Editing Essendon Football Club (section)

=== Founding of the VFL to World War I (1897–1915) ===
[[File:Essendon fc 1897.jpg|thumb|left|The Essendon side that won the 1897 VFL premiership]]
[[File:Performance Chart AFL ESS.svg|thumb|Chart of yearly ladder positions for Essendon in [[Australian Football League|VFL/AFL]]]]
At the end of the [[1896 VFA season|1896 season]], Essendon, along with seven other clubs, formed the [[Victorian Football League (1897–1989)|Victorian Football League]]. Essendon's first VFL game was in [[1897 VFL season|1897]] against [[Geelong Football Club|Geelong]] at [[Corio Oval]] in [[Geelong]]. Essendon won its first VFL premiership by winning the [[1897 VFL finals series]] in a [[Round-robin tournament|round-robin]] event. Essendon again won the premiership in [[1901 VFL season|1901]], defeating [[Collingwood Football Club|Collingwood]] in the [[1901 VFL Grand Final|Grand Final]]. The club won successive premierships in [[1911 VFL season|1911]] and [[1912 VFL season|1912]] over Collingwood and [[Sydney Swans|South Melbourne]], respectively.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/142951681| title = 30 Sep 1911 – FOOTBALL. – Trove| newspaper = Australasian| date = 30 September 1911}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/50672717| title = 30 Sep 1912 – NEWS IN BRIEF. – Trove| newspaper = Examiner| date = 30 September 1912}}</ref>