The VFL was more prepared to make allowances for interstate football one hundred years ago than it would ever consider today. The 50th jubilee of the codification of the games’ rules had seen a grand festival of football held in Melbourne in 1908 under the nominal auspice of the Australian Football Council. With nationalist fervour [Read more]

  Any hope that St Kilda might resolve the internal conflict of the previous weekend soon dissipated as the following week unfolded. The committee stuck fast to their position in relation to withdrawing dressing room passes. At Tuesday training the players voted unanimously that ‘the indignity to which Messrs Eicke and Hogan had been subjected [Read more]

  Even before the VFL era had begun, the Australasian newspaper had formed the following opinion of the St Kilda football club: “There are 2 classes of men who play football. With one the pleasure of participating is more than sufficient recompense for defeat: the other class thinks that a win is above everything else. [Read more]

A ‘grey, windless, foggy afternoon’ was the setting for round 12, the coldest football match-day recorded to this time. The temperature wouldn’t rise above 7.1 °C (44.8 °F) as six clubs began the day within close proximity of a top four position. 20,000 spectators ignored the conditions and flocked to Brunswick St to watch fourth [Read more]

Though King George V had ascended the throne after his father’s death the previous year, his official coronation was held on Thursday 22nd of June in 1911. The VFL took advantage of the public holiday to stage two games to commence the second half of the season. The Argus believed that ‘altogether the idea of [Read more]

  The Saturday of round nine dawned fine and still, a rare occurrence in the June of this particular year. But the effect of recent rain on the football grounds of Melbourne was plain for all to see. This round of games would be played on quagmires. The Lake Oval handled the wet better than [Read more]

‘Football in the Mud’ was the headline The Argus chose for round 8 of 1911, and the weather was the dominant theme for more than just VFL fixtures. The constant rain was certainly causing havoc and confusion in the Geelong District League where communications went badly amiss for previously undefeated Chilwell. On the advice of [Read more]

Monday the 5th of June 1911 was the 46th birthday of King George V, necessitating the footballers of the Victorian Football League to drag their weary bones out of bed and play a second round of football games in the space of three days. It goes without saying that there was no AFLPA back in [Read more]

It will surprise many that Richmond, the club that wears “Captain Blood’ as a badge of honour, initially regarded itself as a bastion of the ‘right and proper’ way to play the game. Furthermore, the colour of their jumper wasn’t originally yellow and black. What will not surprise is that they have long possessed a [Read more]

On the Friday evening prior to Round 5, a joint conference of VFL and VFA representatives had met to discuss the control of football in Victoria. They produced the startling recommendation that the two organisations should amalgamate into one controlling body, appointing a board with equal representation for both parties. This offered the prospect that [Read more]

A perfect autumn day greeted footballers and barrackers alike as they travelled to their appointed grounds for the third round of the 1911 season. Increasingly, Melbournians benefited from the Saturday half-holiday, freeing them to pursue the leisure of their choice. More and more were choosing football. It’s doubtful the sunshine made the streets and gutters [Read more]

If the VFL hoped to put one area of controversy behind it with the decision to permit player payments, it was to be rudely reminded that certain sections of society remained implacably opposed to the very notion of professional sport. On the eve of the season’s second round a scathing public attack by a prominent [Read more]