The 1877 Victorian Football Association season was the first in which the Australian rules football competition in Victoria was run under a properly constituted administrative body. The Association was formed with the view to governing the sport via a collective body, made up of delegates representing the clubs. It was the second such body to have been formed; the South Australian National Football League having been formed just 17 days prior to the VFA. Australian rules football had been played since the 1858, but had been administered in a less formal manner prior to the establishment of the VFA. The inaugural VFA premiership was won by the Carlton Football Club. Foundation of the Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football Association was established on 17 May 1877 to provide administration of the game in Victoria. Prior to 1877, the laws of the game had been agreed to at an annual meeting of club secretaries, however the clubs remained entirely independent and unaffiliated. This meant that when a dispute existed between two clubs, there was no formal means of resolving it or enforcing a decision. Disputes in the 1870s were common and were often left unresolved for this reason: for example, in 1876, a rule existed to prevent any player from playing with more than one club during the season, but when broke the rule against Albert-park, there was no means of recourse against it, and the result of a disputed match between and was unresolved, with each club ultimately reporting a different score in its annual report and no central body existing to declare one score as official. Also, the matter of whether or not Albert-park won the Challenge Cup in 1870 was never formally resolved. The new Association was established, and was modelled in large part on the Victorian Cricket Association, which had been established in September 1875 to provide a similar level of centralised administration over Victorian cricket. The Victorian Football Association comprised one delegate from each senior metropolitan club (and from senior country clubs by proxy) and a vote of those club delegates could make a decision which was binding on any associated club. Junior clubs were also managed by the Association, but did not have representation on the board. The Association was established with the power to: Decide upon the Laws of the Game Provide management of local and intercolonial football matches Provide a ruling on disputes