1876 Victorian football season
| 1876 Victorian football premiership season | |
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| Premiers | Melbourne |
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← 1875
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The 1876 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1876. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier metropolitan club was Melbourne, and the premier provincial club was Barwon.
This was the final season of decentralised administration of football in Victoria; the Victorian Football Association was formed the following year to provide a committee-based approach to the administration of the sport.
Six metropolitan clubs participated in senior football during the 1876 season: Albert-park, Carlton, Carlton Imperial, East Melbourne, Melbourne and St Kilda. As had been the case for a few years, Carlton and Melbourne were considered the dominant clubs in the city, so the premier club was decided based entirely on the head-to-head record between the clubs; in their four meetings, Melbourne won two, Carlton won one, and one was drawn, so Melbourne was recognised as the premier club for the season.
In the provincial competition, Barwon was the premier team, and was the winner of the Geelong, Ballarat and Wimmera District Challenge Cup. Barwon was presented with the cup after defeating Geelong 2–1 on 29 July.
The below table is set of results for senior clubs during the 1876 season. The list shows the record across all matches, including senior, junior and intercolonial matches. The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Australasian newspaper. Other than announcing the top three place-getters, there was no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised.
In May, shortly before the start of the season, the North Melbourne Football Club was disbanded, and most senior players and many members of the club joined the Albert-park Football Club, which was itself in a weakened position due to the departure of many players. There was no formal amalgamation between the two clubs, but Albert-park took on a strong North Melbourne character, fielding more former North Melbourne players than Albert-park players, and many fans openly cheered for North Melbourne rather than Albert-park – and some in the media came to describe the club as Albert-park cum North Melbourne. The arrangement lasted only for one year, and the Hotham Football Club was re-established in North Melbourne in 1877.
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