' finals had the right to challenge; as Collingwood had the best record after 17 weeks, it would have retained the right to challenge regardless of finals results.

Teams

* Umpire – Dick Gibson

Statistics

Goalkickers

Attendance

* MCG crowd – 32,263

References

1903 VFL Grand Final statistics
* ''The Official statistical history of the AFL 2004'' * Ross, J. (ed), ''100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported'', Viking, (Ringwood), 1996.