Argus finals system
The Argus finals systems were a set of related systems of end-of-season championship playoff tournament used commonly in Australian rules football competitions in the early part of the 20th century. The systems generally comprised a simple four-team tournament, followed by the right of the top ranked team from the home-and-away season to challenge for the premiership. The systems were named after the Melbourne newspaper "The Argus", which developed and supported their use. First Argus system. In 1901, the Victorian Football League first adopted the "Argus system", after issues had emerged with the  fairness of the system which had been introduced in 1898. The initial Argus system was, in effect, a simple four-team knock-out tournament, played as follows: First amended Argus system. The major flaw with the Argus system used in 1901 was that the four qualifying teams had a statistically equal chance to win the premiership. This particularly displeased Geelong, who had won the minor premiership, but were eliminated when beaten by Collingwood in the Second Semi-Final. To prevent a repeat of this situation, the VFL re-introduced a provision which had existed under the 1898 system: after the  simple knock-out tournament was completed, the team with the best win–loss record for the season would have the opportunity to challenge the winner of the knock-out tournament to a Grand Final for the premiership. This variant of the Argus system was played as follows: Under this variant of the "Argus" System, the right to challenge did "not" automatically go to the minor premiers, "i.e." the team which was ranked highest after the home-and-away season. If the minor premiership had been decided by a close margin, then any losses sustained during the finals could have cost  the minor premier its right to challenge or even transferred it to another team. An example of this occurred in the 1906 VFL season: leading into the Final, Carlton had an overall record of 15–3, and Fitzroy had an overall record of 14–4, but Fitzroy had a superior percentage to Carlton. Had Carlton lost the Final to Fitzroy, both teams would have had a record of 15–4, but Fitzroy would have been ranked above Carlton with its superior percentage, and Carlton therefore would have lost the right of challenge, meaning that Fitzroy would win the premiership. As it happened, Carlton  won the Final, giving them a record of 16–3 compared with Fitzroy's 14–5, so Fitzroy had no right of challenge, and Carlton won the premiership. Many Carlton players and officials, including coach Jack Worrall, erroneously believed that they would have had the right to challenge had they lost the Final: this confusion led to Carlton lodging a complaint with the VFL, and the VFL made further amendments in 1907 to correct for this anomaly. Second amended Argus system. The second version of the amended Argus system was used by the VFL between 1907 and 1930, except in 1924. This  is the most widely known variation of the Argus system. The structure of the finals was mostly the same as the first amended Argus system, except that the right to challenge was given to the Minor Premier as defined by the team on top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season, meaning that finals results could no longer influence the right to challenge. Additionally, it became conventional for the two semi-finals to be played on separate weekends, extending the duration of the finals from two or three weeks to three or four weeks. This  variation of the Argus system was introduced into the VFA in 1903, four years before it was used in the VFL, being used by that competition until 1932, and was used in amateur football until 1956. Round-robin Argus system. For the 1924 season only, the VFL trialled a new format, in which the finals were played as a four-team round-robin, but including the Minor Premiers' right to challenge. At the end of the home-and-away season, the top four teams qualified for the finals tournament. The finals were played over three weeks (with a provision for  a fourth week), under the fixture: At the conclusion of the first three weeks, if the Minor Premier had finished on top of the round-robin ladder, then that team automatically won the Major Premiership, but if another team won the round-robin competition, then the finals progressed to Week Four. The winner of this match became the Major Premier for the season. In the sole VFL season that the system was used, no Grand Final was ultimately required. The scheme was developed as a result of demand for entry to finals matches in the early 1920s exceeding the capacity  of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was thought that, by playing two games per weekend during the finals instead of one, more overall spectators would be able to attend the finals; and although this did occur, it did not translate to higher receipts, and the scheme was abandoned after one year. Criticisms. After having utilised four variations of the Argus system for thirty years, three clear drawbacks had emerged: To correct for these flaws, the VFL introduced a new system in 1931, the Page–McIntyre system, that removed the minor premiers' right to challenge in favour of giving the minor  premier and the second-placed team the advantage of a "double chance": this permitted either team to lose one match (excluding the Grand Final) without being eliminated, and fixed the number of finals at four. The end of the Argus system in the VFL coincided with the end of a sequence of four premierships in a row won by between 1927 and 1930, the latter two of which were won in challenge finals. No VFL team has won four premierships in a row since the Argus system's removal. All leagues using the Argus system eventually migrated to the Page –McIntyre system, while the "double chance" and a fixed number of finals remain part of the finals series today.