The season featured twelve clubs and ran from 1 May to 9 October, comprising an 18-match home-and-away season followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.

Collingwood won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 15–3 win–loss record.

Melbourne's Ivor Warne-Smith won the Brownlow Medal as the league's best and fairest player, and Collingwood's Gordon Coventry won the leading goalkicker medal as the league's leading goalkicker.

In 1926, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their place on the field at any time during the match.

Once the 18 round home-and-away season had finished, the 1926 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the amended "Argus system".