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SYDNEY (South Melbourne) - Part One: 1880 to 1933
Affiliated: VFA 1880-96; VFL 1897-1989; AFL 1990-present
Club Address: Sydney Football Stadium, Driver Avenue, Moore Park, NSW 2021
Postal Address: P.O. Box 173, Paddington 2021
Home Ground: Sydney Cricket Ground; some home matches also played at Stadium Australia, Homebush
Formed: 1880 as South Melbourne following a merger between a former South Melbourne Football Club and Albert Park; became Swans in 1982; Sydney Swans in 1983; Sydney (whilst retaining the Swans emblem) in 1995
Colours: White and red
Emblem: Swans
Premierships: SENIORS - 1881, 1885, 1888-89-90, 1909, 1918, 1933, 2005 (9 total) RESERVES - Nil UNDER 19S - 1956 (1 total) AFL Canberra Premier Division 2005-6-7-8 (4 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - Championship of Australia 1909 (1 total); VFL Night Series 1956-57, 1960, 1982 (4 total); Dr. Wm. C. McClelland Trophy 1996 (1 total)
Brownlow Medallists: Herbie Matthews 1940; Ron Clegg 1949; Fred Goldsmith 1955; Bob Skilton 1959, 1963 & 1968; Peter Bedford 1970; Graham Teasdale 1977; Barry Round 1981; Greg Williams 1986; Gerard Healy 1988; Paul Kelly 1995; Adam Goodes 2003 & 2006 (12 Medallists/14 Medals)
Mulrooney Medallists: David Spriggs 2006; Jarred Moore 2007 (2 total)
All Australians: G.John 1966; J.Roberts 1980; G.Healy 1986, 1987 & 1988; G.Williams 1986 & 1987; C.Holden 1987; B.Toohey 1987; D.Murphy 1988 (10 total)
AFL All Australians: Barry Mitchell 1991; Paul Kelly 1995, 1996 & 1997; Tony Lockett 1995, 1996 & 1997; Paul Roos 1996 & 1997; Rodney Eade (coach) 1996; Daryn Creswell 1997; Michael O'Loughlin 1997 & 2000; Wayne Schwass 1999; Adam Goodes 2003 & 2006; Paul Williams 2003; Leo Barry 2004 & 2005; Barry Hall 2004, 2005 & 2006; Brett Kirk 2004; Paul Roos (coach) 2005; Craig Bolton 2006; Ryan O'Keefe (26 total)
V/AFL Top Goalkickers: R.Pratt (109) 1933, (150) 1934 & (103) 1935; L.White (80) 1942; A.Lockett (121) 1996 & (109) 1998; B.Hall (80) 2005 (7 total)
Sydney's Official 'Team of the Century': Click here
Highest Score: 36.20 (236) vs. Essendon 11.7 (73) in round 17 1987
Most Games: 270 by Michael O'Loughlin 1995 to 2007 (correct to the start of the 2008 season)
Record Home Attendances: 1. SCG - 46,168 in round 22 1997: Geelong 15.10 (100); Sydney 13.12 (90) 2. Stadium Australia - 72,393 in round 21 2003: Collingwood 14.15 (99); Sydney 12.9 (81) 3. Albert Park - 40,441 on 15 September 1923: South Melbourne 8.20 (68); St Kilda 7.6 (48)
Record Finals Attendance: 104,239 for 1970 1st semi final at the MCG: St Kilda 22.11 (143); South Melbourne 13.12 (90)
Overall Success Rate 1897-2008: 46.5%
The journey from the central Melbourne suburb of Albert Park to the Sydney Cricket Ground is a long one, and not just geographically. In many ways, it is also a journey which parallels and symbolises the emergence of what might be termed 'the modern game' - the game of TV ratings, corporate maneuvering, and the ever intensifying bid for the sponsorship dollar, as distinct from both the gentlemanly leisure pursuit of the nineteenth century and the 'meat pie and sauce' image which, rightly or wrongly, characterised much of the last one. Put simply, an enterprise like the Sydney Swans could not have even been conceived of prior to the 1970s as it pre-supposed a world (and a world view) which did not exist until then.
Whether the Sydney Swans will turn out to have been an enterprise in tune with the world remains to be seen, but what is certain is that, over the years, the club has provided more than its fair share of enjoyment and excitement to adherents of the sport of Australian football.
As early as 1868 there were references to a football club known as 'Albert Park or South Melbourne' which enjoyed the modest record of 1 win and 3 draws from its 6 fixtures for the year. However, it is doubtful whether this club can in any real sense be held to be the antecedent of the South Melbourne Football Club which went on to become a prominent force in the Victorian Football Association, a founder member of the Victorian Football League in 1897, and which in 1982 took the drastic and unprecedented step (in Australian sporting terms at any rate) of relocating to Sydney.
A national football competition was a million light years away from the thoughts of the dozen people who attended a meeting at the Temperance Hall, Napier Street, Emerald Hill in 1874 at which it was decided to establish a football club to represent the district. Originally known as the Cecil Football Club the name was changed within a few weeks to South Melbourne, but it was to be six years before on field success began to arrive. The stimulus for this success was an amalgamation of sorts with Albert Park in 1880, [see footnote 1] although given that just about the only aspect of Albert Park's identity to survive the merger was the red and white playing uniform design perhaps 'take-over' would be a better description.
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Mick Pleass, a talented follower who played 109 games for South during the club's first eight VFL seasons, having begun his career with the club during its last years in the VFA. |
South Melbourne immediately finished
as runner up in the VFA
to Geelong,
and the following year went one better. Further pennants followed in
1885, 1888, 1889 and 1890, and for the majority of its period of involvement in
the VFA the side remained a force. Indeed, the three in a row combination was
arguably the finest to have emerged in Victoria up to that point and among its
more prominent players were Ben Page, Jimmy Young, Peter Burns, Harry Purdy, and
skipper 'Sonnie' Elms.
As the 1890s progressed discontent developed among certain of the VFA's leading clubs, South Melbourne included, and it gradually became clear that there was no way that the status quo could be maintained much longer. The basic bone of contention was that the VFA's weaker clubs were, in effect, being financially supported by the competition's heavyweights, to the overall detriment of everyone concerned. The weaker clubs became complacent, while the stronger sides were impeded from developing because they did not reap the full financial rewards of their success. In 1896 South Melbourne and Collingwood finished the season with an identical win-loss record and the VFA ordered a play off to determine the premiers. On the eve of what was effectively the competition's first grand final representatives of half a dozen leading VFA clubs met and agreed to establish a new competition, the Victorian Football League, the following season. Both grand final combatants, needless to say, were among the six dissenting clubs (which soon afterwards became eight), and in the circumstances Collingwood's 6.9 to 5.10 grand final victory (behinds not counting) may almost have seemed an irrelevance. (A detailed review of this match, based on contemporary press reports, can be viewed here.) A drawn game against Fitzroy (behinds now counting for the first time) cost South Melbourne a place in the first ever VFL finals series in 1897, [see footnote 2] and 1898 ended in similar disappointment. The following year, however, the red and whites went all the way to the premiership decider against Fitzroy only to succumb by a solitary point in appallingly wet conditions. (This match is reviewed here.) |
It was to be another eight years before South Melbourne again contested a premiership play off but the result in 1907 was equally disappointing as Carlton won by 5 points. Revenge was not all that long in coming, however. After narrowly missing the finals in 1908 the southerners topped the ladder the following year, before defeating old nemesis Collingwood with some comfort (10.8 to 6.11) in a semi final. A crowd of 45,000 attended the final between Carlton and South in which the red and whites froze, ultimately going down by the convincing margin for the times of 22 points. Resorting to their right of challenge [see footnote 3] the following week South combined with the Blues to produce "a fast, crowd pleasing game" [see footnote 4] in which, in contrast with the final, the result remained in doubt right to the end. Final scores were South Melbourne 4.14 (38) to Carlton 4.12 (36) with South's best comprising sandgroper ruckman Albert Franks, defenders William 'Sonna' Thomas and Jack Scobie, [see footnote 5] half forward flanker Jim 'Joker' Cameron, second rover Alex 'Bubs' Kerr, and full forward Len 'Mother' Mortimer. (The 1909 VFL grand final is reviewed in detail here.)
South Melbourne again claimed the minor premiership in 1912 but had to defer to Essendon on two occasions in the finals. Prominent players for the southerners in their 4.9 (33) to 5.17 (47) challenge final loss against 'the Same Old' included Milne, Scobie, Price, Mortimer and Thomas.
A losing semi final against St Kilda in 1913 was followed by a sixth successive appearance in the finals the following year when the side might have been considered unlucky to finish as runners up to Carlton. The semi final brought a 5.14 (44) to 5.7 (37) triumph over Geelong and when this was followed by a comfortable 5.13 (43) to 3.6 (24) defeat of minor premiers Carlton in the final the omens appeared good for a repeat of the 1909 success. However, despite managing 4 more scoring shots than the Blues in the following week's challenge final South went under by 6 points, 4.15 (39) to 6.9 (45).
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A loss to Collingwood in the last minor round game of 1915 saw South miss the finals, but, with the war in Europe escalating, football was now seeming increasingly irrelevant. Indeed, public opinion was divided over whether the VFL competition ought to continue, and in 1916 South Melbourne along with Melbourne, Essendon, St Kilda and Geelong went into recess, joining University which had withdrawn from active competition the previous year. South Melbourne did participate in a six team competition the following season, but the standard was low, as were attendances. Collingwood ended the southerners' season by 10 goals in a semi final. With the war nearing its conclusion all clubs bar Melbourne returned to the fray in 1918 and there was a corresponding rise in both playing standards and public interest. South enjoyed spectacular success winning all except 1 of their 14 home and away matches to take out the minor premiership with ease. A 5 point semi final victory over Carlton followed and South Melbourne entered the final against Collingwood comfortable in the knowledge that, as minor premiers with a right of challenge, defeat would not mean the end of the road. |
Action from a clash between South Melbourne and Melbourne at the Lake Oval in July 1908. (Click to enlarge.) |
Not that defeat was remotely in the minds of the eighteen men who took the field in South Melbourne colours on grand final day in front of 39,168 spectators at the MCG - the biggest crowd to have attended a football match in Melbourne for five years. The Magpies, however, were equally determined, and for the first three quarters of the match they dominated, leading 7.12 to 6.6 at the final change. Worse still, as far as South were concerned, was the fact that they would be coming home kicking to the end at which they had failed to register a single point in the 2nd term. However, the deployment of Vic Belcher to the ruck had the effect of suddenly giving the red and whites a marked ascendancy, and with fellow ruckman Jack Howell, [see footnote 6] centre half back Jack O'Halloran, full back 'Chip' Turner, centre half forward Alan O'Donaghue and half back flanker Arthur Rademacher also prominent South put in a stirring last quarter to add 3.2 to 0.3 and grab victory by just 5 points.
Full scale VFL competition resumed in 1919 with nine senior clubs. University did not re-emerge at senior level but did remain as a secondary league member for a brief period.
The fact that South Melbourne was still very much a league power was underlined in round 12 when St Kilda were vanquished to the tune of 171 points, a VFL record margin of victory which was not to be eclipsed for sixty years. Once the finals arrived, however, South's form deserted them, and a 14 point semi final loss to Richmond ended the team's premiership defence.
After narrowly failing to qualify for the finals in 1920 South Melbourne appointed the legendary Roy Cazaly to the position of captain coach.
Cazaly neither smoked nor drank and by breathing control had added to his upward leap. (His) years at St Kilda (where Cazaly played 100 games) proved to be his training ground for the great ruck combination he formed at South Melbourne with Mark 'Napper' Tandy and Fred 'Skeeter' Fleiter. It was Fleiter who was first to call "Up there, Cazaly!" when Roy flew for the ball. This catch cry was soon adopted by every South supporter, and eventually employed as a battle call in the Middle East when Australians fought in World War Two. [see footnote 7]
Despite Cazaly's impressive credentials as a player South's two seasons under his coaching were disappointing to say the least. The team finished 7th (of 9) in 1921 and plummeted to last the following year, precipitating Cazaly's replacement as coach by Charlie Pannam. Cazaly continued to play for the club, however, and was still giving exceptional value as late as 1926 when, as a thirty-three year old, he became the first recorded winner of South's best and fairest player award.
Collingwood stalwart Charlie Pannam had controversially deserted the Magpie nest in order to take up post as Cazaly's successor. The financial incentive offered to Pannam of £12 a week represented six times what he was getting at Victoria Park but the reaction of the Collingwood faithful was similar to that at Melbourne over forty years later when Ron Barassi left the Demons to join Carlton. [see footnote 8]
South spluttered along during the early rounds under Pannam, not breaking through for a win until the round 5 clash with Carlton at Princes Park. In the wake of this victory South Melbourne's fortunes immediately began to improve and the team went into the final round fixture at home to St Kilda knowing a win would be enough to secure a berth in the finals. A crowd estimated to be in the region of 50,000 (although officially given as 40,441) turned up to see a tumultuous encounter in which South's superiority was never really in doubt, although poor kicking for goal ensured that St Kilda supporters entertained some hope of their side making a comeback until quite late on. Final scores saw South Melbourne 8.20 (68) defeating St Kilda 7.6 (48), a result which earned South a semi final meeting with Essendon the following week. With Ted Johnson equalling the VFL finals goalkicking record of 7 majors South overcame the Dons by 17 points, 10.14 (74) to 8.9 (57), only to succumb by two straight kicks to Fitzroy in the final the following week. However, amidst the disappointment there was a recognition that 3rd place was considerably better than might reasonably have been expected prior to the season's start, and confidence for the future was high.
In 1924 the VFL experimented with a new finals formula which saw the top four clubs after the home and away matches meeting each other in a round robin series to determine the premiers. South continued their good form of the previous year to finish the minor round in 2nd place but then fell in a heap in the round robin series, recording only 1 win from 3 games to finish 4th.
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The 1925 season saw the admission of Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne to the VFL bringing the total number of teams in the competition to twelve. It was also the beginning of a long drought for South Melbourne which saw the club miss the finals for seven consecutive seasons. The period from 1932 to 1937 remains probably the most auspicious in South Melbourne/Sydney's VFL/AFL history. Popularly referred to as the 'foreign legion' period, South in essence became the first VFL club fully to appreciate to the lucrative recruiting possibilities which existed interstate. Under ambitious president Jack Rohan and his deputy Archie Crofts the Bloods shrewdly elected to focus on the virtually untapped wealth of playing talent which existed west of the Nullarbor, where - conveniently for South - unemployment was currently running much higher than in Victoria, and the prospect of a job and £12 a week for playing football was likely to prove almost irresistible. Another reason for the decision to focus on the west was that the club had just appointed - not entirely without controversy, it might be added - former Subiaco champion Johnny Leonard as its playing coach for 1932. Leonard had just spent a season coaching Marlborough in the Victorian country, and cynics were quick to point out that, at thirty years of age, and notwithstanding his undoubted champion status in his home state, he had never previously participated in Australia's elite competition, the VFL. |
Mark 'Napper' Tandy - 207 games for South, and 13 for the VFL, from 1911 to 1926 |
Rohan, Crofts and the rest of the South committee were convinced they had appointed the right man, however, all the more so after he helped enable the club secure the signatures of three other prominent sandgropers: ruckman Brighton Diggins and half back flanker Billy Faul from Subiaco; and former South Fremantle follower Bert Beard from Kalgoorlie. When you added to that list former Richmond stalwart Jack Bissett, who had been forced out of the strong Tigers line up by the emergence of all time great Jack Dyer, and the much sought after young roving recruit Herbie Matthews, not to mention nineteen year old champion in the making Bob Pratt, already a young 'veteran' of two seasons, it was extremely difficult not to feel sanguine about the club's prospects for the coming year.
Such optimism probably did not extend to the side's winning its first 10 games of the season on end, but such is what the Bloods duly did. However, once the bubble burst with a 3 point loss to Collingwood in round 11 the team never quite recovered. Admittedly, they did manage a finals spot for the first time since 1924, but in the 1st semi final they were comfortably ousted from premiership contention by Collingwood to the tune of 26 points. Even so, overall there seemed solid ground for optimism, with the interstate recruits and Pratt (71 goals for the year, a particularly impressive total when you consider it was achieved without much in the way of support) all having performed well.
South were dealt a major blow prior to the start of the 1933 season when Johnny Leonard departed, with the club's blessing, to take up an attractive job offer back home in Perth. He was replaced by Jack Bissett.
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Laurie Nash |
The Bloods' major recruiting coup in the
1932-3 close
season was the capture of Laurie Nash from
City in Launceston. The son of former
Collingwood player Robert Nash, Laurie was without question the most sought
after footballer in Australia at the time. Despite standing only some 175cm in
height and possessing contours more suited to a wrestler than a footballer Nash
was a superb, sometimes spectacular mark and a magnificent kick, and was equally at home at both centre half forward
and centre half back. With both Richmond and Footscray
also energetically
chasing him, the fact that Nash ended up at the Lake Oval gave rise to
inevitable allegations of underhanded dealing. Unlike in the Haydn Bunton [see
footnote 9] case, however, nothing was ever proved, and Nash accordingly
lined up at the start of the 1933 season alongside other boom recruits in rover
Hans 'Ossie' Bertram and ruckman Wilbur Harris from West
Torrens, wingman Johnny
'Stab' Bowe from Subiaco, City centreman Frank Davies, and former East Perth
champion James 'Brum' O'Meara from the Western Australian goldfields.
The 'foreign legion' experiment was now at its peak, and the Bloods opened the season competently with 4 wins from their first 6 games. However, with the VFL now entering one of the most competitive phases in its history the prospects of a sustained run of success such as that with which the side had opened the previous season seemed remote. Indeed, the 1933 season was shaping up as one of the most open in years, suggesting that the premiership would ultimately go to the side which managed to hit its stride at just the right moment, as opposed to the one which was consistently and undeniably head and shoulders above the rest. |
As far as South were concerned, a mid season 43 point victory over perennial power side Carlton was arguably the season's turning point. Thereafter, the side won every remaining game for the minor round, sometimes by prodigious margins, to finish 2nd behind Richmond with 13 wins from 18 matches.
The 2nd semi final saw the Bloods put on their poorest display for months over the first three quarters to change ends at 'lemon time' 26 points in arrears, 6.9 (45) to Richmond's 10.11 (71). In retrospect, the 1933 premiership was probably won over the next 30 minutes as South inexplicably rose from the ashes to add 8.2 to a solitary goal and win 'pulling away' by 18 points. The Bloods had qualified for their first grand final since their premiership year of 1918, but equally importantly they had consigned the Tigers to a do or die tussle with danger side Geelong in the following week's preliminary final.
| Richmond duly overcame the Cats, albeit with no small
amount of good fortune, but in a grand final watched by a record Australian
crowd for a football match of 75,754 they found a flag-hungry South too hot to
handle.
The Bloods, wary of Richmond's traditionally ferocious opening quarter bursts, were themselves aggressive and imposing from the start. Quarter time saw South l3.5 to 0.2 in the lead, and over the remaining three quarters the Bloods never allowed the pressure to abate. They extended their lead to 28 points at half time and 39 points at the final change before going on to record an improbably comfortable 42 point victory, 9.17 (71) to 4.5 (29). In a memorable side attraction to the main event, Bob Pratt booted 3 of South Melbourne's grand final goals to overhaul Collingwood's Gordon Coventry by a single major and take out the season's VFL goalkicking honours, the first South Melbourne player to manage the feat. [see footnote 10] Best players for South included centre half back Laurie Nash (a clear choice as best afield), centre half forward Brighton Diggins, back pocket 'Jack' Austin, rover Herb Matthews, centreman Len Thomas, and wingman Johnny Bowe. |
Bob Pratt |
In reflecting on the 1933 premiership triumph - the last in the club's history for more than seventy years - the part played by the interstate brigade can not be overstressed, with all bar Harris and Davies appearing regularly and to good effect throughout the season.
Where now?
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Footnotes
1. This date is now generally held to constitute the official birth of the South Melbourne/Sydney Football Club. Return to Main Text
2. This was contested by the top four clubs after completion of the home and away rounds. Return to Main Text
3. In the majority of seasons between 1897 and 1930 the VFL minor premier had the right of challenge if defeated at any stage during the finals. Return to Main Text
4. The Sydney Swans by Kevin Taylor, page 22. Return to Main Text
5. Scobie later went on to play for Carlton. Return to Main Text
6. South Melbourne's Jack Howell, who gloried in the nickname 'Chook' (or 'Chooka'), was voted the season's champion player by the press. His son (also Jack) later bore the same nickname and emulated his father by also appearing in a premiership side, with Carlton (and, ironically, against South Melbourne) in 1945. A third generation Howell, Scott, completed the trifecta by helping Carlton to the 1981 flag. Return to Main Text
7. The Sydney Swans, pages 30 and 32. Return to Main Text
8. Although as far as the hierarchy at Collingwood was concerned there was no overt animosity directed at Pannam, only toward South Melbourne. Indeed, once Pannam's playing career was over he was warmly received back in the Victoria Park changing rooms and indeed later undertook official duties with the club. Return to Main Text
9. When it was proved that Bunton had received a financial inducement to join Fitzroy he was forced to stand out of football for the whole of his first season. Return to Main Text
10. J.E. Barratt had kicked 40 goals to top the VFA's goalkicking list in 1889. Return to Main Text