1930 VFA season
| 1930 VFA premiership season | |
|---|---|
| Teams | 12 |
| Premiers |
Oakleigh (1st premiership) |
| Minor premiers |
Oakleigh (1st minor premiership) |
|
← 1929
1931 →
|
|
The 1930 Victorian Football Association season was the 52nd season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Oakleigh Football Club, after it defeated Northcote by nine points in the Final on 27 September – a match which was notorious for several violent clashes instigated by Northcote players. It was the club's first VFA premiership, achieved in only its second season of senior competition.
In 1929, the Association had accommodated its expansion to twelve clubs by extending the home-and-home season to twenty-two games. In 1930, the Association opted to play its home-and-home season in two sections:
The Association abandoned the practice of playing finals on different neutral Association grounds in 1930, and secured the North Melbourne Recreation Reserve, home of the League's North Melbourne Football Club, for all finals. The move was unpopular with the city councils of Port Melbourne, Brunswick and Coburg, which had spent a lot of money bringing their grounds up to the necessary standards for finals football, and attendances at North Melbourne were ultimately poor compared with previous seasons; so, in 1931 the Association reverted to staging finals at different Association venues. The incident was a prelude to the massive dispute between the Association and the councils which erupted in 1934 over the use of Olympic Park as a central ground.
The final match, played in rainy conditions, was marred by a number of violent onfield incidents which culminated in a pitch invasion. Many players, mostly from Northcote, took an unduly rough approach to the match, and regularly kicked, punched and elbowed opponents. Nott of Oakleigh was kicked in the face in the second quarter, and fistfights broke out on the ground in the third quarter. In the final quarter, a Northcote player knocked out an Oakleigh opponent with his elbow; the trainers who came to the Oakleigh player's aid was punched by another Northcote player. This was the trigger for several hundred spectators to invade the field and engage in a melee, delaying the game by several minutes. Only two players were reported on the day, both Northcote players for incidents in the final quarter.
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