Club nicknames and colours: another perfect season?
by Brian Dawson
As Melbourne fans began to celebrate the end of their 57 years of heartache in the final quarter of the 2021 AFL Grand Final, instead of their long-suffering supporters screaming “Go Dees”, it could have been “Go Fuchsia’s” if not for legendary coach Checker Hughes, way back in 1934. In this season Melbourne were again struggling, after winning only three games in 1933, and the coach decided it was high time for a new Melbourne brand and nickname. The club had been known as the Fuchsia’s since their early days, as the flower in bloom often matched their colours, but Checker, in a fiery address to his players, told them they were Fuchsia’s no more and must now lift and play like Demons! And so, their present nickname was born…
Across the largest and traditional Australian football states of South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia, some of the teams in the SANFL, former VFL/now AFL and WAFL share the same nicknames and/or colours, while some stand alone, with no counterpart in other states. For example, there are the Glenelg, Richmond and Claremont Tigers, with the South Australian and Victorian based clubs sharing the same yellow and black colours, while the Western Australian Tigers are yellow (gold) and dark blue. Similarly, there are the Bulldogs in each state; Central Districts, the Western Bulldogs (formerly Footscray) and South Fremantle, although their respective colours are not quite the same, as instead of the red white and blue of the South Australian and Victorian Bulldogs, the Western Australian Bulldogs are just red and white. Standing alone are the brown and gold Hawthorn Hawks and the red, white and black St Kilda Saints, as neither South Australia or Western Australia has a team with the same colours or nickname. Similarly, in the West, the East Perth Royals, who are blue and black, have no colour or nickname match.
While the recently created expansion teams have often opted for more American style nicknames, such as the AFL Fremantle Dockers (1995, also the only team with purple), Port Adelaide Power (1997), Gold Coast Suns (2011) and GWS Giants (2012, only team with orange), plus the WAFL Peel Thunder (1997), many of the older clubs have traditionally taken nicknames from big cats, birds or colours. Aside from the Geelong Cats, as mentioned previously the Tigers are represented in each state, and there are the Brisbane (formerly Fitzroy) Lions, matched by the Subiaco Lions in WA, while South Australia has the South Adelaide Panthers. The West Coast Eagles have a SANFL match in the Woodville-West Torrens Eagles, who also have blue and gold colours, but with some green as well. Prior to the 1991 merger with West Torrens, Woodville, at their inception into the SANFL in 1964, were known as the Woodpeckers (and a bit later, as the Warriors). There are the Collingwood and Port Adelaide Magpies, but the black and white stripes in the WAFL belong to Swan Districts, and naturally enough they are the Swans, matching up with the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans. The Adelaide Crows have no counterparts, similar to the North Adelaide Roosters and the West Perth Falcons (who used to be the Cardinals, until re-named in 1993).
Only the Carlton Blues, the Sturt Double Blues and Norwood Redlegs have taken a colour nickname, while the North Melbourne Kangaroos (previously the “Shinboners”) are the only team with a peculiarly Australian animal nickname. Their closest colour match are the East Fremantle Sharks in the WAFL, who also are the only team with a marine nickname. The Essendon Bombers are the only team with an aviation nickname, but have red and black colour matches in the West Adelaide Bloods and Perth Demons. These teams are also the only ones across the three states to share the exact same colours and jumper design, being black with a red sash.
The SANFL began in 1877, the VFL in 1897 and the WAFL in 1885, and across the 100+ years since their collective inception, the “planets have aligned” on just two occasions, where the same colours have triumphed in each state. The most recent was in 1990, when the black and white colours saluted, as Collingwood broke their 32 year flag drought by defeating Essendon by eight goals to win the first ever AFL Premiership under coach Leigh Mathews and captain Tony Shaw. In South Australia, Port Adelaide won their third flag in a row (and coach John Cahill his seventh) when they beat Glenelg by 15 points in the last season of the SANFL prior to the Adelaide Crows joining the AFL. In Perth, Swan Districts, under legendary mentor John Todd (who had coached the West Coast Eagles in the prior two seasons), won their seventh flag after beating Claremont by 25 points. Prior to this season, the red and blue colours were perfect in 1941, as Melbourne beat Essendon by 29 points to clinch their hat trick of flags under Checker Hughes. Norwood were too good for Sturt (also by 29 points) and West Perth beat East Fremantle by 21 points. Stan “Pops” Heal had the honour and distinction of winning two Premierships in the same season, as due to the quirks of wartime eligibility, he was able to don the red and blue for both Melbourne and West Perth, as the respective grand finals were two weeks apart.
Interestingly, the black and white colours of Collingwood, Port Adelaide and Swan Districts have also had the most “near misses” in Premiership symmetry. Way back in 1903, 1910 and 1928, Collingwood and Port were Premiers when there was no black and white match in Western Australia (Swan Districts only entered the WAFL in 1934); they were again both victorious in 1936 and 1958, but Swans did not win their first flag until 1961. In 1962 and 1963 Port and Swans were Premiers, but Collingwood did not make the finals. In 1980 the black and white colours appeared in all three Grand Finals, but only Port were Premiers after defeating Norwood, while Collingwood and Swan Districts suffered heavy defeats to Richmond and South Fremantle respectively. In 2010 Collingwood won the Grand Final replay against St Kilda and Swans beat Claremont (by one point) in the West, to continue the quirk of winning their most recent flags together (1990 and 2010). In both 1948 and 1960 it was nearly a perfect red and blue season; in 1948 Melbourne won the grand final replay over Essendon by 39 points and Norwood beat West Torrens by 57 points, but West Perth lost to South Fremantle by 24 points in the West. In 1960 Melbourne beat Collingwood (by 48 points) and West Perth beat East Perth (by 32 points), but Norwood failed by just five points against North Adelaide. Otherwise, there was a colour wise “near miss” in 1937, when the blue and white colours almost all prevailed, as Geelong beat Collingwood by 32 points and East Fremantle defeated Claremont by 10 points, but South Adelaide succumbed to Port Adelaide by four goals. And in 1914, the red and white colours of South Melbourne, North Adelaide and South Fremantle all played off in the Grand Final, but all were consigned to runners up, as Carlton, Port Adelaide and East Fremantle won premierships.
There has been no perfect season across the three Leagues where the same nickname has triumphed. The Richmond, Glenelg and Claremont Tigers all played off in 1982, but were beaten by Carlton, Norwood and Swan Districts respectively. The Richmond and Glenelg Tigers were victorious in 1934, 1973 and 2019, but the Claremont Tigers did not reach the Grand Final in Western Australia in any of these seasons. There were two Bulldog winners in 1954, as Footscray celebrated their first ever premiership after beating Melbourne by 51 points and South Fremantle easily beat East Fremantle by 78 points, but Central Districts did not enter the SANFL until 1964. The next season saw two Demon winners, as Melbourne beat Collingwood by 28 points and Perth won their first flag in 48 years when they beat East Fremantle by 2 points. The Central Districts and South Fremantle Bulldogs also won in 2009, beating Sturt (by 38 points) and Subiaco (by 18 points) respectively, with the Western Bulldogs being losing preliminary finalists. There were two Eagles winners in 2006, when West Coast defeated Sydney by 1 point and Woodville-West Torrens beat Centrals by 76 points, which meant there were two red and white runners up (Sydney and South Fremantle, who lost to Subiaco in WA), and two Bulldogs runners up (Centrals and South Fremantle). Strangely enough, these results were the complete opposite in the previous season. Here, there were two red and white winners, as Sydney beat West Coast by four points and South Fremantle beat Claremont by 56 points, and with Centrals beating Woodville-West Torrens, there were also two Eagles losers.
As season 2022 enters the finals the Tigers will be represented in each League, as will the red and white colours of North Adelaide, Sydney Swans and South Fremantle and the red and blue colours of Norwood, Melbourne and West Perth. Could there be another “perfect” season?
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Well played Brian and I applaud the research that you’ve put into.this.
(My Centrals would have struggled to make the Grand Final in 1954 as they didn’t enter SANFL senior ranks until a decade later.)
Jeez Brian you deserve a PHD for that a very good read . Swish is correct on Centrals . They first fielded a senior SANFL team in 1964 after a 5 year apprenticeship in the reserves . Centrals actually followed Footscray in their Latin motto
Cede Nullis or for us non Romans Yield to None . I followed Centrals closely in their golden era when the Gowans twins were playing as I played with their dad .
Well done Brian
Interesting read Brian. I have always been interested in this stuff. Although not the same colours I’ve always dreamed a parallel with the West Torrens Eagles and the Hawthorn Hawks. The 60s and 70s bird emblem that appears on various uniforms looked very similar at the time. The other reason the planets did not align more regularly was that there was a period in the mid/late previous century where all 8 teams in the WAFL won a flag in a ten year period. Not so in SA and Vic where some teams hogged the limelight at various stages and others hardly ever got close.
Brian’s already got one Hayden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Dawson_(football_coach)
A very enjoyable read, Brian.
Thanks for this piece.