1905 VFL premiership season
Fitzroy, premier team
Teams	8
Premiers	Fitzroy 4th premiership
Minor premiers	Collingwood 3rd minor premiership
Leading Goalkicker Medallist	Charlie Pannam (Collingwood)
Matches played	72
Highest	30,000
← 1904 1906 →

The 1905 VFL season was the ninth season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured eight clubs, ran from 6 May until 30 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 fourth time and second time consecutively, after it defeated Collingwood by 13 points in the 1905 VFL Grand Final.

Background

In 1905, 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 14 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1905 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: 51.2
Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Semi-finals

Preliminary final

Grand final

Season notes

• Collingwood used only 24 players to play its nineteen games – the smallest number of players to represent one club in a VFL/AFL season.^[1]
• The Australasian Football Council formed.
• VFL decides to pay field umpires 30 shillings per match, and boundary umpires 7 shillings per match (approx $75.00 and $20.00 in 2008 buying power).

Awards

• The 1905 VFL Premiership team was Fitzroy.
• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Charlie Pannam of Collingwood with 38 goals.
• Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1905.