1903 VFL grand final
grand final of the 1903 Victorian Football League season
The 1903 VFL grand final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Collingwood Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 12 September 1903. It was the 6th annual grand final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1903 VFL season. The match, attended by 32,263 spectators, was won by Collingwood by a margin of two points, marking that club's second successive premiership victory.
Gerald Brosnan 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, 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 first amended Argus system, seen between 1902 and 1906. Fitzroy faced fourth-placed Geelong in the first semi-final, and won by 52 points, and Collingwood faced third-placed Carlton in the second semi-final and won by four points.
Collingwood (now 16–2) and Fitzroy (now 15–3) then faced off in the final.
“1903 VFL grand final” enters the record as grand final of the 1903 Victorian Football League season. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what grand, final and Victorian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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