 |
| ABOVE: Carlton players celebrate the club's 45 point victory over Sturt in the 1970 Champions of Australia match at the Adelaide Oval. |
|
| ABOVE: Carlton players celebrate the club's 45 point victory over Sturt in the 1970 Champions of Australia match at the Adelaide Oval. |
Contests which might reasonably be regarded as being for the club Championship of Australia occurred during two main phases of the game's history.
Post season matches played during the period 1888 to 1914 between the premier teams of South Australia and Victoria were consistently described in the Melbourne ('the Age') and Adelaide ('the Advertiser') press of the time as being for the championship (or premiership) of Australia. These contests did not resume after World War One.
The games of 1968-69-70-71 were described at the time as being for the 'unofficial championship of Australia', basically because the Australian National Football Council had decreed that official status could only be conferred on the championships when involvement extended to the premier teams of Western Australia and Tasmania, as it did from 1972.
Between 1972 and 1975 the premier teams of South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, together with either the Tasmanian state champions (1972-73 and '75) or a composite team of players drawn from the premier clubs of the NTFA, NWFU and TFL (1974) contested a bona fide Australian championship series in Adelaide.
The National Football League's 1976 series involved leading clubs from the VFL (5), SANFL (4) and WAFL (3) and was, prior to the VFL's late 1980s metamorphosis from state to national competition, the closest thing to a genuine, full scale Australian club championship ever to take place.
|
Year |
Champions | Score | Runners-up | Score |
Venue |
||||
| 1888 | Norwood | 3 wins | South Melbourne | 0 wins | Kensington Oval | ||||
| 1890 | Port Adelaide | 7 | 10 | N/A | South Melbourne | 6 | 13 | N/A | Adelaide Oval |
| 1893 | Essendon | 10 | 23 | N/A | South Adelaide | 3 | 6 | N/A | Victoria Park |
| 1907 | Norwood | 13 | 12 | 90 | Carlton | 8 | 10 | 58 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1908 | West Adelaide | 12 | 9 | 81 | Carlton | 7 | 10 | 52 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1909 | South Melbourne | 11 | 8 | 74 | West Adelaide | 7 | 14 | 56 | MCG |
| 1910 | Port Adelaide | 15 | 20 | 110 | Collingwood | 7 | 9 | 51 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1911 | West Adelaide | 8 | 9 | 57 | Essendon | 7 | 12 | 54 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1913 | Port Adelaide | 13 | 16 | 94 | Fitzroy | 4 | 7 | 31 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1914 | Port Adelaide | 9 | 16 | 70 | Carlton | 5 | 6 | 36 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1968 | Carlton | 13 | 15 | 93 | Sturt | 6 | 20 | 56 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1969 | Richmond | 15 | 27 | 117 | Sturt | 9 | 10 | 64 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1970 | Carlton | 21 | 13 | 139 | Sturt | 12 | 22 | 94 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1971 | Hawthorn | 13 | 13 | 91 | North Adelaide | 10 | 7 | 67 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1972 | North Adelaide | 10 | 13 | 73 | Carlton | 10 | 12 | 72 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1973 | Richmond | 12 | 20 | 92 | Subiaco | 10 | 19 | 79 | Adelaide Oval |
| 1974 | Richmond | 27 | 11 | 173 | Sturt | 13 | 17 | 95 | Football Park |
| 1975 | North Melbourne | 17 | 15 | 117 | Norwood | 5 | 11 | 41 | Football Park |
| 1976 | Hawthorn | 12 | 17 | 89 | North Melbourne | 5 | 11 | 41 | Norwood Oval |
| Team | Champions | Runners-up |
| Port Adelaide | 4 | 0 |
| Richmond | 3 | 0 |
| Carlton | 2 | 4 |
| Norwood | 2 | 1 |
| West Adelaide | 2 | 1 |
| Hawthorn | 2 | 0 |
| South Melbourne | 1 | 2 |
| Essendon | 1 | 1 |
| North Adelaide | 1 | 1 |
| North Melbourne | 1 | 1 |
| Sturt | 0 | 4 |
| Collingwood | 0 | 1 |
| Fitzroy | 0 | 1 |
| South Adelaide | 0 | 1 |
| Subiaco | 0 | 1 |
