1916 VFL season

1916 VFL Premiership season
Premiership captain Wally Johnson
Teams	4
Premiers	Fitzroy (6th premiership)
Minor premiers	Carlton (6th minor premiership)
Matches played	28
Highest attendance	21,130
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Dick Lee (Collingwood)
← 1915 1917 →

The 1916 Victorian Football League season was the 20th season of the elite Australian rules football competition.

The 1916 season of the VFL saw just four teams competing, due to World War I. This led to the anomaly of Fitzroy having the distinction of winning both the wooden spoon and the premiership in the same year, finishing 4th out of 4 but progressing through to the Grand Final in the final four finals system and winning that match.

In 1916, the VFL competition consisted of four teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their place on the field at any time during the match.

Each of the four teams played each other four times in a 12 match home-and-away season (each team hosting each of the others twice).

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1916 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Fitzroy defeated Carlton 12.13 (85) to 8.8 (56), in front of a crowd of 21,130 people. (For an explanation of scoring see Australian rules football).

The situation of the VFL in 1916 was rather complex.

Although the 1916 season itself was disrupted by the war, it was the first season to come under the VFL's new district football scheme. Under the new scheme:

The scheme had been developed by a league sub-committee over the previous two years (and had originally allowed for players to qualify for University based on past or present enrollment at the University of Melbourne and affiliated academic bodies), and the final approval for the scheme came in October 1915. District/zone recruiting remained in place from 1916 until 1991.

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