The 1896 Victorian Football Association season was the 20th season of the Australian rules football competition. It was the final season in which the Association was the highest level of senior football competition in Victoria, with eight of its strongest members leaving the league and establishing the rival Victorian Football League from 1897. The season was opened on 2 May, and concluded on 3 October with a playoff match for the premiership between the top two teams, in which defeated by one goal. It was Collingwood's first VFA premiership. Premiership season In 1896, the VFA competition consisted of thirteen teams of 20 on-the-field players each. Because there was an odd number of teams, at least one team had a bye each week; the idle club often travelled to Ballarat to play one of the local senior clubs in a non-premiership match. When reporting match scores in 1896, the number of goals and behinds scored by each team is given; however, only the number of goals scored is considered when determining the result of a match. This was the final VFA season before the introduction of the modern system of scoring, in which six points is awarded for a goal and one point is awarded for a behind. 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 Round 19 Round 20 Ladder The Association had no formal tie-breakers in cases where clubs were equal on premiership points. Playoff match and finished level on 58 premiership points at the conclusion of the premiership matches, meaning a playoff match for the premiership was required between them. It is often said that this playoff match was required because, in addition to having equal win–loss records, Collingwood and South Melbourne had finished with an equal record of goals scored and goals conceded and therefore could not be split on a tie-breaker; while this version of events is given in several modern references, contemporary sources reveal this to be a myth. Association Rule 19, which specifically covered the event of a playoff, did not consider goals scored or conceded as a means of tie-breaker for the premiership, and newspaper match previews leading into Round 19 made clear that win–loss record was the only consideration for determining whether or not