In 1911, the VFL competition consisted of ten 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 18 rounds. Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1911 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".
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
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Ladder
Finals
All of the 1911 finals were played at the MCG so the home team in the Semi Finals and Preliminary Final is purely the higher ranked team from the ladder but in the Grand Final the home team was the team that won the Preliminary Final.
Semi finals
Grand final
defeated Collingwood 5.11 to 4.11, in front of a crowd of 43,905 people..
In 1900 'Rule 29' had been added to the VFL constitution, expressly forbidding player payments beyond expenses. It was widely accepted that most clubs were flouting this rule and using creative methods to provide payments. In May 1911, after much agitation from the majority of clubs, 12 of the 16 club delegates voted to remove Rule 29. This change allowed payments other than "reimbursement of expenses" to be made to players, effectively making the competition professional. This excluded Melbourne and University, whose laws at the time stated that any player found to be professional would be immediately expelled from the club.
In round 9, Fitzroy back-man Bill Marchbanks, a constable with the Victorian Police Force, was refused leave to play for Fitzroy against Richmond and was instead, assigned to the South Melbourne and Essendon match to patrol as a mounted policeman. Near the end of an exciting match, the home crowd roared as South Melbourne suddenly took the lead, causing his horse to rear and throw him against the iron fence. Marchbanks fractured his knee.
Essendon player Jim Martin received a 12-match suspension for allegedly striking Fitzroy player George Holden during the round 8 match, despite there being no witnesses who saw Martin throw a punch; it appeared that Holden had thrown himself at Martin, who was stationary and braced himself for the collision. Martin was charged with assault, and was found not guilty on appeal when the case went to the District Court, but the tribunal's suspension cost him a place in Essendon's premiership team.
From Round 15, St. Kilda players went on strike to protest the club committee's barring of former player Joe Hogan and the father of star player Wels Eicke from the club, and the Saints had to use 62 players for the season, the most by any team in the history of the VFL/AFL; due to a series of long-running disputes with the committee, they used 55 players in 1909 and 60 players in 1910. These record numbers will most likely never be broken, as VFL/AFL teams have been limited to a 42 player roster since 1987.
In Round 15, Vin Gardiner of Carlton became only the second player to kick ten goals in a match. His 21 scoring shots has been beaten only by Norm Smith, Kelvin Templeton and Jason Dunstall.
In Round 16, Essendon broke the VFL record score of 23.24 set by Geelong in 1899.
In the 1911 finals series, players wore numbers on their back for the first time in any VFL match played in Melbourne.
