Editing North Melbourne Football Club (section)

===Disregarded by the VFL===
[[File:Nmfc1903.jpg|300px|thumb|[[1903 VFA season|"The Inaugurals"]]. The side that brought North premiership glory after 34 years of wait. To commemorate the achievement, club President [[George Prendergast|G/M Prendergast]] presented the 26 players and head trainer with a gold medal at the club's general meeting that year.]]
[[File:1906 Valentines Association Series North Melbourne.jpg|200px|left|thumb|A VFA cigarette card from 1906]]
The VFA grew to 13 senior clubs in the 1890s. Led by [[Geelong Football Club|Geelong]] and [[Essendon Football Club|Essendon]], the largest clubs of the VFA formed their own breakaway league, the [[Victorian Football League]] (VFL), in 1896. Despite finishing 6th in 1896, North Melbourne was not invited to the breakaway competition. The main reasons for being excluded were:
* North had not won a premiership yet, and thus was not considered a powerful club
* The industrialisation of the locality had drained the club's income streams
* The club had a strong reputation for hooliganism from their fans
* There was a lot of bad blood between Collingwood and North following a torrid engagement in the previous season
* Essendon felt threatened by the proximity of North Melbourne
* A court case against the North Melbourne Cricket Club had damaged the Football Club's status

North continued on in the depleted VFA, emerging as a powerhouse, finishing 2nd in 1897, 1898 and 1899. In 1903, after 34 years of competing, the club won its first premiership, defeating Richmond in the final. The club became back to back premiers in 1904 after Richmond [[1904 VFA Grand Final|forfeited the grand final]] due to the appointment of an umpire whose performance when the two teams met earlier in the year was severely criticised by Richmond players and officials.<ref name="Atkinson">{{cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Graeme |title=3AW Book of Footy Records |year=1989 |publisher=Magistra Publishing Company Pty Ltd |location=South Melbourne |isbn=1-86321-009-1 |page=278}}.</ref>

North merged with fellow VFA football club [[West Melbourne Football Club|West Melbourne]] in 1907, which at the time had lost its home ground. The joint venture saw a chance of promotion, and the club applied for admission to the more prestigious VFL in 1908, but Richmond and University were admitted instead. North was kicked out of the VFA during the 1907/08 offseason as a result of applying to join the VFL,<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Argus |title=North Melbourne club |date=4 April 1908 |page=15 |location=Melbourne, VIC}}</ref> before the local community re-established the North Melbourne Football Club under a new committee, successfully enabling the club to play in the VFA in the 1908 season.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Argus |title=Football – the Victorian Association |date=18 April 1908 |page=6 |location=Melbourne, VIC}}</ref>