1903 VFL season

In 1903, 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 1903 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".

Rules for classification: 1. premiership points; 2. percentage; 3. points for
Average score: 47.1
Source: AFL Tables

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

• Boundary umpires were added to some VFL matches, relieving the field umpire of the task of returning the ball to play from the boundary, and would be made permanent from 1904.
• Following their Round 1 loss to Geelong, St Kilda had played 100 VFL games for a record of two wins and 98 losses.^[2]
• The Round 2 match between Geelong and Carlton on 9 May was postponed after a snap railway strike on the afternoon of 8 May prevented the Carlton team from reaching Geelong when the Blues were halfway through the trip,^[3] leaving the club unable to arrange travel by boat on such short notice.^[4] In Round 3, when the strike still had not been resolved, Melbourne travelled to Geelong by boat.^[1]
  • As there was no vacant Saturday in the fixture to play at Geelong,^[3] the league decided to use an opportunity to promote the game in Sydney, and arranged to play the match on Saturday, 1 August at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Due to heavy rain, the match was postponed again^[5] to Monday, 3 August before a crowd of 5,000; Geelong won 8.7 (55) to 6.9 (45).^[6]
• On 23 May, a crowd of 18,000 attended the round 4 match between Fitzroy and Collingwood at the Sydney Cricket Ground; Fitzroy won 7.20 (62) to 6.9 (45). Players wore large numbers on the back of their guernseys to assist the crowd.
• St Kilda's win over South Melbourne in Round 7 was its first away win in 54 matches; the 53 consecutive away losses is an AFL/VFL record. It was also St Kilda's first senior away win since defeating Port Melbourne in 1894, after 77 consecutive winless away matches (including three draws) and 62 consecutive away losses.
• 1903 was the first time that the VFL Premiership was decided on the last kick of the day. The usually accurate Fitzroy captain Gerald Brosnan missed the goal from 30 metres out, and Fitzroy lost to Collingwood by two points.

• The VFL's leading goalkicker was Teddy Lockwood of Collingwood with 35 goals.
• South Melbourne took the "wooden spoon" in 1903.