Almanac Footy: 1870 – Remembering the Forgotten Years

In the book ‘Football’s Forgotten Years’ (Slattery Media Group, Melbourne, 2021), author Colin Carter submits that the now Australian Football League (AFL) competition was born in 1870 rather than 1897. I make the following comments in support of that submission.

 

 

Contemporary documentary evidence

 

1. 1897 and after:

 

A.  Virtually every premier from 1897 to 1910 stated at their AGM that the flag was added to their pre-1897 successes. e.g. Carlton’s report in 1906 referred to attaining the highest honour – ‘After a lapse of nineteen years…by winning the League premiership.’ In 1908, Carlton’s report said it had for the second time won ‘the premiership’ three times in succession, the first being 1873–1875. (Carter p.37-8). This was repeated in the AGM reports of Essendon, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Collingwood and South Melbourne (Carter p.46). The newspapers said the same. (Carter p.48-58).

 

B.  The VFL’s annual report of 1903 referred to Collingwood winning its third pennant, which included the 1896 victory. The VFL therefore accepted that the competition itself had not changed. (Carter p.37).

 

C.  The Victorian Football Follower (under the auspices of the VFL) in the period 1906 and 1908-1910 published 58 lists of premiers each starting in 1870. (Carter p.58).

 

D.  The official organ of the VFL, The Football Record, published from 1912 until 1920 premiership lists for the period 1870 to the present. (Carter p.58).

 

 

Contemporary witness evidence

 

2. Colden Harrison, described in his Australian Football Hall of Fame* entry as the ‘Father of Football’, played from the early 1860s and was President of the Melbourne Football Club from 1897 to 1906. In his autobiography, he said that in 1897 the VFL ‘superseded’ the VFA, meaning it took the place of – or – supplanted the VFA (Collins dictionary definition). The VFL took over the running of the competition. (Carter p.100).

 

3. RWE Wilmot, (1869–1949), was a journalist. His work is described in his Australian Football Hall of Fame entry as being ‘characterised by authority, wisdom and generosity’. He wrote in The Argus newspaper in September 1902 that ‘The premiership competition has been carried on since 1870, so that this is the thirty-third season’. (Carter p.16).

 

4. John ‘Markwell’ Healy was a highly influential football journalist writing in The Australasian newspaper from 1888 to 1911. In October 1908, he wrote: ‘Looking back through the performances of clubs from 1870, the year in which premiership contests started, I find that the old club [Carlton] heads the list nine times to Geelong’s seven…’ (Carter p.17).

 

 

This contemporary evidence carries enormous weight.

 

 

5. There was a change in the reporting in the Football Record in 1920, more than two decades later, but this is obviously irrelevant as to how the competition was perceived in the immediate years after the VFL formed. The Football Record could not retrospectively change the standing and form of the competition.

 

6. Even if the views expressed in 1920 and onwards by the Football Record were to be considered, any reason for the change must also be investigated. The alteration in approach was for political and business reasons caused by the increasing ill will between the VFL and the VFA. The VFL wanted to claim the dominant position in football, therefore it fitted its purposes to rewrite history and ignore anything pre-1897. Thus, the football world was miraculously created, fully formed, in 1897. This is obviously an artificial position. (Carter p.75-76).

 

7. This reason for the change is further supported by the attitude of the VFA. For political and business reasons, it did not want to refer to the pre-1897 position as this would mean acknowledging that all the premierships in that period were won by the existing VFL clubs, therefore making it look inferior. (Carter p.80).

 

8. An argument against the submission is that the method of deciding the premiership team in the 19th century was different to 2023. It was an amateur sport, and it was a pioneering sport, as it started from scratch. There never was uniformity, as over the years football experimented with – the premier being decided by being top of the ladder; a Round Robin system; a group system where the sixth placed team out of eight still could win the flag; for a long time there was a right of challenge to go straight into the Grand Final even though this top of the ladder team had already lost a match in the finals. Due to the war, there were only four teams in 1916. The effect of the Second World War on the competition was such that the Brownlow Medal was not awarded for the period 1942–1945, but the premierships are counted. The 2020 season was massively disrupted and altered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, by September, at the end of a long home and away season, eight teams can still win the flag, which is nearly 50% of the clubs.

 

9. In 1930, three players topped the Brownlow Medal count with only four votes each (one vote was awarded by the umpire per game from 1924 to 1930), but we still recognise the early Brownlows even though the voting is now done very differently. Stan Judkins (Richmond) was adjudged the sole winner as he played fewer games, so in the following year the current six votes per match and a countback system were introduced, with the medal going to the player who polled the most three votes should there be a tie. Sport, like the rest of human activity, is always changing and evolving. In fact, the AFL set a precedent for implementing Carter’s submission when in 1989 it retrospectively awarded the Brownlow to all the players previously beaten on a countback as a matter of fairness.

 

10. In any event, the tables from 1870 onwards were accepted by the clubs (and the VFL) who had every reason to dispute them if incorrect (see points 1A and B above). There is no evidence of any significant argument against the premiership tables (points 1C and D) at the time. It is rather too late to raise objections over a hundred years later.

 

11. Opponents of the Carter submission have relied on an argument that the VFA and the VFL were not the same legal entity from 1897. Yet the top teams in the VFA, including all the previous premiership teams and runners-up, moved smoothly to the VFL, and continued this top level competition as before, playing at the best grounds. All the clubs that won the premiership pre-1897 are still in the AFL, so it was in essence the same top level competition.

 

12. There is no basis for arguing that a competition is continuous only if it remains the same legal entity (even if a sporting competition can be a legal entity). No precedent has been put forward to support this wide statement. A sporting body itself can decide on that, and it would be totally against the spirit of the game to introduce an artificial restriction on how past club performances should be recognised. There are many examples of competitions around the world and in Australia where the quite common readjustment of who presents/administers the sport occurs. (Carter p.101-103).

 

13. This overly legalistic argument is not supported by the AFL itself. The VFL began as an unincorporated association, which meant that it was not even a legal entity as such. In 1929, this association incorporated during that season, and became a legal entity – a company limited by guarantee. If opponents of the submission wish to rely on this argument, then no premierships can be counted in the AFL/VFL before 1929 which of course is not the accepted position. The VFL was so unconcerned about the change in legal status that they did it not at the start or end of the season, but in the middle of the 1929 competition, on 18 June 1929.

 

14. Another way of looking at it is that pre-1897, the premiers were the best team in the best competition in Australia. This is undeniable. After 1896, the premiers in the VFL were still the best team in the best competition in Australia (and the only winners of the premiership pre-1897 were VFL teams), and when the national AFL was created, the premiers remained the best team in the best competition.

 

15. The ‘best team in the best competition’ argument is irrefutable.

 

A.  The eminent authors of ‘Australia’s Game: The History of Australian Football’, published 2021, Matthew Nicholson, Bob Stewart, Greg de Moore & Rob Hess, state at page 210 that ‘In terms of on-field success, seven of the eight new League clubs represented the cream of the VFA’. They were also the most senior in terms of when they were founded.

 

B.  ‘In fact, none of the VFA clubs that were initially excluded from the VFL had been able to finish any higher than third on the end-of-season table’. (‘Australia’s Game’ p. 211).

 

C.  The long serving secretary of the VFA, TS Marshall, accepted the reality of the situation when he said in October 1896 that it was the intention ‘to cast adrift the remaining five clubs’. In other words, the same competition would continue to steam forwards, on the same course, and with a new captain at the helm. By the following October, the VFA even proposed that its teams become a second division under the control of the VFL. (‘Australia’s Game’ p.212, 216).

 

The Duties and Obligations of the AFL Commissioners and AFL administration.

 

16. The Constitution of the AFL states:

 

3 AFL is a public company limited by guarantee.

 

4 The objects for which AFL is established include:

(b)  to promote and encourage football both within Australia and elsewhere;

(c)  to promote and encourage football matches both within Australia and elsewhere;

(d)  to do any other thing ancillary to, and not inconsistent with, this clause 4.

 

17. The AFL Commissioners are required to ‘promote’ football outside of Australia under object 4(b) of the constitution. As object 4(c) refers specifically to promoting football matches outside of Australia, then 4(b) must mean promotion of football abroad in a different way. This would include making the very arguable and proud case to the world that Australian football is the oldest football competition in the world with premierships stretching from 1870 to now. Object 4(d) provides further support for this duty. What is certain is that it is not the AFL’s role to play ‘devil’s advocate’ and mount arguments against this favourable position. Let other codes try, if they wish, to find a way to oppose the claim.

 

Therefore, the Commissioners have a formal duty to promote the game by supporting the submission.

 

18. The Corporate Governance provisions of the AFL state that ‘the Commission’s role as the custodian of Australian Football’ is recognised, and it must ‘protect and enhance the interests of the game through national and international programs’.

 

19. AFL’s Strategic Plan 2004–2006:

The AFL’s Strategic Plan for 2004–2006 involves the following broad summary… MISSION STATEMENT * To manage the national football competition for the benefit of all AFL stakeholders – players, members, supporters, clubs, sponsors and the community. * As keepers of the code, to actively support all levels of football from Auskick to the elite level of the game and at every point in between, Australia wide. * To uphold the traditions and principles of our game, while seeking out new opportunities. * To achieve our mission, we will change and grow and be guided by the following values…

 

20. As the ‘custodian of Australian Football’ and ‘keepers of the code’, the AFL must uphold the traditions and principles of the game, which would include recognising the accepted position around the turn of the 19th century that the premierships counted from 1870 and beyond 1897, and that it is the oldest competition in the world.

 

21. Opponents of the submission have proceeded on the wrong basis in seeking to cancel the pre-1897 period. Their argument confuses the body running the game with the competition itself. They are two different things. A competition can exist in its own right. If, when the AFL formed, it had adopted a new corporate structure to, say, reflect better the national format, no one would have said that a new competition had started and the flag count would reset at zero. Imagine the outcry from the Victorian clubs. The same applied in 1897.

 

22. Further, the VFA was not a legal entity. It was an association of clubs playing each other. The majority of those clubs, the strongest and most successful clubs, continued to play each other but under the VFL banner. This did not alter the fact that the highest standard competition in Victoria continued, and it is irrelevant that the VFA ran an admirable but inferior competition thereafter.

 

Conclusion

 

23. The top competition in Australia started in 1870, those top clubs continued that competition under a different name in 1897 and immediately became the pre-eminent body, and continued that under the AFL banner. The players, coaches, umpires, club officials and club supporters are what make a competition, and are the ‘spirit’ of the AFL. Opponents seek to define the competition by reference only to the administrators and not the clubs, players etc, a bizarre interpretation. By recognising the competition from 1870 until the present, this ‘spirit’ will be properly upheld and honoured by the custodians of the game, the Commissioners of the AFL.

 

It has been suggested that Carter’s book rewrites history. As the author says, for 50 years from 1870 until 1920, the true position was accepted by the football world. History was rewritten in 1920, and it should not be allowed to stand. Although the main proposal in Carter’s book is that the AFL commenced in 1870 rather than 1897, it follows as a matter of logic that the premierships from 1870 to present should be counted in one table.

 

 

*Note: An earlier version of this piece made references to the ‘AFL Hall of Fame’ [sic] this has since been updated.

 

 

 

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