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Some Stars of the '58 Melbourne Carnival |
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Ted Whitten (VFL) - joint Tassie Medallist |
Stuart Spencer (Tas) - All Australian team |
Allen Aylett (VFL) - joint Tassie Medallist |
Ray Sorrell (WA) - All Australian team |
John Abley (SA) - All Australian team |
The Melbourne Carnival of 1958, which was specially arranged to celebrate the imagined centenary of Australian football, ended up being less a celebration and more a palpable indictment, emphasising as it did just how little real progress in promoting and developing the sport had been made over the preceding hundred years. With the pre-eminence of the Victorian Football League arguably at an all time zenith (see footnote 1), and most Victorian football supporters having been brainwashed into the deluded notion that the sport of Australian football did not meaningfully exist beyond the boundaries of their home state, the Carnival proved to be a disaster from both a financial and sporting perspective. With all of the VFL's results a foregone conclusion the only glimmers of excitement - as in 1956 at Perth - came in matches involving Tasmania, which combined sensational triumphs over both Western Australia and South Australia with a heart-halting loss to the VFA. Just as 2 years earlier, the Tasmanians finished a highly creditable 3rd.
In a pathetic attempt to affirm the 'Australian-ness' of Australian football the 1958 Melbourne Carnival also played host to section B of the championships, with New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Amateurs and the ACT waging their own private series of meaningless mini wars in front of deserted terraces and stands. As usual, the southern states amateur combination proved comfortably superior to all 3 of the minor football states and territories.
| SECTION A | Points | ||||||
| Pld | Won | Lost | For | Ag | % | Pts | |
| Victorian Football League | 4 | 4 | 0 | 529 | 241 | 219.5 | 16 |
| Western Australia | 4 | 2 | 2 | 376 | 325 | 115.7 | 8 |
| Tasmania | 4 | 2 | 2 | 334 | 426 | 78.4 | 8 |
| South Australia | 4 | 1 | 3 | 302 | 372 | 81.2 | 4 |
| Victorian Football Association | 4 | 1 | 3 | 271 | 448 | 60.5 | 4 |
|
SECTION B |
Points |
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| Pld | Won | Lost | For | Ag | % | Pts | |
| Australian Amateurs | 3 | 3 | 0 | 342 | 191 | 179.1 | 12 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 3 | 2 | 1 | 270 | 219 | 123.3 | 8 |
| Queensland | 3 | 1 | 2 | 169 | 341 | 49.6 | 4 |
| New South Wales | 3 | 0 | 3 | 212 | 242 | 87.6 | 0 |
| South Australia | John Abley (Port Adelaide) |
| Tasmania | Donald Gale (Wynyard), Jim Ross (North Launceston), Stuart Spencer (Clarence) |
| VFA | Barry Metcalfe (Mordialloc) |
| VFL | Owen Abrahams (Fitzroy), Allen Aylett (North Melbourne), Ron Barassi (Melbourne), Reg Burgess (Essendon), Jack Clarke (Essendon), Bob Davis (Geelong - captain), John Dugdale (North Melbourne), Kevin Murray (Fitzroy), Neil Roberts (St Kilda), Ted Whitten (Footscray) |
| Western Australia | Jack Clarke (East Fremantle), Graham Farmer (East Perth), Alan Preen (East Fremantle), Norm Rogers (East Fremantle), Ray Sorrell (East Fremantle) |
| Placing | Player(s) | Votes |
| =1st | Allen Aylett (VFL) & Ted Whitten senior* (VFL) | 7 |
| =3rd | Graham Farmer (Western Australia) & Ray Sorrell (Western Australia) | 4 |
* Originally, under the countback system in operation at the time whereby 1st preference votes were accorded the greatest weighting, Allen Aylett was declared the sole winner of the 1958 Tassie Medal; however, in keeping with the spirit of revisionism which began to infest Australian football from the 1980s onwards Whitten was later declared a joint winner.
1958 Melbourne Carnival: Leading Goalkickers
J.Dugdale (VFL) 18; A.Aylett (VFL) 15; O.Abrahams (VFL) & A.Preen (Western Australia) 10
1. Between 1945 and 1952 VFL representative sides were arguably less dominant than at any time in their history with an overall success rate of just 66% against their 2 main rivals, South Australia and Western Australia. Starting at the Adelaide Carnival of 1953, however, the Big white V embarked on an era of unsurpassed supremacy: in 9 meetings with the croweaters between 1953 and 1959 the VFL was successful every time with an average winning margin of 70 points; against the sandgropers it was a similar story - 9 successive wins at an average margin of 57 points. Throw in an average margin of 77 points over 5 meetings with arguably the strongest Tasmanian combinations in that state's football history and the pre-eminence of the Victorians is indisputable. All told, in the 7 seasons between 1953 and 1959 the VFL was successful in all 25 representative fixtures contested, with an average winning margin of almost 70 points. Only the immediate pre-state of origin sides (1966 to 1976) approached this level of dominance. Back
