Argus finals system

The Argus finals systems were a set of related systems of end-of-season championship playoff tournament used commonly in Australian rules football competitions in the early part of the 20th century. The systems generally comprised a simple four-team tournament, followed by the right of the top ranked team from the home-and-away season to challenge for the premiership. The systems were named after the Melbourne newspaper The Argus, which developed and supported their use.

In 1901, the Victorian Football League first adopted the "Argus system", after issues had emerged with the fairness of the system which had been introduced in 1898.

The initial Argus system was, in effect, a simple four-team knock-out tournament, played as follows:

The immediate complaint about the Argus system was that all four of the qualifying teams had a statistically equal opportunity to win the premiership. It was commonly thought that the club which performed best during the home-and-away season deserved an enhanced opportunity to win the premiership.

Consequently, the VFL re-introduced a provision which had existed under the 1898 system: after the simple knock-out tournament was completed, the team with the best win-loss record for the season would have the opportunity to challenge the winner of the knock-out tournament to a Grand Final for the premiership.

This variant of the Argus system was played as follows:

It is important to note that under this variant of the Argus System, the right to challenge did not automatically go to the minor premiers, i.e. the team which was ranked highest after the home-and-away season. If the minor premiership had been decided by a close margin, then any losses sustained during the finals could have cost the minor premier its right to challenge or even transferred it to another team.

An example of how this could have happened occurred in the 1906 VFL season: entering the Final, Carlton had an overall record of 15–3, and Fitzroy had an overall record of 14–4, but Fitzroy had a superior percentage to Carlton. Had Carlton lost the Final against Fitzroy, both teams would have had a record of 15–4, but Fitzroy would have been ranked above Carlton with its superior percentage, and Carlton therefore would have lost the right of challenge, meaning that Fitzroy would win the premiership. As it happened, Carlton won the match, giving them a record of 16–3 compared with Fitzroy's 14–5, so Fitzroy had no right of challenge, and Carlton won the premiership.

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