MELBOURNE - Part One: 1858 to 1918
Affiliated: VFA 1877-96; VFL 1897-1989; AFL 1991-present
Club Address: 26 Jolimont Terrace, Jolimont 3002
Postal Address: P.O. Box 254, East Melbourne 3002
Home Ground: Melbourne Cricket Ground
Formed: allegedly 1858, but more probably 1859
Colours: Navy blue and red
Emblem: Demons (formerly Red Legs/Redlegs, Fuchsias, Red Demons)
Premierships: SENIORS - 1900, 1926, 1939-40-41, 1948, 1955-56-57, 1959-60, 1964 (12 total) RESERVES - 1931-32-33-34-35, 1939, 1949, 1956, 1969-70, 1984, 1993 (12 total) UNDER 19S - 1947, 1953, 1964, 1971, 1981, 1983 (6 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - VFL Night Series 1971, 1987, 1989 (3 total); Dr. Wm. C.McClelland Trophy 1955-56, 1958, 1990 (4 total)
Brownlow Medallists: Ivor Warne-Smith 1926 & 1928; Don Cordner 1946; Brian Wilson 1982; Peter Moore 1984; Jim Stynes 1991; Shane Woewodin 2000 (6 Medallists/7 Medals)
Tassie Medallists: Brian Dixon 1961 (1 total)
All Australians: R.Barrasi 1956, 1958 & 1961; B.Dixon 1961; H.Mann 1966; G.Hardeman 1972; R.Flower 1980 & 1983; D.Hughes 1988 (9 total)
AFL All Australians: Jim Stynes 1991 & 1993; Garry Lyon 1993, 1994 & 1995; Stephen Tingay 1994; David Neitz 1995 & 2002; Todd Viney 1998; Jeff Farmer 2000; Adam Yze 2002; Jeff White 2004; James McDonald 2006 (13 total)
V/AFL Top Goalkickers: V.Coutie (39) 1904; H.Brereton (56) 1912; N.Smith (89) 1941; F.Fanning (67) 1944, (67) 1945 & (97) 1947; D.Neitz (82) 2002 (7 total)
Melbourne's Official 'Team of the Century': Click here
Highest Score: 28.14 (182) vs. North Melbourne 14.13 (97) at the MCG in round 21 1986, and 28.14 (182) vs. North Melbourne 17.10 (112) at the MCG in round 5 1991
Most Games: 301 by David Neitz from 1992 to 2007 (correct to the start of the 2008 season)
Record Home Attendance: 99,346 in round 10 1958: Melbourne 12.12 (84); Collingwood 10.13 (73)
Record Finals Attendance: 115,802 for the 1956 grand final at the MCG: Melbourne 17.19 (121); Collingwood 6.12 (48)
Overall Success Rate 1897-2009: 46.5%
Thomas Wentworth Wills
Australian football is often described as having commenced in 1858, the same year that allegedly saw the formation of the Melbourne Football Club; indeed, an inference is often drawn to the effect that the two events were more or less simultaneous. Certainly, 1858 witnessed the famous 'grand football match' between teams of forty a side from Scotch College and Melbourne's Church of England Grammar School, traditionally regarded as the fledgling code's first manifestation. Later in the year, a number of other matches were played, some of which featured members of the Melbourne Cricket Club (although there would appear to be no evidence whatsoever that these members saw themselves as in any way representing that club, let alone a discrete, formally constituted football club). In truth, Melbourne Cricket Club secretary Thomas Wentworth Wills' suggestion that a football club should be formed as it "would help those (cricketers) who are inclined to become stout and having their joints encased in useless superabundant flesh" (see footnote 1) appears to have gone completely unheeded. Not until the beginning of the following winter would a Melbourne Football Club come substantively into being, announcing its existence by the promulgation of what has come to be regarded as Australian football's first set of rules. However, whereas the publication of these rules was a definite event which can be precisely located chronologically, the earmarking of 1858 as the year in which Australian football was 'born' is a mere convenience, with nothing substantive to back it up. Football of various sorts had been played in Melbourne for at least twenty years (see footnote 2), and the sport would continue to manifest itself in many different ways for quite a few years to come.
The MCG in 1858
Those historic first rules read as follows:
RULES OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB
MAY, 1859
Committee
| T.W.Wills Esq. | T.Butterworth Esq. | |||
| W.Hammersley Esq. | - Smith Esq. | |||
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**** |
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| Alex Bruce Esq. | ||||
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**** |
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| Hon Treasurer | ||||
| J.Sewell Esq. | ||||
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**** |
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| Hon Secretary | ||||
| J.B.Thompson Esq. |
I.
The distance between the Goals and the Goal Posts shall be decided upon by the Captains of the sides playing.
II.
The Captains on each side shall toss for choice of Goal; the side losing the toss has the Kick Off from the centre point between the Goals.
III.
A Goal must be kicked fairly between the posts, without touching either of them, or a portion of the person of any player of either side.
IV.
The game shall be played in a space of not more than 200 yards wide, the same to be measured equally on each side of a line drawn through the centres of the two Goals; and two posts to be called the 'Kick Off' posts shall be erected at a distance of 20 yards on each side of the Goal posts at both ends, and in a straight line between them.
V.
In case the Ball is kicked behind goal, any one of the side behind whose goal it is kicked may bring it 20 yards in front of any portion of the space between the 'Kick Off' posts, and shall kick it as nearly as possible in a line with the opposite Goal.
VI.
Any player catching the Ball directly from the foot may call 'mark'. He then has a free kick; no player from the opposite side being allowed to come inside the spot marked.
VII.
Tripping and pushing are both allowed (but no hacking) when any player is in rapid motion or in possession of the Ball, except in the case provided for in Rule VI.
VIII.
The Ball shall be taken in hand only when caught from the foot, or on the hop. In no case shall it be lifted from the ground.
IX.
When the Ball goes out of bounds (the same being indicated by a row of posts) it shall be brought back to the point where it crossed the boundary line, and thrown in at right angles with that line.
X.
The Ball, while in play, may under no circumstances be thrown. (See footnote 3)
**
The original MCC members' pavilion
However, it is important to stress that, although these rules have come to be regarded as representing a kind of blueprint for the modern game of Australian football, they were originally designed for use only within the Melbourne Football Club itself. When the Melbourne club engaged in a fixture against another, external club, the rules of play to be used would normally be agreed by the respective captains beforehand, and would therefore tend to constitute a kind of compromise containing elements of both clubs' often idiosyncratic practices. Moreover, there was an element of inherent flexibility in that, during the course of the game, if the two captains could not agree between them on whether or not a transgression of the rules had occurred, the matter was put to the players to be resolved on a 'show of hands'. Players who believed themselves entitled to a free kick would appeal loudly, much as in cricket, and their complaints were not restricted to issues of physical indiscretion; in one match during the 1860s, a South Yarra player appealed, and was duly awarded a free kick, after his Melbourne opponent called him 'a lump of blubber' (see footnote 4).
Other matters not addressed by the early rules included the shape of the ball, the precise dimensions and shape of the playing area, and the duration of play. Nevertheless, by 1866 a measure of conformity was being arrived at, in Victoria at least, with most clubs agreeing to play according to an updated version of the Melbourne Football Club's rules, as drawn up by delegates of the Carlton, Melbourne, Royal Park and South Yarra clubs.
| The centrality of the Melbourne Football Club in football's early evolution also included the direct involvement of some of the embryonic game's key figures. Thomas Wills, an important contributor to the shaping of the sport's rules has already been mentioned, while arguably of even greater significance was Wills' cousin, Henry Harrison, who attracted the honorific title 'father of the game' because of his all round contribution over many years as both player and administrator. When Wills took on the inaugural captaincy of Melbourne, Harrison occupied the same position at a club known as Richmond (not the same club as today's Tigers) before replacing his cousin at Melbourne when Wills left for Geelong. Harrison later spent a year himself at the 'Pivot', but it was primarily for his prolonged association with Melbourne that he is remembered. He also played leading roles in the VFA, the VFL (which named its headquarters, Harrison House, after him) and the Australasian Football Council, and so if he can not truly be said to have 'fathered' the game in the sense of actually inventing it, he was nevertheless an adoptive father of the highest calibre. The fact that, like Wills, he was born in New South Wales is an intriguing anomaly perhaps best not focused on, at any rate not in Victoria. |
Henry Colden Antill Harrison - click to enlarge. |
The transformation of football from pastime to passionate preoccupation was swift. By 1870 it was possible to talk in terms of a 'Victorian premiership', with Melbourne, which played a total of 12 matches for the year, winning 7 and drawing 5, as the inaugural winners (see footnote 5). For most of the 1870s Melbourne, whose players began wearing their trademark red hose in 1872, becoming known as the Red Legs in the process (see footnote 6), vied with Carlton for supremacy, with the contests between them invariably attracting the greatest interest, and the largest crowds, of each season. As the decade wore on, however, other clubs, notably Geelong, South Melbourne and Essendon, gradually began to provide stiffer opposition. In 1877 an Association was formed in order to provide a formal structure for what by that time had probably become, after horse racing, the colony's principal sporting interest. The Victorian Football Association included teams from all over Victoria, but it tended to be the city clubs, plus Geelong, which dominated.
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The MFC party that visited Hobart in 1886 - click to enlarge. |
After finishing runner up in its first two VFA seasons Melbourne's on field performances gradually deteriorated, with the result that it also began to struggle financially. In 1889 the club committee approached its cricketing counterpart with a request that the two organisations be 'merged', with the cricket club discharging the football club's debts in return for control of its assets - in other words, a take over. Distasteful as the new arrangements may have been to many football club members, they appeared to have had an immediate and beneficial impact as the team rose steadily up the ladder over the following few seasons. Despite one or two hiccups, by the mid 1890s the club was among the most powerful in the game, finishing in the top four every year between 1892 and 1896, including consecutive 2nd place finishes in 1893-94. |
The 1894 season saw the debut of one of the club's greatest ever players in the shape of Fred McGinis, a Tasmanian whose "splendid drop kicking, pertinacity in redeeming a mistake, determination in getting the ball, and coolness and quickness in passing it on to a team mate placed him in a class above his contemporaries" (see footnote 7).
| The factors leading to the formation of the VFL are discussed in detail elsewhere, notably in the entries on Geelong and Carlton. Melbourne, as one of the stronger inner city clubs which was dissatisfied with the status quo, was an important and influential member of the breakaway group, and after a slow start to its league career in 1897, began to show signs of improving the following year. After treading water in 1899 the Red Legs broke through for an improbable premiership in 1900, aided by arguably the most bewildering (some would say farcical) finals system ever utilised in the code's history (see footnote 8). |
Fred McGinis - click to enlarge. |
Melbourne's play-off, or preliminary final, opponent was Essendon, which was widely considered to be a much stronger all round combination than the Red Legs. However, after enjoying consummate supremacy early in the game, Melbourne held on desperately as the Same Old fought back, ultimately emerging triumphant by a margin of just 2 points to earn a crack at reigning premier Fitzroy in the grand final.
The changing rooms at the MCG early in the twentieth century.
The Maroons, aiming for a hat trick of premierships, were supremely confident, having arranged for a set of carriages, gaily bedecked in maroon and blue, and bearing the inscription 'Fitzroy - Premiers 1900', to be ready outside the ground to ferry players and officials to the post-match victory dance. In the event, it must have been a somewhat embarrassing journey, because Melbourne, with the ruck combination of Harry Cumberland, George Moodie and Fred McGinis in magnificent form, played probably its best football of the year to win by 4 points, 4.10 (34) to 3.12 (30). A VFL record crowd of 20,181 turned up to watch the match at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, with most of them leaving well satisfied after seeing 'glamour club' Fitzroy undone - how times change!
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The MFC's 1910 Hobart touring party, a noticeably more formal assemblage than its 1886 predecessor, shown above. (Click to enlarge.) |
Unfortunately, Melbourne failed to build on its success, contesting the finals just twice over the next decade and a half, and bowing out at the first hurdle on both occasions. Football during this period was becoming more and more overtly professional, with payment to players, which had been going on 'under the lap', so to speak, for many years, finally being accorded official sanction by the VFL in 1911. Melbourne, which after all was controlled by that bastion of amateurism, the MCC, was strongly opposed to the payment of players, as was University. Indeed, it would be many years yet before a player took to the field in the colours of the Melbourne Football Club in return for tangible remuneration. Adherence to the 'amateur ideal' was also a principle reason for Melbourne's withdrawal from the VFL competition for the duration of the 1st World War. |
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Footnotes
1. From Wills' letter of 10 July 1858 to 'Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle', which was Melbourne's weekly sporting paper at the time. Return to Main Text
2. See A Game Of Our Own: The Origins Of Australian Football by Geoffrey Blainey, page 13. Return to Main Text
3. Ibid., page 103. Return to Main Text
4. Ibid., page 38. Return to Main Text
5. 100 Years Of Football: The Story Of The Melbourne Football Club 1858-1958 by E.C.H.Taylor, page 23. Other sources, such as Graeme Atkinson and Michael Hanlon in The 3AW Book Of Footy Records, list winners of a Victorian premiership dating as far back as 1858, which given the non-uniformity of the game at that time must surely be regarded with some wariness. Return to Main Text
6. Prior to this, Melbourne had played in all white, and bore the nickname 'the invincible whites'. Return to Main Text
7. Taylor, op cit., pages 30-31. Return to Main Text
8. This system, which was used between 1898 and 1902, involved the teams contesting a 14 game minor round to determine the minor premier, with the teams then splitting into two sections depending on their minor round finishing positions. Section A comprised the four teams which had finished in the odd numbered placings, and section B the teams which had finished 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th. The winners of the two sections then contested what was effectively a preliminary final, with the victors earning the right to play off for the premiership against the minor premiers. In 1900, Melbourne only finished 6th after the home and away series, but then managed to emerge victorious from section B, thereby securing a path into the grand final. Return to Main Text