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From: marino@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.australian Subject: A short history of the AFL Message-ID: <1993Jan22.150742.91064@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au> Date: 22 Jan 93 15:07:41 +1100 Organization: Computer Centre, Monash University, Australia Lines: 231

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE AFL --------------------------

The game of Aussie Rules was first played in 1858 by two of the private schools in Melbourne. The original game consisted of 40 players and the field was 1 mile long. The first to score won the match. Of course this took too long so the game was quickly refined to something very similar to today's game. In 1859 the first club game took place between the Geelong and Melbourne football clubs. Then most clubs were run on a voluntary committee basis, or as a club for people to join as they please. Now most of the clubs are companies and shares can be purchased in each team. There is no real private ownership here (it was tried but it failed as it is not really profitable).

Anyway, after this first games other clubs were formed from various regions close to Melbourne. Originally these clubs were offshoots from cricket clubs and the game was used to keep cricketers fit during the winter months. Some of the teams that were formed in those early days were: Carlton (formed 1864) Collingwood (1892) Essendon (1873) Fitzroy (1884) Geelong (1859) Melbourne (1858) South Melbourne (1874) (now the Sydney Swans) St. Kilda (1873)

In 1877 most of these teams as well as others from around Melbourne formed an association called the Victorian Footbal Association (VFA). This association still exists today but it is of a lower standard than the AFL. By 1896 the management of the VFA was becoming autocratic and so Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, and South Melbourne met in 1896 and decided to form a breakaway league called the Victorian Football League (VFL). They also invited Carlton and St.Kilda (as they were the richest clubs). In 1897 the VFL first played its games. The first premiership was won by Essendon. St.Kilda finally won its first game in Round 1, 1900 after 48 consecutive losses (I told you they were only there because they were rich).

Premierships (1897-1907): ------------------------ 1897 Essendon (no grand final) 1898 Fitzroy (38) d. Essendon (23) 1899 Fitzroy (27) d. South Melbourne (26) 1900 Melbourne (34) d. Fitzroy (30) 1901 Essendon (43) d. Collingwood (16) 1902 Collingwood (60) d. Essendon (27) 1903 Collingwood (31) d. Fitzroy (29) 1904 Fitzroy (61) d. Carlton (37) 1905 Fitzroy (72) d. Carlton (45) 1906 Carlton (94) d. Fitzroy (45) 1907 Carlton (50) d. South Melbourne (45)

The VFL had grown greatly in its first years. From only 3000 people watching the first finals matches, the crowds had grown to 45000 watching the 1907 grand final. As such there was pressure for more games to be played. More teams had to be admitted so the league took applications from clubs. In 1908 University (formed 1866 from Melboure University) and Richmond (1885) joined. North Melbourne was told to wait for another place to open (in 17 years time).

Premierships (1908-1914): ------------------------ 1908 Carlton (35) d. Essendon (26) 1909 South Melbourne(38) d. Carlton (36) 1910 Collingwood (61) d. Carlton (47) 1911 Essendon (41) d. Collingwood (35) 1912 Essendon (47) d. South Melbourne (33) (rec. attendance 54,463) 1913 Fitzroy (56) d. St.Kilda (43) (rec. attendance 59,479) 1914 Carlton (45) d. South Melbourne (39)

In 1915 the war came and clubs began disbanding due to the shortage of players. University disbanded in 1915 and was never to enter league ranks again. In 1916, Essendon (rejoined 1918), Geelong (1917), Melbourne (1919), South Melbourne (1917) and St.Kilda (1918) were forced into recess.

In the pre-war years of the VFL the scores were very low. Place-kicks were used (a la rugby and american football) when shooting for goal and this slowed the game. After the war, scores increased with the decreased use of the place-kick, the penalisation of kicking the ball out of bounds and a general greater profic- iency of the game eventually lead to regular record high scores in the 1930's.

Premierships (1915-1924): ------------------------ 1915 Carlton (78) d. Collingwood (45) 1916 Fitzroy (85) d. Carlton (56) 1917 Collingwood (74) d. Fitzroy (39) 1918 South Melbourne(62) d. Collingwood (57) 1919 Collingwood (78) d. Richmond (53) 1920 Richmond (52) d. Collingwood (35) 1921 Richmond (36) d. Carlton (32) 1922 Fitzroy (79) d. Collingwood (68) 1923 Essendon (63) d. Fitzroy (46) 1924 Essendon (no final played)

In 1925 crowds once again were getting substantially bigger. The league decided to expand to 12 clubs. They received applications from many clubs in the VFA but they decided to chose North Melbourne, Hawthorn, and Footscray. The league stayed with these twelve teams until 1982 when South Melbourne moved to Sydney.

To understand where all these teams come from, here is a map of Melbourne and the suburbs which the clubs are named after. Geelong is a city about 50 miles South West of Melbourne.

1=Melbourne 2=North Melbourne 3=Footscray 11 4=Carlton 5 6 5=Fitzroy 2 4 6=Collingwood 3 _1 9 10 7=South Melbourne / \7 8=St.Kilda / \8 9=Richmond / \ 10=Hawthorn 11=Essendon Scale ----- 0 5 km

The teams had a great rivalry between them. The rivalry had two causes: a close proximity to each other, or close and hard fought games. The oldest rivalry in the VFL was between Carlton and Collingwood. This was mainly because Carlton was the more affluent suburb, and Collingwood was the working-class suburb. Other rivalries have been formed over the years, such as Melbourne and Collingwood because they played 6 or 7 grand finals between each other in the 1950's. Other rivalries are Collingwood and Richmond, Carlton and Richmond, Essendon and Carlton. For most Melbournites, the two teams you love to hate are Carlton and Collingwood. This is also the case because they have won the most premierships between them.

Geelong finally won their first flag in 1925 but amazingly they lost their first game of the year to newcomer North Melbourne. All three new teams in 1925 were in the bottom three with Hawthorn coming last. This was also the case in 1926 and 1927. Hawthorn came last in 1925, 1927, 1928, and 1932. North Melbourne came last in all the other years until 1935 except for one. It wasn't until round 2 of the 1938 season that all three teams won a game on the same day!

Collingwood began their unparalleled record in 1927 of four premierships in a row. They won the flag in 1928 with an unbeaten regular season and only lost the second-semi final to Richmond who they beat in the Grand Final. In fact they defeated Richmond in three of the four premierships. Some of Collingwood's greatest legends played in this era. Gordon Coventry played over 300 games for the club, the first player in the VFL to do so. He also has the record aggregate goals with 1299 for his career. Collingwood was also coached in this period by the great Jock McHale. McHale was associated with Collingwood from 1903 and coached the club for 37 years from 1913 to 1949. He took the club to 20 Grand Finals and won 8 premierships. Other great names in this period were Syd Coventry, Harry Collier and Albert Collier.

Some changes occurred in the game around this game. In 1930 a reserve was introduced. The reserve was known as the 19th man as there are 18 men in a team. The reserves changed in the same manner as a soccer reserve. In 1931 the finals system was changed to the 'Final Four' system. This system was retained until 1970 when there was a 'Final Five'. The previous 'Argus' system allowed the team that finished on top of the ladder to challenge a re-match if they lost the final! amongst other anomailes.

The 1930's saw the continuing strength of Richmond, Geelong, Collingwood and Carlton but the surprise was South Melbourne. South won the first 10 games of the 1932 season but then their luck ran out. They finished with a 13-5 record that season and lost their finals match, but the next year they won the flag. In 1934 their star goal kicker Bob Pratt broke the season goal-kicking record to kick 150 goals in 21 games, a record only equalled by Hawthorn's Peter Hudson in 1970. Even though South was the first team to score over 2000 points in an 18 game season they still lost the Grand Final. In fact they also lost the next two.

Fitzroy and Essendon had an amazing run in the Brownlow Medal during this period. They won every Brownlow medal between 1931 to 1938, Fitzroy winning 5 of the 8. The main winners were two great players of the day, Haydn Bunton of Fitzroy and Dick Reynolds of Essendon. The each won 6 of the 8 Brownlow Medals in this period. The list of Brownlow medal winners until 1939 are:

1924 E. 'Craji' Greeves Geelong 1925 Colin Watson St.Kilda 1926 Ivor Warne Smith Melbourne 1927 Syd Coventry Collingwood 1928 Ivor Warne Smith Melbourne 1929 Albert Collier Collingwood 1930 Harry Collier Collingwood Stan Judkins Richmond Allan Hopkins Footscray 1931 Haydn Bunton Fitzroy 1932 Haydn Bunton Fitzroy 1933 W. 'Chicken' Smallhorn Fitzroy 1934 Dick Reynolds Essendon 1935 Haydn Bunton Fitzroy 1936 Dinny Ryan Fitzroy 1937 Dick Reynolds Essendon 1938 Dick Reynolds Essendon 1939 Marcus Whelan Collingwood

The premierships between 1925 and 1939 went to:

Premierships (1925-1939): ------------------------- 1925 Geelong (79) d. Collingwood (69) 1926 Melbourne (119) d. Collingwood (62) 1927 Collingwood (25) d. Richmond (13) 1928 Collingwood (96) d. Richmond (63) 1929 Collingwood (79) d. Richmond (50) 1930 Collingwood (100) d. Geelong (70) 1931 Geelong (68) d. Richmond (48) 1932 Richmond (92) d. Carlton (83) 1933 S. Melbourne (71) d. Richmond (29) 1934 Richmond (128) d. S. Melbourne (89) 1935 Collingwood (78) d. S. Melbourne (58) 1936 Collingwood (89) d. S. Melbourne (78) 1937 Geelong (122) d. Collingwood (90) 1938 Carlton (100) d. Collingwood (85) 1939 Melbourne (148) d. Collingwood (95)

The Grand Finals were regularly drawing crowds of between 60,000 and 80,000, but the 1938 Grand Final drew a crowd of 96,834. In 1939, the Grand Final was down because of war breaking out in Europe on September 1st.

That is enough for now. I hope you have enjoyed this early history of the VFL. I have not mentioned some of the other great names like Roy Cazaly of St.Kilda and South Melbourne, Reg Hickey of Geelong, Jack Titus of Richmond, 'Soapy' Valence of Carlton, and others but there isn't enough space. If you would like to read more about the game, the book 'Every Game Ever Played' contains all the scores from VFL/AFL matches up to the end of the 1992 season. I'll try to write the post-war part soon.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=- - John Marinopoulos - - - - Department of Mathematics Tel:+613 565 5460 - - Monash University Fax:+613 565 4403 - - Clayton Victoria 3168 E-mail: marino@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au - - Australia - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=- - GO SAINTS! GO SAINTS! GO SAINTS! GO SAINTS! GO SAINTS! - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-