Semi Final, 1911

Carlton	2.6	18	4.7	31	5.11	41	6.12	48
Essendon	2.1	13	3.4	22	4.9	33	9.15	69

Venue: MCG

Date: Saturday September 16, 1911

Result: Lost by 21 points

Umpire: J.Elder

Crowd: 40,669

Goalkickers: V.Gardiner 3, B.Dick 1, A.McDonald 1, V.Valentine 1.

Best: V.Valentine, G.Bruce, R.McGregor, T.Clancy, N.Clark, B.Dick, J.Wells, A.Wilson, A.McDonald, D.Harris, B.Payne.

Reports:

Injuries:

Game Review

Essendon were now coached by ex-Carlton Coach Jack Worrall, who had led the Blues to three premierships between 1906 and 1908. While Carlton were in the lead all day until three quarter time, the Bombers kicked away in the last quarter scoring 5 goals to 1 to end Carlton's season. Essendon would go on to beat Collingwood in the Grand Final.

This match in notable as it was the first League game played in Victoria in which players wore numbers. Vin Gardiner, wearing No.13 became the first player to kick a goal whilst wearing a number during a match. Note: Numbers were experimented with in the VFA days of the 1800's.

Team

B:	5 Dick Harris	6 Ernie Jamieson	19 Tommy Hughes
HB:	3 Norman Clark	2 Billy Payne (vc)	4 Arthur Ford
C:	9 Tom Clancy	8 Rod McGregor	7 George Bruce
HF:	10 Jim Marchbank	11 Billy Dick	12 Martin Gotz
F:	16 Jack Wells	13 Vin Gardiner	18 Andy McDonald
Ruck:	15 Archie Wilson	1 Fred Elliott (cc)	17 Viv Valentine
Coach:	Fred Elliott

Arthur Ford (Carlton) relieving his goal in the first quarter

Carlton checked on the half forward lines in the first quarter (No. 13 Vin Gardiner?)

Vin Gardiner leading League goal kicker, with Fred Elliott, Ernie Jamieson (6) and mascot

Billy Dick (Carlton) passing in the second quarter and Belcher (Essendon) marking

An enlarged, grainy picture showing Vin Gardiner running into an open goal to boot one of his early majors Photos Trove: Australasian September 23 (p36)

Milestones

Last game: Fred Elliott, Dick Harris and Tommy Hughes
Footy Fact: This match in notable as it was the first League game played in Victoria that players wore numbers.
Interesting Fact: This was the first times numbers were used by the League in a match in Victoria and Carlton used numbers 1 to 13 and 15 to 19 (Number 14 was allocated to Gordon Green but he didn’t play in this final). Including Round 17, 2018 Carlton has only used number 1 to 10 in the same match eleven times.
The Richmond Guardian Saturday 23 September (p3) 1911; "Numbering of 'footballers is the best move made by the League for a long time, and was throughly appreciated by the crowd on Saturday."

Round 18 | 1912