<P> The Australian Football League can trace its beginnings to the foundation of the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897 when six of the strongest clubs in Victoria--Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne and South Melbourne--broke away from the Victorian Football Association (VFA) to establish a more professional competition . The six clubs invited two more VFA clubs--Carlton and St Kilda--to join the league for its inaugural season in 1897 . Among the notable initiatives established in the new league was an annual finals tournament, rather than awarding the premiership directly to the team with the best record through the season; and, the formal establishment of the modern scoring system, in which six points are scored for a goal, and one point is scored for a behind . </P> <P> Although the VFL and the VFA continued to compete for spectator interest for many years, the VFL quickly established itself as the premier competition in Victoria . In 1908, the league expanded to ten teams, with Richmond crossing from the VFA and University Football Club from the Metropolitan Football Association . University, after three promising seasons, finished last each year from 1911 until 1914, including losing 51 matches in a row; this was in part caused by its players' focus on their studies rather than football, particularly during examinations, and it was partly because the club operated on an amateur basis at a time when player payments were becoming common . As a result, the club withdrew from the VFL at the end of 1914 . </P> <P> Beginning sporadically during the late 1890s and consistently from 1907 until World War I, the VFL premier and the premier of the South Australian Football League met in a playoff match for the Championship of Australia . South Australia's Port Adelaide was the most successful club of the competition winning three titles during the period along with an earlier victory . </P> <P> In 1925, the VFL expanded from nine teams to twelve, with Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne each crossing from the VFA . North Melbourne and Hawthorn remained very weak in the VFL for a very long period . Although North Melbourne would become the first of the 1925 expansion sides to reach a Grand Final in 1950, initially it was Footscray that adapted to the VFL with the most ease of the three clubs, and by 1928 were well off the bottom of the ladder . </P>

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