 In 1897, VFL finals were held after 14 home-and-away games in which each of the eight clubs had played each other twice.Those first finals consisted of six round-robin matches over three weeks, between the top four clubs.A finals ladder was drawn up which saw Essendon, which had finished in second place at the end of the home-and-away matches, clearly in first place with 3 wins, 0 losses.