Grand final of the 1923 Victorian Football League season
1923 VFL Grand Final
Essendon
Fitzroy
8.15 (63)
6.10 (46)
1
2
3
4
ESS
3.2 (20)
4.10 (34)
6.13 (49)
8.15 (63)
FIT
3.3 (21)
5.5 (35)
5.9 (39)
6.10 (46)
Date
20 October 1923
Stadium
Melbourne Cricket Ground
Attendance
46,566
Umpires
Alec Mutch
← 1922
VFL Grand Final
1925 →
The 1923 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Essendon Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 20 October 1923. It was the 26th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1923 VFL season. The match, attended by 46,566 spectators, was won by Essendon by a margin of 17 points, marking that club's fifth premiership victory.
The match was scheduled to take place a week earlier but was postponed because the ground had been flooded after heavy rain. As a result, this Grand Final coincided with the Caulfield Cup.
Fitzroy were the reigning premiers, while Essendon had not won a premiership since 1912. Essendon were known at this time as the "Mosquito Fleet" due to their large number of small and pacey players such as Charlie Hardy and George Shorten.
George Rawle made his VFL debut in the Grand Final.
Ross, J. (ed), 100 Years of Australian Football 1897–1996: The Complete Story of the AFL, All the Big Stories, All the Great Pictures, All the Champions, Every AFL Season Reported, Viking, (Ringwood), 1996. ISBN 0-670-86814-0
Fitzroy's AFL operations merged with the Brisbane Bears in 1996 to form the Brisbane Lions Fitzroy merged with the Fitzroy Reds in 2008 and has competed in the VAFA since 2009