1912 VFA season
The 1912 Victorian Football Association season was the 36th season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won for the second consecutive time by the Essendon (Association) Football Club, after it defeated in the Grand Final by 21 points on 28 September. It was the club's second and last VFA premiership. Association membership. After several years of unsuccessful on-field performances by both clubs, the Association was keen to see an amalgamation between the Preston and Northcote clubs; amalgamations between the two clubs, which represented neighbouring northern suburbs of Melbourne, had been mooted on  several occasions since 1908, even before Northcote had joined the Association. For the first few years of their amalgamation, the club was formally known as the Northcote and Preston Football Club; but, it played its games in Northcote, retained Northcote's colours, and its team in the VFA was known as Northcote. The merged entity is considered a continuation of the Northcote Football Club. At the same time, the Association had been keen for many years to field a team in the inner city, an area historically dominated by League clubs. This vision was finally realised in 1912, with the  establishment of the Melbourne City Football Club, which played its games at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground. With these two changes, the size of the Association remained constant at ten teams. The Association reduced the number of players on the field seventeen-a-side to sixteen-a-side in 1912. The change came only four years after reducing the numbers from eighteen to seventeen in 1908. Premiership. The home-and-home season was played over eighteen rounds, with each club playing the others twice; then, the top four clubs contested a finals series under the amended "Argus" system to determine  the premiers for the season. Notable events. Interstate matches. A representative Association team toured Broken Hill in June and July, playing two matches against a Barrier Ranges Football Association representative team. Jack McKenzie (Brunswick) was captain of the Association team.