# 1898 Geelong Football Club season

The 1898 VFL Season was the Geelong Football Club's second season in the Victorian Football League and its second with Jack Conway as captain.
Geelong finished the home and away with 9 wins and 5 losses, finishing in fourth position. In the final series, Geelong finished with 2 wins and 1 loss, finishing in second position on the Section B Ladder. Geelong failed to qualify for the semi-final.
The leading goalkicker was Eddy James with 26 goals.

## Playing List

Twelve Geelong players made their VFL debuts and a total of 34 players were used during the season. Six players played 17 games for Geelong this season, and, Eddy James again was the club's leading goalkicker with 26 this season.

### Statistics

* Denotes statistical category leader for season
Geelong's 1898 playing list and statistics :
| Player | Games | Goals | Milestones |
| Ernest Anderson | 1 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 11) |
| Les Bailiff | 9 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 9) |
| Bert Barling | 8 | 1 | |
| Sam Brockwell | 15 | 0 | |
| Peter Burns | 17 | 3 | |
| Ossie Calvert | 2 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 13) |
| Charlie Coles | 3 | 1 | |
| Jack Conway | 17 | 0 | |
| Walter Cooke | 9 | 1 | VFL Debut (Round 2) |
| Alf Dear | 13 | 2 | VFL Debut (Round 2) |
| Jack Dore | 5 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 3) |
| Jim Flynn | 17 | 2 | |
| Ted Greeves | 4 | 0 | |
| Teddy Holligan | 17 | 7 | |
| Eddy James | 13 | 26 | |
| Alec King | 6 | 3 | VFL Debut (Round 11) |
| Paddy Leahy | 3 | 0 | |
| Ernie Leighton | 13 | 13 | VFL Debut (Round 5) |
| Tom Maguire | 1 | 0 | |
| Firth McCallum | 16 | 9 | |
| Arthur McKenzie | 4 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 14) |
| Henry McShane | 15 | 1 | |
| Jim McShane | 16 | 5 | |
| Joe McShane | 17 | 4 | |
| Jack O'Loughlin | 12 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 1) |
| Jack Parkin | 16 | 4 | |
| Arthur Pincott | 17 | 0 | |
| Jack Quinn | 5 | 2 | |
| Bill Robertson | 1 | 0 | VFL Debut (Round 2) |
| Cecil Sandford | 1 | 1 | |
| Archie Thompson | 16 | 3 | |
| Dick Walker | 14 | 10 | VFL Debut (Round 2) |
| Fred White | 16 | 13 | |
| Henry Young | 1 | 1 | |

## Season summary

In a quite competitive season, Geelong's 9-5 record meant that Geelong finished in fourth position on the ladder and, therefore, qualified for the Section B finals group. In Section B, Geelong had a 2-1 record which meant the finished in second position and did not qualify for the semi-finals.

### Results

Key :
| H | Home game |
| A | Away game |
| SR | Sectional Round |
Table of season results :
| Round | Date | Result | Score | Score | Score | Opponent | Score | Score | Score | Ground | Ground | Attendance | Ladder | Report |
| Round | Date | Result | G | B | T | Opponent | G | B | T | Ground | Ground | Attendance | Ladder | Report |
| 1 | 14 May | Lost | 3 | 9 | 27 | Collingwood | 7 | 6 | 48 | Victoria Park | A | - | 6th | Report |
| 2 | 21 May | Won | 11 | 19 | 85 | St Kilda | 2 | 5 | 17 | Corio Oval | H | - | 3rd | Report |
| 3 | 24 May | Won | 7 | 18 | 60 | South Melbourne | 1 | 2 | 8 | Corio Oval | H | - | 3rd | Report |
| 4 | 28 May | Won | 3 | 12 | 30 | Carlton | 4 | 5 | 29 | Princes Park | A | - | 3rd | Report |
| 5 | 4 June | Lost | 4 | 10 | 34 | Fitzroy | 6 | 3 | 39 | Corio Oval | H | - | 3rd | Report |
| 6 | 11 June | Won | 4 | 7 | 31 | Essendon | 3 | 6 | 24 | Corio Oval | H | - | 3rd | Report |
| 7 | 18 June | Lost | 5 | 9 | 39 | Melbourne | 9 | 5 | 59 | Melbourne Cricket Ground | A | - | 4th | Report |
| 8 | 25 June | Won | 6 | 5 | 41 | Collingwood | 2 | 10 | 22 | Corio Oval | H | - | 3rd | Report |
| 9 | 9 July | Won | 13 | 15 | 93 | St Kilda | 3 | 7 | 25 | Junction Oval | A | - | 2nd | Report |
| 10 | 16 July | Won | 3 | 11 | 29 | South Melbourne | 1 | 3 | 9 | Lake Oval | A | - | 2nd | Report |
| 11 | 23 July | Won | 8 | 10 | 58 | Carlton | 5 | 2 | 32 | Corio Oval | H | - | 2nd | Report |
| 12 | 30 July | Lost | 4 | 6 | 30 | Fitzroy | 5 | 9 | 39 | Brunswick Street Oval | A | - | 3rd | Report |
| 13 | 13 August | Lost | 5 | 7 | 37 | Essendon | 7 | 13 | 55 | East Melbourne Cricket Ground | A | - | 4th | Report |
| 14 | 20 August | Won | 7 | 9 | 51 | Melbourne | 2 | 7 | 19 | Corio Oval | H | - | 4th | Report |
| SR1 | 27 August | Won | 11 | 12 | 78 | Melbourne | 2 | 4 | 16 | Corio Oval | H | - | 1st | Report |
| SR2 | 3 September | Lost | 4 | 6 | 30 | Collingwood | 6 | 9 | 45 | Victoria Park | A | - | 2nd | Report |
| SR3 | 10 September | Won | 14 | 18 | 102 | St Kilda | 4 | 3 | 27 | Corio Oval | H | - | 2nd | Report |

### Ladder

| (P) | Premiers |
| | Section A |
| | Section B |
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
| 1 | Essendon | 14 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 756 | 374 | 202.1 | 44 |
| 2 | Collingwood | 14 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 657 | 363 | 181.0 | 40 |
| 3 | Fitzroy (P) | 14 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 568 | 467 | 121.6 | 40 |
| 4 | Geelong | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 645 | 425 | 151.8 | 36 |
| 5 | South Melbourne | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 482 | 538 | 89.6 | 28 |
| 6 | Melbourne | 14 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 529 | 545 | 97.1 | 22 |
| 7 | Carlton | 14 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 382 | 634 | 60.3 | 14 |
| 8 | St Kilda | 14 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 339 | 1012 | 33.5 | 0 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Average score: 38.9 Source: AFL Tables

### Section B Ladder

* Qualified for finals
| # | Team | P | W | L | D | PF | PA | % | Pts |
| 1 | Collingwood | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 203 | 98 | 207.1 | 12 |
| 2 | Geelong | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 210 | 88 | 238.6 | 8 |
| 3 | Melbourne | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 95 | 150 | 63.3 | 4 |
| 4 | St Kilda | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 71 | 243 | 29.2 | 0 |
Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Source: AFL Tables