1908 VFA season
| 1908 premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 10 |
| Premiers |
Footscray (4th premiership) |
| Minor premiers |
Footscray (1st minor premiership) |
|
← 1907
1909 →
|
|
The 1908 Victorian Football Association season was the 32nd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Footscray Football Club, after it defeated Brunswick in the final by 24 points. It was the fourth premiership won by the club.
The season was preceded by a tumultuous off-season, in which the Richmond Football Club left the Association in favour of the rival Victorian Football League, and both North Melbourne and West Melbourne were banished from the Association for attempting to do likewise.
On 4 October 1907, shortly after the end of the season, the University Football Club – which had won the Metropolitan Junior Football Association premiership that season – was admitted to the Victorian Football League as a senior club. This brought the size of the League to nine clubs, and the League delegates resolved at the same meeting to admit a tenth team, citing the desire to have an even number of teams to avoid the need for byes in the fixture, as well as some other strategic goals. The League resolved to reconvene on 18 October to select its tenth team from applications received in the interim. Within the next week, three Association clubs had announced their intention to apply for entry to the League: Richmond, and an amalgamation between North Melbourne and West Melbourne – as well as the Brighton Football Club, runners-up to University in the 1907 MJFA season.
West Melbourne and North Melbourne were considered to be a stronger chance of gaining admission to the League as an amalgamated entity than as separate clubs, but in reality there were other drivers which would likely have seen the clubs merged for 1908 even without the opportunity to join the League. North Melbourne was struggling on the field, and West Melbourne was struggling financially. Furthermore, after years of sharing the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve as a home ground, West Melbourne had brokered a deal to play at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, sharing it with the Essendon (League) Football Club in 1907; but, this deal was cancelled when University entered the League and assumed the co-tenancy of the ground, leaving West Melbourne homeless once again. North Melbourne and West Melbourne did share a strong history of collaboration as a result of proximity and sharing the same ground, and were seen as a natural fit for an amalgamation.
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