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[Principal Source: 'The Argus', Monday 18 September 1899]
“The
rain prevented anything like a crowd at the St Kilda ground on Saturday, but the
4,000 or 5,000 people who braved the elements, and came out armed with overcoats
and umbrellas, were amply rewarded for their pains by seeing a magnificent
tussle. From the first bounce to the
very last tinkle of the bell it was a battle between two earnest, strong teams,
and the crowd entered into the excitement, and what it lacked in numbers it made
up in enthusiasm. Many thought that
the adverse weather committee would have stepped in, but they decided to let the
game go on. South
Related Link: VFL Match Programme And Results Season 1899 (PDF)
Reigning VFL premiers Fitzroy were warmly favoured to secure successive flags after winning 14 of their 17 matches prior to the grand final. Fourteen of these matches came during a conventional home and away series in which the eight league clubs faced each other twice, and Fitzroy, with an 11-3 record, finished at the head of the ladder. The Roys won both of their encounters with South Melbourne during that time: resoundingly at home in round 4 (6.19 to 3.4), and narrowly in round 11 at the Lake Oval (5.9 to 4.9, after scores had been tied at the last change).
|
Fred Fontaine |
The eight clubs were then split into two round robin sections of four clubs each, which played each of the three other clubs in their section once. The two section winners then met in the final, with the team that had finished at the top of the ladder at the end of the home and away rounds having the right to challenge the winner of this match (unless, of course, it was itself the winner, in which case it won the premiership). Both Fitzroy and South Melbourne won all three of their round robin matches, the Roys over Carlton, Melbourne and Collingwood by 1, 38 and 14 points respectively, and South over Geelong (by 3 points), St Kilda (70 points), and Essendon (15 points). The southerners, who had won only 5 of their 14 home and away matches to finish 6th knew that they would be required to defeat Fitzroy twice in order to claim the flag. This would be an extremely difficult task, as Fitzroy had won the last 4 meetings between the teams, most of them resoundingly, and were widely acknowledged as, by some measure, the most accomplished team in football at the time. Boasting players of the calibre of follower Mick Grace (1899 Argus Player of the Year), centre half back Pat Hickey, rover Billy McSpeerin, centre half forward Fred Fontaine, full forward Geoff Moriarty, and full forward Jim Grace they had strength on every line, and their success rate of 81.1% over two seasons was significantly better than that of any other league club. |
South, too, had many fine players, including centre half forward Harold Lampe, follower Mick Pleass, wingman Herb Howson, and key defenders Dave Adamson and Charlie Goding, but the general consensus was that, overall, they lacked both the experience and the panache of the Roys.
Fitzroy
were without key forward Bert Sharpe, whose father had died the previous day, and in consequence
of which all the players in the team wore black arm bands
Chris
Kiernan
was initially selected to replace Sharpe, but when he failed to show up, Bill 'Bice'
Cleary
was asked to strip instead.
Art
Henley, who injured himself during the pre-match warm-up, and Harry Purdy were absentees for
How The Teams Lined UpFitzroy kicking DOWN South Melbourne kicking UP |
||||
| ******** | ||||
| H.McEwen | G.Moriarty | E.Jenkins | ||
| A.Henley | C.Colgan | W.Fraser | ||
| J.Deas | P.Hickey | A.Sloan (captain) | ||
| H.Jeanneret | H.Lampe | C.James | ||
| E.Drohan | H.Clarke | K.Robinson | ||
| H.Howson | W.Windley | J.O'Hara | ||
| P.Descrimes | F.Fontaine | W.Dalton | ||
| G.Davidson | C.Goding | A.Trimm | ||
| A.McDougall | J.Grace | W.Cleary | ||
| W.Armstrong | D.Adamson (captain) | F.O'Hara | ||
| Followers | Rover | |||
| M.Grace | W.Potter | W.McSpeerin | ||
| M.Pleass | J.Garbutt | R.Bryce | ||
Rain
was falling steadily as the
players ran out, and there was a
strong breeze from the Elwood end, favouring the city goal.
Adamson of South, having won the toss, elected to kick with the aid of this
breeze.
|
From
the initial bounce South’s
Howson, on a wing, was a particularly prominent presence early on, several times
outmarking and outpacing his direct opponent Eddie Drohan. It
was somewhat ironic therefore that Drohan’s first major involvement, as he
teamed well with McSpeerin, almost brought an equalising goal for the |
Charlie Goding |
On
the whole, however, South seemed sharper than Fitzroy, with Joe Garbutt, Howson,
Jeanerrett and Lampe continually in the thick of it.
Lampe it was who nabbed South’s second major, and he might well have
had more goals during this term if his kicking had been more penetrative.
Fitzroy
repeatedly ruined their attempted counter forays with fumbling,
over-elaboration, and slipshod disposal, while the southerners, by contrast,
teamed well together. The bell rang with South 14 points to the good,
having sent out a clear message to their opponents that they were not going to
surrender the 1899 flag without a titanic struggle.
Quarter Time:
At
the start of the second term Adamson strengthened South’s backlines by
deploying half forward flanker Charlie James as an additional defender.
South
resumed the second quarter as they had ended the first, seeming quicker to the
ball than the Roys, as well as more decisive and neater in their movements.
They went straight into attack from the opening bounce, but Deas made a telling last gasp save
for Fitzroy, who then surged into attack themselves.
The attack culminated in Alf McDougall seemingly soccering a goal, only for
umpire Crapp to concur with South defender Adamson, who claimed that the ball
had struck his arm while in transit. A
single flag, accordingly, was raised by the goal umpire, amidst a chorus of
catcalls from the Fitzroy supporters.
|
Bill McSpeerin |
South
spent the next few minutes of the game adopting rugby tactics by repeatedly, and
quite deliberately, kicking the ball out of bounds, mainly along the St Kilda
road wing, which was the defensive side of the ground from their perspective. The
southerners
continued to seem the stronger side, but Hickey, at half back for the Roys, was
“irresistible”, and made it extremely hard for them to advance into a scoring position. Play
began to get willing, and there were some signs of temper as Fitzroy's Kelly Robinson, Cleary
and Jack Dalton, in turn, were warned by the umpire for rough play. As
the term wore on, Fitzroy gradually started to assert themselves more, but two
successive behinds to skipper Alec Sloan, who had moved onto the ball from his
half back flank, were all that they could muster until a concerted
rush engineered by Hickey culminated in Mick Grace goaling with a trademark
hefty punt kick. |
South’s
tactic of ‘kicking to touch’ saw them concede many free kicks, but these
tended to be much too far from goal to cause concern.
Finally, however, a clever piece of play by the Fitzroy small men enabled
Mick Grace to break clear and send an excellent pass to Fontaine, who marked,
and then goaled.
South
hit back strongly, but they continued to find Hickey, who “was skirmishing
behind the ruck like a rugby half back”, impassable, and at the long break
Fitzroy had captured a 1 point advantage. Half Time:
|
The
Maroons were straight into attack after the opening bounce of the third term,
but Goding and Howson combined to repel them and launch a counter-offensive
which ended with a spectacular snapshot from Lampe “which deserved a better
fate than a behind”. Colgan
eventually got South Melbourne’s third goal when he was freed after being
pushed in the back by Ernie Jenkins. Midway through the third term the rain relented briefly for the first time, but when it resumed it was more torrential than ever. For
the remainder of the quarter, neither side managed to make a decisive
breakthrough, but it was “grand football”, and the small crowd was
thoroughly immersed in it. When the bell rang the southerners had
established a 7 point advantage. Three
Quarter Time: |
'Mick' Pleass |
During
the three quarter time break the wind strengthened “and a nasty drifting rain
came in”. South opened the final
term brightly, only for Hickey to inspire a swift and purposeful response from
the Roys, which yielded a couple of behinds.
|
Jim Grace |
From
fully 90 yards, Lampe went for goal using a place kick, but the ball fell well
short, and was marked, almost inevitably, by Hickey.
Fitzroy then maneuvered the ball the length of the ground, with McSpeerin
marking just in front of the behind post. Before
South’s defenders knew what was happening the |
Best
afield, by some measure, was Hickey. “Nominally
he was half-back; as a matter of fact, he was everywhere, forcing when forcing
was needed, and defending when defence was required.
He took all the bumps too.” Rover
McSpeerin was “cool and clever as ever”.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Pts | |
| Fitzroy | 0.1 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 27 |
| South Melbourne | 2.3 | 2.3 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 26 |
BEST - Fitzroy: Hickey, Clarke, Jenkins, Drohan, Deas, McSpeerin South Melbourne: Howson, Garbutt, Lampe, Davidson, Trimm, Pleass
GOALS - Fitzroy: Fontaine, M.Grace, McSpeerin South Melbourne: Lampe 2; Colgan
ATTENDANCE: 4,823 at the Junction Oval
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