# 1929 VFA season

The 1929 VFA season was the 51st season of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), an Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria.
Northcote won the VFA premiership for the first time, after defeating Port Melbourne by 42 points in the 1929 VFA Grand Final.

## Association membership

Two new clubs − Oakleigh and Sandringham − entered the VFA, bringing the size of the Association to twelve clubs (the largest it had been since 1896). This was the last change to the Association membership until 1951.

### Oakleigh admission

In November 1928, the Oakleigh Football Club applied to join the Association. Oakleigh had been a successful club in the Sub-District Association, had a good quality ground, the growing suburb of Oakleigh provided the team strong support, and the club had been previously considered for Association membership. Oakleigh's application was accepted unanimously.

### Sandringham admission

The first steps towards establishing a semi-professional football team from the Sandringham area were made in 1927, with the Black Rock Football Club (Black Rock Amateurs), the Hampton Football Club, the Sandringham Amateur Football Club and the Sandringham District Football Club discussing the viability of amalgamating to form a team in the VFA. The proposal failed after a meeting of club representatives on 17 February 1927 despite Sandringham Amateurs "unreservedly" favouring the concept, wih Black Rock unable to field a team, Hampton opposing the merger on the grounds of losing local identity and Sandringham District wanting at least three clubs involved. All four clubs competed in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association (MAFA) for the 1927 season. On 15 August 1927, four other clubs merged to form the Sandringham Football Club.
On 17 February 1928, Sandringham, Sandringham District and the Sandringham United Football Club amalgamated to form a new Sandringham Football Club. The club entered two teams in the MAFA and one team in the Federal Football Association (FFA) junior competition. The second Sandringham team in the MAFA (known as Sandringham B) withdre from C Section in August 1928 after having a record score kicked against them.
Sandringham was told by the VFA in November 1928 that it would be admitted into the competition if it obtained permission to build a fence around Beach Road Oval; the lack of a fence had prevented the club from entering for the 1928 VFA season. In January 1929, the Sandringham Council supported a bid from an (apparently new) senior Sandringham Football Club to enter the VFA. The bid was successful, and Sandringham was accepted into the Association on 4 February 1929.

## Premiership

To accommodate a balanced fixture with the two extra clubs, the home-and-home season was extended from eighteen matches to twenty-two matches, the longest it had been since fixed-length seasons were first introduced in 1894. Then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended Argus system to determine the premiers for the season.

### Ladder

1929 VFA ladder :
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | D | PF | PA | PP | Pts |
| 1 | Northcote (P) | 22 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 2099 | 1400 | 66.7 | 68 |
| 2 | Port Melbourne | 22 | 17 | 5 | 0 | 1804 | 1391 | 77.1 | 68 |
| 3 | Preston | 22 | 16 | 6 | 0 | 1992 | 1461 | 73.3 | 64 |
| 4 | Brunswick | 22 | 15 | 6 | 1 | 1931 | 1615 | 83.6 | 62 |
| 5 | Oakleigh | 22 | 15 | 7 | 0 | 1717 | 1381 | 80.4 | 60 |
| 6 | Coburg | 22 | 14 | 7 | 1 | 1726 | 1476 | 85.5 | 58 |
| 7 | Yarraville | 22 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 1804 | 1636 | 90.7 | 44 |
| 8 | Williamstown | 22 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 1473 | 1605 | 109.0 | 36 |
| 9 | Brighton | 22 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 1716 | 1805 | 105.2 | 34 |
| 10 | Prahran | 22 | 5 | 16 | 1 | 1543 | 1768 | 114.6 | 22 |
| 11 | Camberwell | 22 | 2 | 20 | 0 | 1438 | 2347 | 163.2 | 8 |
| 12 | Sandringham | 22 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 1336 | 2803 | 209.8 | 4 |

### Finals

| | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | |
| Saturday, 14 September | Port Melbourne 10.15 (75) | def. | Brunswick 9.14 (68) | Coburg Cricket Ground (crowd: 17,000) |
| Saturday, 21 September | Northcote 9.10 (64) | def. | Preston 7.8 (50) | Brunswick Cricket Ground (crowd: 13,500) |
| | Final | Final | Final | |
| Saturday, 28 September | Northcote 9.17 (71) | drew with | Port Melbourne 10.11 (71) | Coburg Cricket Ground (crowd: 13,500) |
| Saturday, 5 October | Northcote 6.15 (51) | def. by | Port Melbourne 8.7 (55) | Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 21,217) |
| | 1929 VFA Grand Final | 1929 VFA Grand Final | 1929 VFA Grand Final | | |
| Saturday, 12 October | Northcote | def. | Port Melbourne | Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 17,304) | |
| | 3.3 (21) 10.10 (70) 12.13 (85) 15.21 (111) | Q1 Q2 Q3 Final | 2.5 (17) 5.5 (35) 8.9 (57) 10.9 (69) | Umpires: McKinnon | Umpires: McKinnon |
| Pruser 4, Seymour 3, Cole 2, Gray 2, Heenan, Koop, Milne, Rowe | Pruser 4, Seymour 3, Cole 2, Gray 2, Heenan, Koop, Milne, Rowe | Goals | Kuhlken 4, Plumridge 2, Carpenter, Hyde, Perrett, Skilton | Kuhlken 4, Plumridge 2, Carpenter, Hyde, Perrett, Skilton |
| Wilson (hip) | Wilson (hip) | Injuries | Perrett (ankles), Crompton (hip), Crossan (arm) | Perrett (ankles), Crompton (hip), Crossan (arm) |
| Towers, for fighting with Lovett | Towers, for fighting with Lovett | Reports | Lovett, for fighting with Towers | Lovett, for fighting with Towers |

## Awards

* Leo McInerney (Brunswick) was the leading goalkicker, with 88 goals in the home-and-home season and 92 goals overall.
* Ted Bourke (Sandringham) won the Recorder Cup as the Association's best and fairest, polling nine votes. W. Brown (Yarraville) finished second with eight votes, and C. Irwin (Brighton) finished third with seven votes.
* Coburg won the seconds (Victorian Junior Football Association) premiership. Coburg 14.16 (100) defeated Williamstown 14.7 (91) at the Oakleigh Cricket Ground on 28 September.

## Notable events

* J. J. Liston, president and delegate of the Williamstown Football Club, was elected president of the Association at the annual general meeting in February 1929, replacing long-serving president John Aikman, who had died in 1928. Liston served in the position until his death in 1944.