1898 VFL grand final

1898 VFL Grand final
Fitzroy Essendon 5.8 (38) 3.5 (23)
1 2 3 4 FIT 2.5 (17) 4.5 (29) 5.6 (36) 5.8 (38) ESS 1.0 (6) 3.1 (19) 3.2 (20) 3.5 (23)
Date	24 September 1898
Stadium	Junction Oval
Attendance	16,538
Umpires	Crapp
Accolades
Australian Football Hall of Fame	1. Albert Thurgood (1996)
VFL Grand Final 1899 →

The 1898 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Essendon Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club, held in Melbourne on 24 September 1898. The match was played to determine the premiers for the 1898 VFL season. Fitzroy won the match by 15 points. The game was played under atrocious ground conditions in front of 16,538 people at the Junction Oval.

The match is recognised as the first VFL grand final, although the term "grand final" was not in wide use until 1931. It was the first time that Victorian Football League premiership was decided in a final match, as the 1897 premiership was won under a different finals system by Essendon when they finished above three other clubs on the finals series ladder.

Both Fitzroy back pocket Stan Reid and the Essendon full-forward Charlie Moore later died in South Africa in active service during the Anglo-Boer War—Moore on 5 May 1901, and Reid on 23 June 1901.^[1]