The 1897 VFL season was the inaugural season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season ran from 8 May to 4 September, comprising a 14-round home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top four clubs. Eight Victorian Football Association (VFA) clubs –, , , , , , and – featured in the inaugural season after seceding from the VFA in 1896. Essendon won the inaugural premiership after winning all three of its finals matches, with Geelong finishing as runners-up with two wins. Geelong won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with an 11–3 win–loss record. Geelong's Eddy James and Melbourne's Jack Leith tied for the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkickers.

Background

In 1897, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 20 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" (although any of the 20 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. Once the 14-round home-and-away season had finished, the 1897 VFL Premiers were determined according to the conditions dictated by the specific format and conventions of the 1897 Finals System, which was used in this season only.

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 Average score: 39.0 Source: AFL Tables

Progression by round

Source: AFL Tables

Finals series

Finals week 1

Finals week 2

Finals week 3

Finals ladder

<section begin=Finals ladder/> Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for Source: [AFL Tables](https://bliptext.com/articles/undefined)<section end=Finals ladder/>

Win–loss table

The following table can be sorted from biggest winning margin to biggest losing margin for each round. If two or more matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage (i.e. the lowest-scoring winning team is ranked highest and the lowest-scoring losing team is ranked lowest). Opponents are listed above the margins and home matches are in bold. Source: AFL Tables

Season notes

Leading goalkickers

! rowspan=2 style=width:2em | # ! rowspan=2 | Player ! rowspan=2 | Club ! colspan=14 | Home-and-away season (leading goalkicker medal) ! colspan=3 | Finals series ! rowspan=2 | Total ! rowspan=2 | Games ! rowspan=2 | Average ! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12 !! 13 !! 14 !! F1 !! F2 !! F3 ! scope=row style=text-align:center | 1 ! scope=row style=text-align:center | 2 ! scope=row style=text-align:center | 3 ! scope=row style=text-align:center | 4 ! scope=row style=text-align:center rowspan=2 | 5 ! scope=row style=text-align:center rowspan=5 | 7 Source: AFL Tables

Sources