1904 VFL premiership season
Fitzroy, premier team
Teams	8
Premiers	Fitzroy 3rd premiership
Minor premiers	Fitzroy 3rd minor premiership
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Vin Coutie (Melbourne)
Matches played	71
Highest	32,688
← 1903 1905 →

The 1904 VFL season was the eighth season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 7 May until 17 September, and comprised a 17-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The premiership was won by the Fitzroy Football Club for the third time, after it defeated Carlton by 24 points in the 1904 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1904, the VFL competition consisted of eight 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 team played each other twice in a home-and-away season of 14 rounds. Then, based on ladder positions after those 14 rounds, three further 'sectional rounds' were played, with the teams ranked 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th playing in one section and the teams ranked 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th playing in the other.

Once the 17 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1904 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Home-and-away season

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Ladder

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Source: AFL Tables

Sectional rounds

Round 15 (Sectional round 1)

Round 16 (Sectional round 2)

Round 17 (Sectional round 3)

Final ladder

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 49.1
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Grand final

Season notes

• The final home-and-away match between South Melbourne and Fitzroy at the Lake Oval was a torrid affair. Billy McGee of South Melbourne and Harry Clarke of Fitzroy were each suspended for three matches, while South Melbourne's Billy Gent ran amok during the match, charging at players and was reported on three striking charges; Gent was suspended for the remainder of 1904 and all of 1905 (20 matches).
• After the drawn match between Geelong and Carlton at Corio Oval on 9 July 1904, a spectator was arrested for attacking the field umpire, Henry "Ivo" Crapp.
• The VFL introduced boundary umpires.
• In round four, Essendon plays Melbourne in Sydney in front of only 6,000 spectators at the Sydney Cricket Ground, loses to Melbourne, takes five days to return to Melbourne by sea, then loses again to Fitzroy in their Saturday's round five match.
• In the Final Premiership match Carlton was surging ahead of Fitzroy, and one of the Carlton forwards (Ross, 1996, does not name him, but it was most likely Mick Grace) took a powerful high overhead mark with his knees in his opponent's back. The field umpire, Henry "Ivo" Crapp, obeying the VFL rules of the day, paid a free kick to the Fitzroy player for "interference". Fitzroy steadied and went on to win the game. There was such an outcry after the match that the VFL immediately amended its rules to allow for what it now termed "unintentional interference".

Awards

• The 1904 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Vince Coutie of Melbourne with 39 goals.
• St Kilda took the "wooden spoon" in 1904.