Sport - Football

Item 1: AUSTRALIA’S GAME

In 2021, Matthew Nicholson, Bob Stewart, Greg de Moore, and Rob Hess put their minds together and came up with a 750-page history of Australian football - euphemistically known as ‘Aussie rules.' Its title was AUSTRALIA’S GAME and aimed to tell readers all they needed to know about its origins, development, and current status. It also explained how the game was managed and the ways in which Victorian football authorities controlled its development, culminating in the establishment of the Melbourne-centric Australian Football League in 1990.

What follows is a distillation of the book into a 14,000-word chapter-by-chapter summary. There are 54 chapters compiled in chronological order, and while there was no attempt to organise them around stages or epochs, they can be conveniently 'sectioned into 4 developmental phases. They are bit rough and ready, but they hopefully give a feel for what big things were happening during different periods of Australian football’s 165-year history. The publisher was Hardie Grant.

The discussion that follows explains what each of the 54 chapters said about the game’s development, especially for the big leagues in the big cities.

001 BLURB

THUMBNAIL SUMMARY

Australia’s Game (comprising 54 Chapters of finely tuned detail covering around 163 years) is the definitive history of Australia's only native game of any significance, Australian football. It traces the evolution of the game from its earliest, rudimentary forms – in the period preceding the first recorded games in 1858 – to the totally professional game of the modern era. The authors, all passionate about the history of Australian football, have provided readers with every important turning point in the game’s development in every state and territory. Australia’s Game explores all the key historical incidents and events, including a deeper discussion on Australian women as both supporters and players, a review of the game's international incursions, as well as new evidence on the theory that 'Aussie rules' was developed as an offshoot of an Aboriginal game. Finally, the book revisits the pathway to a fully national presence, which includes a forensic analysis of how the Victorian Football League - on its knees in the 1980s with several clubs on the verge of bankruptcy - took a series of bold steps that led to the creation of the Australian Football League in 1990, and what, in the 2020s, turned out to be a monolithic national competition.

002 PREFACE

A REMARKABLE STORY

The prologue begins by identifying the aim of the book, which is to provide the definitive story of Australian football’s birth, diffusion, growth, and maturation into a wealthy and influential sporting conglomerate we now know as the Australian Football League. In explaining when and how the game spread across colonial - and subsequently state - boundaries, the key economic, social, and cultural forces that paved the way for change, including the many crises and catastrophes that occurred along the way, are critically examined. The book identifies the key officials that shaped the game, while also highlighting the coaches and players that made their mark. It reveals how the Australian game was able to secure so much public support so quickly, and, why it had, by Federation, become the most popular spectator sport in the nation. The impact of foreign wars on the game is also discussed, as are the transformative roles played by radio and television. The narrative is rounded off with a detailed account of the game’s commercial growth during the final few decades of the twentieth century, and an examination of its corporate and cultural reinvention during the first two decades of the new millennium when it entered the digital age and turned upside-down by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, the prologue acknowledges the book’s limitations, especially the Melbourne focus, the emphasis on the main city leagues, its neglect of amateur leagues, and the cursory treatment given to suburban and regional competitions across the nation.

003 PROLOGUE

MELBOURNE: THE EARLY DAYS

The preface set the scene for a discussion of the game’s origins by describing the early growth of Melbourne and explaining why it was so receptive to the development of its own brand of football – a game of its own, so to speak. It painted a picture of Melbourne’s expansion from 1835 to the late 1850s and noted that after 20 or so years of growth, it had become a relatively wealthy and sophisticated city of 120,000 inhabitants, with an emerging middle class. This impressive growth was underpinned by the riches accumulated from the gold rush that centred on the regions around Ballarat and Bendigo. Victoria had also become an independent British colony in 1851- having freed itself from New South Wales governance - with a democratically elected legislative assembly to follow. A university was established, together with schools for the education of adolescent Protestant boys. Catholic schools emerged in the 1860s. The foundation stone for a public library had been laid, a public hospital had been built, stonemasons had successfully negotiated an eight-hour-work day, and an embryonic railway network had been put in place. Two newspapers had been established, and as the 1850s progressed both the Port Phillip Herald and The Argus had become thriving enterprises. Melbourne’s growing affluence, an expanding middle class with strong sporting passions, a benign climate, access to large amounts of open space, increased leisure time, and a coterie of young men who had played ‘football’ in the mother country (that is, Britain), provided the perfect setting for a uniquely local code of football to emerge.

SIGHTINGS OF FOOTBALL

Chapter 1 provided a brief introduction to the leisure and sporting practices of Melbournians in the 1850s. It was noted in the first instance that football – in its various guises, including folk-football - was initially less popular than horse racing and cricket. The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), had, for instance, been established in 1836. At the same time, there were many instances of impromptu football games being played across the colonies, where the rules were often made up on the day. Chapter 1 highlights the early influence of Tom Wills in Melbourne, who, having returned from his Rugby School sojourn in England in December 1856 at the age 21, sparked a surge of interest in all things football. Wills was spending a significant amount of time not only discussing his Rugby school experiences with his Melbourne friends, but also promulgating a game of football quite different from what was currently on offer. By 1857 there were sightings of football being played in South Yarra and Yarra Park, and while very casual affairs, they were played with vigorous endeavour.

A CALL TO ARMS

Chapter 2 began by suggesting that 1858 was the year in which a confluence of events provided the catalyst for the formation of a unique Melbourne brand of football. It all began on 10 July when Tom Wills wrote to Bells Life, a local periodical, inviting interested parties to not only form a football club, and draw up a set of rules, but also play matches on vacant cricket grounds during the winter months. Chapter 2 also discussed several landmark games played over the course of the year, including a scratch match soon after Wills’ letter was published, and games involving three of Melbourne’s most prominent public schools (St Kilda Grammar, Melbourne Grammar, and Scotch College, all heavily Protestant) in June, August, and September of 1858. While the MG/SC games were reported widely, and provided significant points of discussion, the very first reported schoolboy game was between MG and SKG. The rules of these games were still quite imprecise, but they provided a valuable reference point for the framing of subsequent games. They attracted a broad cross section of the community, with schools leading the charge, since headmasters viewed football as not only a healthy way to burn off excess energy, but also a character-building experience for their ‘boys’. On the other hand, cricket authorities were not all that keen on footballers roughing up their ovals, and as a result, games were nearly always played on suburban parklands. Xavier College, Melbourne’s most prestigious Catholic public school in colonial times, also embraced the game, but this was much later in the piece since it was not established until 1878. Above all else, Chapter 2 made it clear that, notwithstanding the mythical claim that Aussie rules was invented in 1858, the game was not codified until 1859. On the other hand, it appears that the Melbourne Football Club was formed in 1858 under the supervision of MCC members.

THE RULE-WRITERS

Chapter 3 gave a detailed account of the events of 17 May 1859, when four members of the newly formed Melbourne Football Club (MFC) - William Hammersley, Thomas Smith, James Thompson, and Tom Wills - wrote the inaugural rules of what became known as the Melbourne game of football. These four men had several things in common. They were educated at elite public schools in Britain - with all but Wills attending university - aged between 22 and 33 years of age, and members of the MCC. They devised 10 rules, which set the parameters for the game’s subsequent evolution. These rules allowed for catching – or marking, as came to be called – while allowing players to either kick the ball or run with it to move it forward. But handling the ball was severely restricted. Throwing it was banned, while players were penalized if they lifted it from the ground. This meant that passing the ball to a teammate by any means other than a kick was illegal. Ground dimensions varied, but venues like Richmond paddock, which was the most often used space, were far bigger than the adjacent cricket ground. It was usual to peg off roughly rectangular spaces for play to occur. Balls were a mix of spherical and oval shapes. Another important development was the establishment of the Geelong Football Club (GFC) in 1859, which coincided with the completion of a railway line from Melbourne. This made GFC the second oldest football club in the nation – after the MFC - and one of the oldest in the world. The South Yarra club had also built a presence around this time.

A MELBOURNE GAME IS BORN

Chapter 4, which took the game into the 1860s, began by noting that while the Melbourne game was shaped by the Rugby rules that Wills played under as a schoolboy in England, it was, in its embryonic form, uniquely local. The rules were simple to understand – there was no off-side rule - and they protected players from the more violent aspects of Rugby, where hacking (kicking opponents in the shins) and tripping were allowed. The rules quickly evolved, and by July 1860 players were allowed to pick up the ball from the ground and kick it downfield. Games were played in all sorts of open spaces, with many having rough surfaces. Over time, the playing areas were roped off as rectangular spaces. Chapter 4 also recorded the game’s spread from Geelong to other parts of regional Victoria, especially the north and west. Wills introduced tactics that opened the game by positioning players all over the ground, which provided opportunities for more kicking and catching. According to James Thompson – a co-founder of the Melbourne game - by the middle of the 1860s ‘we seemed to have agreed to a code of our own’. In Britain at this time, there was a growing divide between the Rugby football game, which was now essentially a passing and running contest with little kicking, and the so-called Cambridge football game, game which banned hacking and tripping, and running with the ball, and become essentially a kicking game with no provision for catching. The Melbourne rules game was, in this context, very much a hybrid one that allowed for everything, which included running with the ball, catching the ball, and kicking the ball. But randomly throwing the ball forward or backward, or to a team-mate was still illegal.

RETRACING THE GAME’S ORIGINS

Chapter 5 addressed the claim that the Melbourne rules game was not only shaped by what was going on in England, but also influenced by what was happening in Aboriginal communities around the Victorian colony. For some local historians, the western district game of Marngrook was especially significant. Chapter 5 also responded to assertions that the Melbourne game drew on games played by Irish gold miners in Ballarat and Bendigo in the 1850s. The possible influences of these two factors on the writers of the inaugural rules were discussed. Chapter 5 concluded by saying that the evidence to support the above claims was somewhere between slim and negligible. While the mythology surrounding the game’s possible Aboriginal and/or Irish miner origins delivered a romantically multicultural narrative, the facts of the matter were grounded in a more middle-class, white, Anglo- centric milieu in the heart of Melbourne. While the colonists may have stolen the aboriginal’s land, they had not ‘appropriated’ their ceremonial games.

THE GAME GROWS SLOWLY

Chapter 6 looked at what was happening during the first few years of the 1860s. One particularly noteworthy development was the establishment of the Challenge Cup – initially part of the ‘Caledonian Gathering’ – in 1861, and its revamping in 1863. It was dominated in its early years by Geelong and Melbourne. The Melbourne game spread deep into the countryside, which included the regions around Ballarat, Warrnambool and Sandhurst/Bendigo. A railway from Melbourne to Bendigo was opened in 1862, while the movement of players between Geelong and Ballarat was assisted by the building of a rail link in 1863. Colden Harrison – who went on to become a major proponent of the Melbourne game - made his mark as both a player and administrator at this time, while the Carlton Football Club – which subsequently became the colony’s leading team - was established in 1864. Player numbers increased, but the Melbourne game still lacked coordinating authority, and its progress had slowed.

SHARPENING SKILLS AND REFINING RULES

Chapter 7 focused on the second- half of the 1860s, beginning with a discussion of rule changes that occurred in 1866. At an MFC rules meeting there was a push to introduce a horizontal bar across the goal posts, but the motion was defeated. However, in response to concerns about players running with the ball, especially after a free-kick, rule 8 was amended to require players to strike the ball on the ground every 5-6 yards. An additional rule required the appointment of umpires to adjudicate on the scoring of goals. There were still no restrictions on the duration of games – they were usually played between early afternoon and dusk - but they were increasingly divided into halves. Clubs were now organizing fixtures, with the introduction of an MFC-sponsored challenge cup - with prizemoney attached – being a significant initiative. New teams were forming, and competition was becoming more severe as inter-suburban rivalries grew, and money flowed into the game. By the time 1870 had arrived there were seven ‘senior’ teams (Albert Park, Carlton, Hobson’s Bay Railway, Melbourne, Police, South Yarra and the 18th Regiment) vying for supremacy, with the champion team for the year being seen to have won the ‘premiership.’ However, it was not clear why 1870 was chosen as the starting point. And, finally, spectators were making their presence felt, with more than 2,000 fans often turning up to games.

THE GAME EVOLVES

Chapter 8 discussed the change to the original rules, and how they impacted on the tone of the game, and styles of play during the 1870s. Little marks and little kicks were allowed and were used to move the ball forward without harassment or the threat of being tackled. Scrimmages did not go away, though, and rolling mauls often carried the ball a fair way forward. But it was now unusual to see a pack of players dragging the ball through the goal posts, which was a common occurrence in the first few years of the game’s development. In addition, rabbiting and slinging were banned as part of the 1874 rule changes. But players were still able to shoulder or chest an opponent if they had the ball. Pushing in the back was also permissible. The 1877 rules revamping was generally quite precise. For instance, rule 7 stipulated that when running with the ball in hand, players had to ‘strike it against the ground every five or six yards. Rule 7 also said that when tackled by an opponent when in possession of the ball, a player had to drop the ball immediately. Rule 10 made it illegal to throw the ball, while Rule 10 also stipulated that when the ball was thrown in from the boundary, it could be contested only after it had hit the ground. Uniforms became the norm at this time, but venues spaces were still anything but standard. While rectangular boundaries were mostly marked out, surfaces were often uneven, and grounds poorly maintained. For most of the 1870s cricket ground managers were – as they were in the 1860s - reluctant to give footballer space on their hallowed turf in case the grass pitches were damaged. Despite this impediment, the game spread rapidly, and by 1876 there were more than 130 clubs scattered across Victoria. Aboriginals had also taken to the game at this time, with the Framlington Reserve in western Victoria being an early focal point. The other interesting development at this time was the continued use of the term ‘premiership’ to designate to the champion team for the season.

AN ORGANIZATIONAL HUB EMERGES

Chapter 9 addressed the organisation of the game, and the establishment of its first administrative body, the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1877. Wealthy grazier, Wiliam J. Clarke was elected to the president position, while Colden Harrison was elected to the vice president position. Thomas Power assumed the role of treasurer. Harrison and Power went on to become significant contributors to the game. The VFA initially comprised a mix of 10 senior clubs – those with a sustainable membership and strong player roster – and seven junior clubs – those with a fluctuating supporter base but prepared to pay a membership fee to secure the benefits of playing under an administrative umbrella. The senior clubs were Albert Park, Carlton, East Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong, Hotham, Melbourne, St Kilda, South Melbourne, and West Melbourne. The team that had won the most games at the end of the season was crowned the ‘Premier’. The junior clubs were Ballarat, Hawthorn, Northcote, Standard, Victoria United, Victorian Railways, and Williamstown. The game was now governed by 16 rules, most of which are still in play in 2023. Rules 7 and 10 were the exception, since they said that, first, where a player is tackled by an opponent, he ‘must at once drop the ball’, and second, the ball, while in play, shall, ‘under no circumstances, be thrown, or handed to a player. Interestingly, there was no mention made of the term ‘handball’ at this time. By the late 1870s games were being played more frequently on cricket ovals, but not only that, they were now occupying the entirety of the ovals, instead of being played in pegged-out rectangular spaces. A memorable game between Melbourne and Carlton on 9 June 1877 at the MCG utilized the whole oval. And, surprisingly, given the strength of the amateur ethos that surrounded the game, by the end of the 1870s rumors were circulating that some players were being paid. This was a serious disappointment for most of the Association’s senior administrators. Football was supposed to be played for the sheer pleasure it delivered its participants. The idea was that if you wanted money, then you worked for it away from the playing field. It should also be noted that the South Australian Football Association (SAFA) was formed a few months before the VFA had been established, a point frequently forgotten by Victorian followers of the game.By the late 1870s games were being played more frequently on cricket ovals, but not only that, they were now occupying the entirety of the oval, instead of being played in pegged-out rectangular spaces. A memorable game between Melbourne and Carlton on 9 June 1877 at the MCG utilized the whole oval. And, interestingly, by the end of the 1870s rumors were circulating that some players were being paid, which breached the amateur ethos so beloved by senior administrators of the game. It should also be noted that the South Australian Football Association (SAFA) was formed a few months before the VFA had been established, a point frequently forgotten by Victorian followers of the game.

VFA TAKES GAME TO NEW HEIGHTS

Chapter 10 began by taking a close look at the high mark, and its gradual emergence as a highlight of the game. Newspaper reports suggested that jumping for chest marks took hold in the late 1870s and became commonplace in the 1880s. But the spectacular high-flying finger-tip mark did not emerge until the turn of the century. The classic 1914 photo of Richmond spearhead, Jack Titus, was an early exemplar. This chapter also discussed the growing dominance of Carlton and Geelong during the 1870s. It noted the increasing importance of training and practice, where skills were developed, and players were taught the place kick, the drop kick, the punt kick, and the screw kick. Fitness also became a valuable attribute, and so too was the pressure to win. As the quality of play improved, VFA crowds increased, but with more money in the game, professionalism reared its head. Intercolonial matches played under what was increasingly known as the Victorian Rules, began in the late 1870s. In 1887 a game between Melbourne and a South Australian team was played in Adelaide and attracted just over 2,000 spectators. The first intercolonial game between Vic and SA was played two years later at the East Melbourne ground (a spacious, enclosed/fenced oval), which is now taken up by the Jolimont railway yards.

UMPIRES MAKE THEIR CALL

Chapter 11 explored the evolution of umpiring by first, re-visiting the 1859 rules, which, having announced that umpires could be appointed, went on to say that the ‘team captains’ will be the ‘judges of infringements. It was also noted that the umpires’ role was to adjudicate on the scoring of goals and had nothing to do with ruling on down-field incidents. Independent field/central umpires were not encoded into the rules until 1872. These new rules required the use of one central umpire and goal umpire to adjudicate a game. By 1874 field umpires were throwing the ball into the air when scrimmages became severe, and they had displaced the umpiring role of captains by the end of the 1870s. By the middle of the 1880s field umpires were paid for their efforts. The standard fee for senior umpires was £1 per game per week. As the 1880s progressed, most umpires began to dress in all-white uniforms.

SPECTATORS MAKE THEIR PRESENCE FELT

Chapter 12 discussed the role of spectators in shaping football’s development. It noted that the native game attracted large crowds from the very early days, with approximately 2,000 turning up to a South Yarra / Melbourne game in 1859. By the mid-1880s games between Carlton and Melbourne regularly attracted crowds of up to 10,000. However, crowds often became unruly, with friendly barracking descending into unsightly larrikinism. Violence – both on and off the field of play - became a problem during the mid-1870s and early-1880s. Umpires were often the object of irate and threatening language. While female spectators were sometimes abusive, they mostly had a civilizing influence over male spectators. Despite the game’s growing reputation for roughhouse conduct, it did nothing to deter its growing popularity. In Town Life in Australia - published in 1883 - Richard Twopeny, having examined daily life in Australian cities, and assessed the spaces occupied by ‘Rugby, Association and [the] Victorian [game]’, concluded that ‘the Victorian game is by far the most scientific, the most amusing both to players and onlookers, and altogether the best’.

THE GAME SPREADS WEST AND SOUTH

Chapter 13 examined the spread/diffusion of the Melbourne game to South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia. It found that South Australia – Victoria’s western neighbour - was the early adopter, with meetings being called to discuss the Melbourne rules in 1860, and a spate of clubs being formed over the following decade. However, it took another 17 years for the Melbourne rules – which was now commonly referred to as the Victorian rules – to be formally adopted as the main football game in Adelaide, when the South Australian Football Association was formed in 1877. Tasmania took much longer to embrace the Melbourne game. There were many false starts, but it was legitimized as the preferred code in 1879 when the Tasmanian Football Association was established. Western Australia took longer again to adopt the Melbourne game. The first game of Victorian rules football was played in Perth in 1868 against the 14th British regiment, who had tasted earlier successes in Melbourne. The Victorian game teetered on the brink of apathy until 1885, when it gained an organizational base with the establishment of the Western Australian Football Association (WAFA). The game then took off in the west, and the rest is history.

THE GAME GOES NORTH

Chapter 14 focused on the Victorian game’s diffusion north and found that Queensland embraced the game very early on, with the formation of the Brisbane Football Club in 1866, just six years after it established a presence in Adelaide. The game spread quickly, and by the end of the decade was being played in two of Queensland’s most prestigious public schools, Brisbane Grammar and Ipswich Grammar. The Queensland Football Association (QFA) was established in 1880, five years earlier than the WAFA. However, as the 1880s progressed, Rugby had begun to push the Victorian game to the margins in response to its rejection by newly arrived migrants from the mother country. New South Wales was less enthusiastic about the Victorian game, although the evidence showed that not much football of any code was played in Sydney in the early 1860s. With the formation of the Sydney Football Club in 1865, the Victorian game secured a presence, while also finding a home in Newcastle. But, by the 1880s – and despite the formation of the New South Wales Football Association (NSWFA) in 1880 - the Sydney-siders resistance to anything Victoria won out, and their preference for Rugby was revealed in a decision to play rugby-rules matches against their New Zealand cousins.

VFA THRIVES DESPITE UNRULY CROWDS

Chapter 15 addressed the Victorian game’s development back in Melbourne, its place of birth. The VFA provided a stable administrative home, and by 1879 the colony had more than 140 teams. The Victorian game had also secured stronghold in the regions, with Ballarat and Bendigo leading the way. Many VFA games attracted more than 10,000 spectators, while, in 1883, on the back of unbridled confidence about the game’s future across the nation, the VFL’s Condon Harrison chaired the inaugural Intercolonial Football Conference. The consensus was that Victorian Rules had not only matured into a uniquely Australian game of football, but by also spreading to New Zealand, could be legitimately called the Australasian game. By the end of the 1880s the Australasian game – as it was now frequently called - had captured the interest of suburban Melbourne, and during the early 1890s some games attracted crowds of more than 30,000. But with the game’s growing professionalism, not only was its amateur ethos threatened, but spectator violence also became a problem. An economic depression was on the horizon, and things looked grim.

VFL STAKES ITS CLAIM

Chapter 16 examined the lead-up to, and aftermath of the traumatic 1896 split within the 13-team VFA, and the formation of a rival competition, which became known as the Victorian Football League (VFL). The split was instigated by eight of the wealthiest VFA clubs – with Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Melbourne, and South Melbourne leading the way, and Carlton, Fitzroy, and St Kilda following in their wake. They had become tired of propping up the five weaker clubs, which were Footscray, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Richmond, and Williamstown. Subsequently, Tom Marshall, the VFA secretary, and a champion of amateurism, retired, and the breakaway VFL commenced in 1897. After an end-of-season attempt by the decimated VFA to become part of a two-tiered competition, the VFL told it to fend for itself. While the VFA never recovered from this brutal ‘brush off’, the game, more generally, pressed ahead around the nation, and by the turn of the century, was - with Federation in sight - recognized as Australia’s very own game of football.

THE GAME GOES ABROAD

Chapter 17 mapped the Australian game’s spread to New Zealand and South Africa. It all began in New Zealand in the 1860s when the discovery of gold in the south attracted thousands of young men from Australia, and especially Victoria. By the 1870s the Australian game was being played in Nelson in the north end of the South Island, and Dunedin in the south. By the turn of the century the game had also found an audience in Wellington, in the deep south of the north island. During the 1890s the Australasian game had also been exported to South Africa, with Johannesburg a focal point. The Boer War was a catalyst for the game’s spread in this part of the world, but by 1910 enthusiasm for the game had dissipated, and rugby dominated. In Melbourne, the VFL was pushing ahead, and in late 1907 admitted the University club to the competition because it would add tone and status, and Richmond because it would strengthen inner-suburban rivalries. These initiatives resulted in a 10-team competition. In regional Victoria, a vibrant Chinese-based football community had emerged, and many of its players were recruited to senior leagues.

TOUGH TIMES

Chapter 18 exposed the difficulties the Australasian game faced as the 1890s economic depression swamped the nation. In Queensland and NSW, Rugby dominated the football landscape, the game lost ground in South Australia and Tasmania, while in Western Australia things progressed despite a late start and poor umpiring standards. However, with Federation, and an improvement in the nation’s economic circumstances, the Australian game blossomed. The game regained is pre-eminent position in Adelaide, and Perth’s major competition, the West Australian Football Association prospered. In Queensland the game ventured further northward, and leagues were established in Townsville and Cairns. And, in Sydney, the introduction of a professional Rugby competition in 1908 - which was eventually reinvented as Rugby League – pushed the Victorian game to the sidelines. However, Rugby (be it Union, the game for lilywhite middle class amateurs, or League, the game for blue collar working-class professionals) was unable to completely drive the Australian game from the local football landscape. The rules of the game also underwent an overhaul. The little kick was abandoned in 1897, while handball (that is fisting or slapping the ball off the palm of the hand) had become an acceptable means of disposing of the ball. However, it was still illegal to throw the ball.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF FOOTBALL

Chapter 19 looked at the first decade of Federation and found the game in a healthy state. The national economy had turned around, and with an increase in tariff protection and a universal basic wage, families had never felt more relaxed and comfortable. The native game fed off this collective sense of optimism, and in 1906, under the guidance of the VFL, the Intercolonial Football Conference had been resurrected as the Australasian Football Council (AFC). The AFC faced many challenges, the main one being the rapid growth of Rugby League in Sydney and Brisbane. It responded by organizing a carnival in for 1908, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of what was now identified as the Australasian game. The 1908 Jubilee Carnival was a raging success, with all six states and New Zealand represented. A highlight was Prime Minister Deakin’s oration, where he declared that he had yet to find a game that ‘carries as much pleasure, as much harmless excitement, and as much stimulus as the Australasian game of football. And, in a moment of nationalistic fervour, he celebrated the fact that the game was ‘Australian in its origin, Australian in its principle, and …essentially of Australian development’.

DISPUTES AND DISTRACTIONS

Chapter 20 addressed some of the more disruptive challenges the game’s administrators had to deal with from 1909 to 1918. The two most immediate problems were on-field violence and off-field match fixing. The match fixing problem reached scandal-like proportions in 1910 when two players took bribes to ‘play dead’. The VFL also had to deal with the exponential increase in under-the-table payments to players, despite the convention that players should abide by the amateur ethos that had underpinned the game for 50 years. To deal with the hypocrisy that ensured, in 1911 it was decided that clubs be allowed to pay players for their on-field efforts. Additionally, at an AFC meeting in 1910, New Zealand’s membership was suspended in the light of its slow growth and drain on the AFC’s promotional resources. But this incident did nothing to curtail the enthusiasm surrounding the national carnival project, and the 1911 carnival was played in Adelaide without the presence of New Zealand, where a skilful South Australian team defeated Victoria by 43 points. The AFC was renamed the Australian Football Council in 1920, after New Zealand had been formally expelled. Further disruption occurred with the commencement of World War 1 in 1914, although it did not stop the 1914 national carnival being staged. At the same time, loyalties were divided over just how much priority should be given to the war effort. But, in the end, most leagues and competitions were truncated, while the VFL’s University club quietly exited the VFL after seven years of relentless mediocrity, leaving a 9-team competition. In 1914 the VFL introduced a metropolitan zoning scheme aimed at putting a lid on player payments, while also regulating the recruitment process. But the disruptions to the game at this time was not all bad, since it enabled women to assert their interest in the game by both playing it (Perth – Foy and Gibson 1915) and umpiring it (Tooradin – Clyde, in Southern Victoria in 1914). And, most surprisingly of all, proposals to amalgamate the native Aussie rules code with the British bred rugby codes were submitted to the authorities at various times. Someone wanted to call it ‘Universal Football’. After initial surges of enthusiasm, the idea fell off the football development agenda, but it reappeared in the 1930s with little warning.

AFTER THE WAR

Chapter 21 examined the 1920s, and found that after a quiet, and sometimes challenging start, the game regained its pre-war popularity. The 1919 nationwide flu epidemic, together with the obscenely large numbers of wartime casualties, decimated many competitions, but the economy surged, the motor car revolutionized private transport, and the Australian game created an organizational structure that other football codes could only dream about. First, the main city leagues in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia had built a large following, with the 1920 Grand Final between Richmond and Collingwood attracting 54,000 spectators, a huge crowd by any measure. Second, the game continued to have a presence in the Rugby strongholds, despite the antipathy to all things Melbourne. Finally, the games’ national figurehead, the Australian Football Council- having eliminated any reference to Australasian - continued to promote the game through its national carnivals, which were held every three years. The 1921 carnival – the fourth - was a landmark, since it was held in Perth for the first time, with the West Australian team defeating Victoria. Additionally, the 1925 season was a big one for VFL, since it admitted Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Footscray, giving it a 12-team competition. Adelaide’s South Australian Football League (SAFL) had 8 teams, and the Perth’s Western Australian Football league (WAFL) had 6. The VFL thrived under its expanded form, and the 1927 aggregate season attendance of 1.5 million was a record. By the end of the decade the Australian game was the most popular and most profitable in the nation, with Melbourne the epicentre.

THE LANDSCAPE CHANGES

Chapter 22 dug deeper into the impact of the Australian Football Council by examining a sample of national carnivals, including the 1924 Hobart experience, which delivered an aggregate attendance of 61,000, with one game attracting 17,000 spectators. In 1927 the Australian Football Council was re-named the Australian National Football Council (ANFC) in recognition of its nationwide promotional efforts. And, to further accentuate the national vision for game, the major state leagues were encouraged to insert the word ‘National’ in their titles. The SAFL, WAFL, and QFL took up the offer. But there were also other problems to deal with, which once again centred on player violence and match fixing. On the other hand, there was a technological breakthrough when radio broadcasting networks were established across the nation. The Australian game was an early choice for broadcasting, and in September and October of 1925 there were live commentaries of the VFL final series. It was a resounding success, but, in the following two decades, only home and away live commentaries were permitted. The 1920s was a golden age for what was now often called Australian Rules football, with the game advancing on many fronts, records crowds attending games, and radio providing a major promotional stimulus. Collingwood became a football powerhouse during the 1920s, winning four successive VFL premierships. It had become the best-known football club of any code in the nation, which has continued to this day.

MAKING GOOD IN TIMES OF HARDSHIP

Chapter 23 looked at the Australian game during the 1930s and found that the early-30s economic depression did little to stop its growth. The 1933 VFL Grand Final attracted 76,000 spectators, total season attendance was just under two million, and by the end of the 1930s, average match attendance crashed through the 20,000-barrier for the first time. In NSW there were more than 2000 players, and the game consolidated its position in places like Broken Hill and Newcastle, while the 1933 national carnival - the eighth - was held in Sydney. But there was a downside to the game’s commercial growth; player payments were increasing - although laws - Victoria’s Coulter Law being the most prominent - were introduced to regulate what players could be paid, and the VFL – where most of the money was – regularly poached players from interstate. Disputes also arose about how to dispose of the ball by hand, and some teams and leagues experimented with flick passes, slap passes, and even throws. In contrast, the ANFC rule demanded the ball being fisted off the palm of the hand. By the end of the 1930s, the Australian game had never been so strong, so much so that players were often given celebrity status. The 1938 Grand Final drew 97,000 spectators to the MCG. In addition, in Perth, the 1937 ANFC carnival - the ninth - had captured the public imagination, and in the final game, a record crowd of just over 40,000 saw Victoria defeat Western Australia at Subiaco Oval. The game was on a roll.

WAR IMPACTS ON EVERYTHING

Chapter 24 focused on the period from 1939 to 1945, when Australian was engaged in World War 2. Australian Rules football administrators responded to emergency wartime demands by severely curtailing their league’s operations. The VFL and SANFL reduced their scale of their competitions, while the WANFL discontinued its competition altogether (In 1927 the word National was inserted in the names of the Adelaide and Perth competitions). At the same time, servicemen took the Australian game with them, with games being played in war zones and prisoner of war camps. Women kept the homed fires burning by playing games for charity purposes. And, surprisingly, toward the end of the war – in 1944 - initiatives were taken in Melbourne to form an association where players and officials could meet to not only socialize and advance their economic interests but also discuss how the game could be improved and progressed. It called itself the Victorian Footballers Club and based itself on a model like the one established in the 1930s. But, like the 30s development, it drowned in a sea of apathy after an initial period of high excitement.

FOOTBALL’S POSTWAR RECOVERY

Chapter 25 zeroed in on the period from 1946 to 1949, which was often referred to an age of ‘post war reconstruction’. The transition from a wartime to peacetime society was, by international standards, relatively seamless, which also appeared to be the case with the Australian game. The first four weeks of the 1946 VFL season attracted more 470,000 spectators, which was as good as anything during the 1930s. Things were also going well on the national front, when, in 1948, 20,000 fans attended an exhibition game between Richmond and Footscray at Coolangatta, on Queensland’s Gold Coast. By the late 1940s Australian rules football reclaimed its position as the dominant code in the nation – with the Northern Territory exhibiting a growth spurt - while the ANFC, had, for the first time, included the VFA and the Australian Amateur Football Council within its governance system. Players in the SANFL and WANFL were paid paltry amounts for the services, but match payments for VFL players regularly exceeded the Coulter Law limits. Additionally, VFL players felt severely squeezed by a rule that tied them to clubs in perpetuity, and unfairly restricted their ability to move between leagues and clubs. On the interstate front, the ANFC carnival was resurrected after a ten-year hiatus, and held in Hobart in 1947, where Section B team, NSW, exceeded all expectations by winning its first two games, and losing it final game to Tasmania by ten points. In another interesting development, in 1946, radio broadcasts of VFL Grand Finals were allowed for the first time ever.

PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS CONTINUE

Chapter 26 began by noting the enormous optimism surrounding the game at the beginning of the 1950s. The 1950 VFL season generated a record attendance of 2.1 million, while at the other end of the league continuum, Tasmania’s Northwest Football Union had the most successful year in its history. The ANFC was also on a roll and followed up its successful Brisbane carnival in 1950 - the 11th - with a National Australian Rules Football Day in June 1952 when a round of VFL games were played across the nation. And, in keeping with its national perspective, the ANFC endorsed a proposal for the game to be called Australian football, although the term “Aussie rules’ was continued to be used to differentiate the native game from the other codes. As the money rolled in, VFL players were attracted, once again, to the idea of a union to get them a fair share of the Leagues profits. In 1955 nearly 400 players had indicated their support, but things fell in a heap when the Australian Arbitration Court would not register the proposed players association as a trade union. VFL officials were jubilant since they could retain their power over the football lives of players. It was also found that some clubs were better off than others, with Hawthorn regularly fighting to stay afloat, with low attendances and high ground rentals making things difficult.

FOOTBALL GOES DEEP INTO THE SUBURBS

Chapter 27 provided a snapshot of the game – and its surrounding environment – in the mid-1950s. Australian was in the middle of a suburban explosion as European migration rates continued to grow. The suburban dream of home ownership was accompanied by a comfortably conservative set of values that placed Saturday afternoon sport front-and-centre across the nation. Kenneth Luke, the newly appointed VFL president, tapped into the suburban dream by not only questioning the relevance of having such tight controls over player payments, and metropolitan zoning rules for new recruits, but also suggesting that the game would be better off if the VFL had grounds of its own across suburbia, especially when it came to finals time, where the MCC – located on the edge of the central business district - inevitably creamed off the profits with high rental charges. The SANFL and WANFL also saw the strategic advantage of having grounds of their own- where they were not beholden to local councils and cricket clubs acting as ground managers - but left the idea in a dreamtime state. At the same time, Kenneth conceded that the MCG had massive drawing power, with the 116,000 attendances for the 1956 Grand Final confirming the point. While ground facilities were often verging on squalid, and player violence was increasing, there were signs that the game was entering another golden age. Sightings of women’s football were common, radio coverage of the game had reached saturation levels, and television beckoned.

THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION

Chapter 28 looked at the introduction of television into Australia, and its relationship with Australian football. It all began in 1956 when television broadcasts commenced in Melbourne and Sydney, which, in the case of Melbourne included two commercial stations (GTV9 and HSV7), and one government owned station (ABV2). An early highlight was the broadcast of the Melbourne Olympics, which included Australian football as a demonstration sport. Subsequently – on Saturday 20 April 1957, at 4.15PM to be precise – the VFL gave permission for a telecast of the final quarter of the Collingwood - Essendon game. However, no live broadcast of an entire game was allowed, with this restriction resulting from a belief that televising entire matches would decimate at-ground attendance. In 1958 the first one hundred years of the Australian game was celebrated, but the national carnival that accompanied it – the 14th - was not well attended despite the promotional hype, a reenactment of the 1858 match between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar, and the gushing endorsement of the Australian game by Prime Minister Menzies. However, the game was thriving in every other respect. The 1959 WANFL Grand Final drew a record 43,000 spectators, while the total attendance for the VFL home-and-away season was 2.3 million. The competitive ethos embedded in the game was revealed in an incident in 1956 when Jack Sheedy, a famous WA player, admitted he and a few mates had taken ‘pep pills prior to the 1954 WANFL Grand Final, but with little performance benefit.

KEEPING TELEVISION AT ARMS-LENGTH

Chapter 29 discussed the game’s development during the 1960s, a period of significant economic growth across the nation. It found that the VFL had gone from limiting live television broadcasts of games in 1960 to banning all live broadcasts in 1961. And, for the next 15 years, the VFL only allowed delayed televised replays of games. At the same time, Victoria no longer dominated interstate carnivals like it did from the 1920s to the 1950s. The 1961 Brisbane carnival saw WA defeat Victoria, while South Australia defeated Victoria in a memorable game in 1963. Ground rationalisation issues began to emerge at this time, and each of the big city leagues were seeking out sites that could be used to build their own stadia. While sub-standard facilities for spectators, poor playing surfaces, the increasing costs of fielding teams, and concerns over live telecasts of games, were occupying the minds of officials, it was agreed that the 1960s was fast becoming a ‘golden age’ for football across the nation. By 1968 each the three major city leagues - VFL, SANFL and WANFL - delivered records levels of match attendances over the season, apparently vindicating its live match telecast ban. They were 2.7 million, 0.9 million and 0.7 million respectively. However, things turned sour on the national front, when just prior to the ANFC 1969 Carnival - the 17th - the VFA was disqualified after it allowed players to cross from the VFL to the VFA without formal clearances during the 1969 season, in defiance of an ANFC directive from the previous year.

COACHES SHAPE THE GAME

Chapter 30 confirmed that the 1960s was something special. Coaches - as well as players - were achieving celebrity status. It was evident in Adelaide and Perth during the late 1950s, when Jack Oatey and Jack Sheedy were making their mark. In the VFL, the impact of coaches on the game was even more significant, with Norm Smith, Len Smith, John Kennedy, and Tom Hafey taking the game in new directions, with their legacy evident today. In the VFL, The Coulter Law was also put under enormous strain as clubs competed for the service of ‘young guns from not only country Victoria, but also interstate. It all began with the Western Australia’s ‘Polly’ Farmer – the best player in the nation at the time - being recruited by Geelong and put on a playing contract that made the Coulter Law obsolete. The same aggressive recruiting method was used by Richmond when it signed the highly- talented Dick Clay from regional Victoria. A new car found its way into the Clay family’s garage as a signing-on incentive. The VFL was so concerned about the use of cash incentives to sign on players that, in 1967, it introduced country zones, with each zone attached to a designated club.

HALLOWED TRADITIONS ARE CHALLENGED

Chapter 31 framed its discussion with proposition that while the Australian game had never been so strong during the 1960s, so popular across suburban Australia, and so much part of the Australian way of life in so many places, there were a number of disruptive forces that forced the game’s administrators to think hard and long about where the game was heading. They included the VFA being given permission in 1961 to play games on Sunday - with live television coverage to follow – the 1964 decision by Melbourne’s most famous player, Ron Barassi to take a handsomely-paid coaching job at Carlton, the signing on of corporate sponsors – with tobacco companies being especially prominent – more sighting of women’s football, growing competition from soccer and rugby league, and the conscription of young men to undertake military training with the possibility of fighting in the Vietnam war. Finally, in 1967 well-known football identity, Harry Bietzel, took a group of senior players to Ireland, where they played a modified form of Gaelic football against the locals using the team-name ‘Galahs’. It was a highly successful venture, inspired further contact, and ultimately delivered a new source of recruits to the Australian game.

BUSINESS TAKES OVER

Chapter 32 looked at the game’s growing commercialisation during the early part of the 1970s, a time of rapid inflation, when prices increased by more than 15% a year. The game as form of business went to another level in the aftermath of a flying visit by VFL officials to the USA’s National Football League to see how its image could be used to endorse products. It led to the establishment of a Properties Division in 1975, and by 1980 it was generating $1million in revenue. The SANFL and WANFL copied the VFL model, and they quickly struck gold. In 1976 VFL officials decided to market itself by attaching its logo to all club jumpers. This, in turn led Carlton to apply the concept to it commercial partners, and in 1977 the logo of its major sponsor was strategically positioned on player’s jumpers. With the introduction of colour television in 1975, the injection of additional cash by tobacco companies, and a decision in 1977 to allow a live television broadcast of the Grand Final in return for a large fee, the VFL was flush with funds. So, it was not surprising to find that Richmond, for instance, had increased its annual revenues from $118,000 in 1968 to $330,000 in 1974. VFL clubs, at least, had never been so flush with funds.

PLAYERS BECOME MILITANT

Chapter 33 went deep into the game’s commercial transformation by addressing two key developments. The first was the decision by the VFL’s North Melbourne to take a business-like approach to the club’s management, where money was used to buy talent from around the nation and use these highly productive resources to deliver success. It worked. The second was the establishment of a VFL player’s union in 1973. It arose from increasing player disenchanted with the payment schedule, which came to a head in early 1970 when five Essendon players refused to play in the club’s practice matches. The VFL took notice, players from other clubs saw the benefit of having a collective voice for channelling grievances, and a players’ union was established in 1973. These initiatives seemed to be good for the game, but they were undermined by a combination of high inflation, escalating player payments, and uncontrolled spending by clubs. The VFL, SANFL and WANFL also faced legal challenges to their player transfer rules, which were increasingly viewed as not only unjust, but also illegal. The 1975 season was also eventful, since the ANFC decided to re-organise its interstate carnival – the 19th – and make it a knock-out competition as opposed to a round-robin schedule and play it in both Melbourne and Adelaide. It was deemed a success, with an average crowd of 40,000 for the each of the two semi-finals and Grand Final.

LEAGUES RECLAIM CONTROL

Chapter 34 focused on the venue ownership problem. Ever since the game’s inception, football clubs were dependent on cricket ground managers for securing access to their playing spaces. In Melbourne, in 1970 this problem was partly resolved when the VFL opened its own stadium – VFL Park. The SANFL got its own ground – Football Park - up and running in 1974, and instantly drew large crowds. State of the art floodlights were installed together with an array of corporate boxes and hospitality suites. Despite these impressive improvements in league infrastructure, the game got itself into a huge financial mess. While new rules eased on-field congestion, inept financial management created serious off-field instability. In the VFL, especially, many clubs were looking at insolvency, and it was not a pretty sight. Carlton - one of the most successful clubs over the recent past – was experiencing a financial meltdown.

NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES TAKE OVER

Chapter 35 began by discussing the impact of diehard fans on the tone of the game, and in particular how banners and run-throughs in the early 1970s added colour and excitement to the game. It then addressed the tension between those who wanted to maintain the game’s parochial traditions above all else, and those who were pushing for a more national perspective. Parochialism was evident when fans were more interested in club football than interstate games, although national carnivals captured the public imagination whenever Victoria faced-off against a fancied SANFL or WANFL team. A national perspective was evident when, in 1975, the VFL led a march into a national league scenario through development of a live-televised night series for selected clubs from the major city leagues. Additional confusion arose when the national body – the ANFC - having changed its name to the Australian Football Council in 1973, and then changed it to the National Football League in 1975, established its own televised national club competition. So, by 1979 there were two national club competitions vying for the attention of fans. However, the NFL series discontinued in 1980, when SANFL clubs transferred their allegiance to the VFL night series. The 1979 season was also the time when the interstate carnival – the 20th - was first played under a state-of-origin format, although a couple of games under state-of-origin selection rules were played between Western Australia and Victoria in 1977. It was staged in Perth, with Western Australia defeating Victoria in the final in front of just under 31,00 spectators. Meanwhile, the women’s game was progressing steadily.

PLAYERS UNITE AS SOUTH MELBOURNE IS SENT PACKING

Chapter 36 examined the game’s development in the early 1980s and found that the turbulence surrounding it in the late 1970s had increased exponentially. The VFL Players Association was flexing its industrial relations muscle, and in late 1980 threatened to go on strike if a newly proposed player payment regime – which was good for young recruits, but bad for experienced players – was introduced. But things were sorted out when players were paid penalty rates for upcoming Sunday games. More chaos ensured when the VFL resolved to relocate South Melbourne to Sydney in response to a recommendation that the VFL secure an interstate footprint. Despite howls of protest, the financially destitute Swans were relocated to Sydney, and subsequently sold to a private company headed by flamboyant Sydney property developer and medical practitioner, Geoffrey Edelsten. The Swans ebbed and flowed, but by the end of the 1980s had, despite the enormous publicity generated by Edelsten and his glamorous wife, nearly self-destructed. The club’s future looked grim.

TURBULENT TIMES

Chapter 37 addressed the additional chaos that had surrounded the game for most of the 1980s, which, in the first instance centred on the player transfer rules of the VFL, SANFL, and WAFL (As a point of interest, the word National had been removed from WANFL in 1979). In 1981 the VFL implemented an interstate draft for current players to regulate the player drain from Western Australia, but this was merely a band-aide measure. In a 1983 landmark legal case – involving Sydney Swans player, Silvio Foschini – the courts decided that the VFL’s player transfer rules were an unreasonable restraint of trade, and thus unlawful. And, when combined with player wages increasing at an exponential rate, it set the scene for a massive overhaul of the League’s rules, culminating in the establishment of a player salary cap in 1985. The VFL salary cap had two aims; the first was to control player wages, and the second was to ensure an orderly movement of players between clubs. Transfer fees for players was also forbidden, which, ironically, did not assist the WAFL, since Western Australian clubs used their player transfer fees to balance the budgets. The WAFL introduced its own salary cap soon after. Television also had positive and negative impacts, since the introduction of live replays of Sydney Swans games, cut into local coverage in South Australia and Western Australia. But the good news was that cheer squads strengthened their profile with political messaging, and women’s leagues were formed in Victoria (1981) and Western Australia (1987).

THE VFL PLANS TO EXPAND

Chapter 38 dug deeper into the off-field chaos, especially in the VFL, by interrogating the crisis of confidence that had enveloped the League in the mid-1980s. In late 1984 a VFL Task Force revealed a football league in disarray. Its decision-making processes were flawed, player costs were out of control, several clubs were facing bankruptcy, spectator facilities at grounds were sub-standard, but, worst of all, the public’s interest in the VFL was beginning to wane. There were calls to re-vamp the competition, and, in one case, a secret plan involved the formation of a breakaway competition, a strategy that harked back to the 1896 split. But clear air was found when, in 1984, it was decided to replace the League’s Board of Directors with a Commission. Then, in 1985, a roadmap to move the game forward was released under the title of Establishing the basis for Future Success. Talk of re-inventing the VFL as an approximate national competition took hold, and in 1987 an extended VFL - with the Brisbane Bears and Perth’s West Coast Eagles in place - took off. Finally, a nationwide player draft for both old players and new recruits was introduced in 1986 as a way of securing an orderly movement of recruits, but it did not include Melbourne-based players until 1991.

FOOTSCRAY FIGHTS BACK

Chapter 39 focused on the second half of the 1980s and finds that that despite the transformational changes made to the VFL - Australian football’s flagship competition - things were still not good. All three non-Victorian teams – Bears, Eagles, and Swans – were financially stretched, and at the end of 1986 the television rights were taken off the 7-Network for the first time when their bid was seen as unsatisfactory. It got the rights back the following year. But even worse was to come when it was disclosed that three Victorian based clubs – Footscray, Fitzroy and St Kilda - were facing financial ruin. Footscray was first in the firing line, and in late 1989 VFL officials invited it to amalgamate with Fitzroy. However, a massive groundswell of public support - followed up by a hugely successful fundraising campaign – saved the club. Fitzroy’s was on life-support, and just made it through the decade, while St Kilda had, by 1989, gone through five options for re-inventing themselves as a viable football entity, the final one being restructuring itself as a public company. The idea went nowhere. Interstate football continued with its state–of-origin format, when, in 1988 – as part of Australia’s bicentenary celebration - the 22nd carnival was held in Adelaide. Surprisingly, NSW was selected as the fifth representative team in Section A in preference to Tasmania, since it contained 22 VFL players as opposed to Tasmania’s 15. Despite an assembly of Australia’s finest Australian football talent, the event tuned out to be a disaster. Most games had crowds of less than 10,000, and carnival was run at a substantial loss. With a pilot national league effectively up and running, the writing was on the wall for interstate carnivals.

AFL IS ESTABLISHED

Chapter 40 examined the state of the game in the early 1990s and found a mix of grand aspirations and depressing realities, The VFL’s grand aspiration were realized in 1990 when it was re-branded as the Australian Football League (AFL), and thus confirmed its credentials as not only a nationwide competition, but also the ‘keeper of the code’, and responsible for growing the game around the country and elsewhere. The Adelaide Crows were admitted into the competition in 1991 – creating a 15-team national league - the Commission was given unconditional powers to govern the game in 1992, while in the same year the inaugural collective bargaining agreement was negotiated with the now AFLPA. And, in 1995, the Fremantle Dockers played their first season in what was now a fully-fledged five-state national competition involving 16 teams, and thus eliminating inconvenient byes. Only Tasmania was missing, and this situation continued to this day. The depressing reality centered on the West Coast Eagles, Brisbane Bears, and the Sydney Swans. If they were commercial businesses, they could have been wound up. As an aside, they were all organized as private companies. Anyway, the Eagle were salvaged by the WAFL in late 1990 when it claimed ownership of the club, while Brisbane and Sydney continued to hemorrhage. Interstate football – be state-of-origin football or traditional formats - was also under extreme pressure at this time.

RACISM ERUPTS, AND THE ANZAC MYTH IS APPROPRIATED

Chapter 41 began by discussing the ways in which racism had found its way into the Australian game. It did this by recounting the infamous incident that occurred at Collingwood’s then home ground at Victoria Park on 17 April 1993. When St Kilda player, Nicki Winmar, was abused, he pulled up his jumper, pointed to his exposed chest, and said ‘I’m black, and I’m proud. It changed the face of race-relations in the Australian game forever. Another iconic event took place in 1995 when the ANZAC day round was re-packaged as a special game between Essendon and Collingwood – and embedded with ANZAC myths and symbols. ANZAC day games had been played since 1966, but this one was going to be a full-on ANZAC-themed night game that honoured the ANZAC spirit. It turned out to be a raging success. The games against Ireland’s best Gaelic footballers also had a new lease of life around this time, and in 1999, a record Australian crowd of 65,000 turned out to see Ireland defeat Australia at the MCG. It was also decided to make 1998 the year for celebrating 100 years of the Australian game, but what the VFL really meant to say was it was 100 years of the VFL and its metamorphosis into the AFL. It forgot to include the 40 years prior to the formation of the VFL, when the game was already making its mark in most of Australia’s colonies.

FITZROY DISAPPEARS

Chapter 42 looked at the game’s progress during the late 90s. While match attendances were high and growing, a few clubs were finding the going tough. Fitzroy was in the middle of a financial meltdown which was the most severe it had ever experienced. The club had been in financial difficulties since the mid-80s when their accumulated debt broke the $1 million barrier. It had been saved from a forced marriage with Footscray, and propped up by central office grants, but this time its options were – despite rumours of a possible merger with North Melbourne, and even a relocation to Fremantle – drying up. In the end it was either merge with Brisbane, or fold. So, in 1997, they played under the Brisbane Lions banner in a revamped 16-team competition. Merger talks were also held between Melbourne and Hawthorn, but they led nowhere after massive resistance by Hawthorn members. Interstate games were losing their attraction, and ultimately swallowed up by the AFL juggernaut. And, with the admission of Port Adelaide to the national league in 1997, there were now at least two teams playing out of the three major football states; South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia. The AFL had also taken control of the national carnival –the 23rd - and renamed it the Carlton United Brewery (CUB) State-of-origin Championship. It had saturation television coverage, but crowds were small, and it seemed that the AFL’s national club league had made the interstate carnival concept redundant. It was clear that state-of-origin matches like the 1989 one in Melbourne, when Victoria defeated South Australia in front of a record crowd of just under 92,000, would most probably never occur again. And as it turned out, they didn’t.

MONEY ROLLS IN, AND PLYWER PAYMENTS ESCALATE

Chapter 43 examined the health of the game as the new millennium approached. Through the 90s the economy was booming, while crowds and revenues reached record levels. Whereas total season attendance in 1991 was 4.2 million, it had jumped to 6.2 million in 1999. While the inclusion of Fremantle and Port Adelaide delivered more fixtures, the average game attendance for the season of 34,000 was also a record. Ground rationalization was a problem for most of the 1990s, with many clubs moving their home games to central venues like the MCG. However, venue issues were largely sorted out with the sale of VFL/Waverley Park, and the construction of a new venue – with a retractable roof – in Melbourne’s docklands precinct, a site of major renewal at the time. Player payments in the AFL also reached an all-time high, climbing from just under $42,000 in 1990 to $117,000 in 1999. The game was, metaphorically speaking, jumping out of its skin, with television right fees increasing exponentially.

SEARCHING FOR A NEW DIRECTION

Chapter 44 addressed the early part of the new millennium Things began badly for the broader Australian society when 88 Australians were killed in the 2002 Bali bombings. But it was the making of the Brisbane Lions, who won the 2001 Grand Final, as well as the next two. While the AFL had, by 2005, a 16-team national league in place, and increased its annual revenue to more than $200 million, it was unhappy with some of its current arrangements, and was seeking out a fresh image for the game, and a new direction as well. Commissioners Ron Evans, Bill Kelty, and Colin Carter - all experienced in policy and governance - set out planning agenda that was underpinned by the Commission’s Investing in the Future report, which built upon its 1999 discussion paper on The Structure of The AFL Competition. A lot of the discussion centered on the expansion of the national league, but the Commission was moving cautiously, having already fobbed off suggestions that Tasmania and the ACT be granted licenses to field teams. This was done on the grounds that neither Tasmania nor the ACT met the demographic requirement that they be surrounded by a population catchment of at least 500,000. And, in 2001, in a frantic bidding war, a News Limited consortium that included Nine and Ten television networks and Telstra, secured a five-year broadcast rights deal, thus breaking up the Seven network’s 44-year partnership with the VFL/AFL.

REINING IN WAYWARD CONDUCT

Chapter 45 discussed the growing incidence of wayward player behaviour, beginning with drug use. During the 1990s the use of performing enhancing drugs became a major problem for sporting bodies around the world, and on both sides of the new millennium, and the AFL had to address various drug-use issues. But it was now not only performance enhancing drugs that were problematic. So, in 2005, having sought advice for professional drug treatment experts, and urged on by the World Anti-doping Agency and the Australian Government, the AFL put in place an illicit drug policy to complement its performance enhancing drug policy. But it did not end there when it came to corralling player behaviour and having had to deal with a spate of player misconduct – with women mostly on the receiving end – the AFL implemented a Respect and Responsibility Policy in 2006. In 2008 it broadened its reach by introducing a personal conduct policy which covered all staff, and looked at any form of behaviour that, being sufficiently unacceptable or ‘unbecoming’, might damage the game. Everyone was now on a tight rein.

STRATEGIC EXPANSION TAKES CENTRE STAGE

Chapter 46 returns to an examination of the AFL’s strategic intent, with a focus on 2003-2006. Ron Evans (the President) was joined by Andrew Demetriou (the newly appointed CEO) and went about interrogating the evidence that been assembled by the Commission’s corporate planners and strategists. The Commission’s Investing in the Future report had been superseded by a new financial strategy titled Next Generation: Securing the Future of Australian Football: 2007-2011. It was underwritten by a record $1.4 billion investment fund, and aimed to first, deliver the ‘best sport entertainment experience’, - with competitive balance a priority - and second, expand the ‘national footprint of the game’ – with infrastructure front-and-center. And, despite the emerging global financial crisis, the AFL was putting together a big national development plan that was funded by a huge injection of cash - more than $300 million for 2006 - through record attendances, massive broadcasting right fees, and a host of commercial partners. More national expansion was afoot.

TAPPING INTO THE GOLD COAST DREAM

Chapter 47 looked at the lead up to the formation of the Gold Coast Suns, highlighting many of the problems it faced in getting the club off the ground. It especially notes first, the failed attempt in 2007 to get North Melbourne to relocate to the Gold Coast, and second, the opportunity it provided for a local consortium to fill the breech. The Suns – the 17th AFL team – changed the Gold Coast’s footy landscape, and with support of AFL subsidies and Queensland government grants, was, in 2008, successful in securing admission into the national competition. It played its first season in 2011. In the meantime, the AFL Commission was fed-up with the MCG’s high rentals, and reminded MCC officials that footy was the biggest game in town, and that they needed the AFL as much as the AFL needed them. After lengthy negotiations, the AFL had secured a satisfactory rental agreement for clubs, and the MCC got a guarantee that all Grand Finals would be played at the MCG up to 2037.

RISKY JOURNEY INTO FOREIGN TERRITORY

Chapter 48 examined the events that culminated in the formation of the Greater Western Sydney Giants. The ability of the Sydney Swans to build a strong membership and healthy attendances, together with the growth in Sydney’s western suburbs, convinced the AFL Commission that a second team in Sydney would be good for the game. It was also conceded that a decision of this type brought with it many risks; the main one being that community support would be difficult to sustain in view of the region’s distant attachment to the game, and its preference for soccer and Rugby League. Andrew Demetriou convinced the Commission to see it as a 25–30-year investment opportunity, with small short-term returns, but huge long-term payoffs. At the same time, it was clear that without significant support from the AFL Commission, and further infrastructure investment by the New South Wales state government, the project would die a quick death. The AFL agreed to invest $20 million a year for the following six years, while the NSW government promised to build a stadium. It happened, and the club was officially registered in 2009, and played its first game in 2012. The Giants – now the 18th AFL team – was ready to lead a charge to win the hearts and minds of western Sydney residents. Meanwhile, the Commission was re-thinking free agency, and introduced a modified scheme in 2012.

INTEGRITY BECOMES A BURNING ISSUE

Chapter 49 bought together a number of issues that threatened the reputation and good standing of the AFL. So, while it was working through the expansion of the national league from 2004 to 2010, it was also dealing with drug allegations (both performance enhancing and illicit use), off-field violence (with sexual assaults dominant), players betting on games (be it directly or through a second party), and tanking (which involved deliberately underperforming with a view to getting a high draft pick at the end of the season). These were all serious issues which had the potential to undermine the good standing of the competition. In 2008 an integrity unit was put in place that was responsible for investigating conduct that was likely to prejudice the AFL’s reputation and interests, and ‘bring the game into disrepute’. It covered any conduct that threatened the competitive authenticity of a game (mainly an on-field issue), and unbecoming behaviour involving players, officials, and coaches (generally an off-field misdemeanour). Integrity had become a major policy issue for the AFL and was especially evident in its attachment to various social causes including cancer prevention, anti-homophobia campaigns, curbing violence against women, and the promotion of gender equality.

VALUES AND GAME PLANS BECOME RECIPES FOR SUCCESS

Chapter 50 focused on two developments in the coaching domain. Interestingly, they were less about building muscle, enhancing endurance and improving skills, and more about emotional intelligence and cognitive capability. Geelong became the template for building emotional intelligence when it secured its 2007 premiership, which, in large part, resulted from the creation of a player-culture that valued trust, openness, conviction, collaboration, and unity. Concurrently, coaches were experimenting with strategies that centred on protecting space rather minding an opponent. It reached its zenith with Alistair Clarkson’s rolling zones, which Hawthorn used to dominate the 2008 Grand Final. And running alongside these innovative team development programs was an expanded social responsibility campaign that took the AFL into territory well away from the bread-and-butter technicalities of the game. Finally, in 2014, Gillon McLachlan replaced Andrew Demetriou as AFL CEO. And, while this was happening, the AFL was making a mint of money, and growing the game on many fronts. The 2012 figures were $425 million in revenue, 7.5 million spectators over the season, weekly TV audiences of 4.8 million, and 845,000 playing the game, with 186,000 being women. Records were being broken all over the place.

A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT GOES HORRIBLY WRONG

Chapter 51 addressed a spectacular storm that followed the calm within the AFL. With the 2013 season approaching The AFL had never been so flush with funds, and Essendon Football Club was full of optimism, having moved into its high-performance training centre at Tullamarine. But everything fell apart during the pre-season when it was discovered that its 2012 supplements program may have been infiltrated by a banned substance. An investigation was conducted by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), the club was sanctioned for bringing the game into disrepute, the coach was invited to take time off, it was rumoured that criminal gangs had imported banned substances from China, and in late October 2014, ASADA found that the club had a case to answer. In early 2015 it went to a special AFL tribunal for adjudication, which found that it could not be proven ‘to a comfortable satisfaction’ that the playing squad had, in fact, been injected with a banned substance. The club was ecstatic, but the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) was livid and referred the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). In January 2016, four years after the incident was first brought the public’s attention, CAS overturned the AFL tribunal judgement, and the playing squad was suspended for 12 months. Concerns about the legitimacy of the CAS decision reverberate to this day.

THE RISE AND RISE OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

Chapter 52 began by reminding readers that women had always been a part of the Australian football scene, having played the game for more than 100 years. Additionally, since the 1990s, women had taken on many senior administrative roles at all levels of the game. However, the women’s game secured a massive injection of respectability in 2010 when AFL Victoria published a report entitled Female Football Future Direction Review. It laid out a structure for organizing the women’s game, including an elite league that crossed state boundaries. In 2014 the idea was picked up by newly appointed AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan, and he initiated a plan to have a national women’s league in place for a 2017 commencement. It exploded onto the football landscape, and immediately captured the interest of fans. By 2018 the women’s game was so popular that 42,000 people turned up to Perth’s Optus stadium to watch Fremantle play Colling wood. Despite a couple of hitches – pay rates were always contentious, and social media trolls spewed out a lot of misogynistic commentary – the women’s game had, by the end of 2019, taken the Australian game to another level. It became one of the great success stories of Australian football.

OFF-FIELD SUCCESSES AND OFF-FIELD CHALLENGES

Chapter 53 reviewed the 2017-2019 period by first of all re-visiting the AFL’s financial affairs. The signs of progress were everywhere. The 2017-2022 broadcast agreement had secured an average annual fee $418 million, annual average player salaries were now just over $371,000, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth had three of the best sport stadia in the world, while Melbourne’s second stadium – Docklands – was singled out for a $250 million redevelopment. The 2017 international Cup provided a highly cosmopolitan experience, while premiership games were played in China’s Shanghai. But there were also problems to deal with. Congestion became an issue, arguments raged around what to do about it, and several rule adjustments were made for the 2019 season. Gaming and gambling problems were addressed, which led to some clubs selling off their licenses. However, the most contentious issue was the revisiting of the Adam Goodes affair of 2013-2015, when, in 2019, two documentaries were released which suggested that racism was still alive in the Australian game. Approaching 2020, this was a blight on the game, and especially disappointing in the light of the massive contribution Australia’s First Nation people had made to the Australian game of football.

A MONUMENTAL BATTLE

Chapter 54 reviewed the 2020 season, and the massive disruption caused the COVID-19 pandemic. As 2020 approached, the global community anticipated a decade of economic growth and social progress, but these expectations were shattered in late December 2019 when a pandemic forced nations around the world to change the way they went about doing their work and running their lives. To limit the spread of the corona virus, restrictions were placed on the movement and assembly of citizens, which meant that professional sporting competitions faced the prospect of not only playing games in empty stadiums, but also incurring heavy financial losses. The AFL – just like the National Rugby League (NRL) – resolved to ‘do all that it takes’ to keep the national competition going, knowing that its suspension would create a massive financial meltdown that would threaten the competition’s sustainability. As it turned out, the competition went ahead, but in a vastly different form from all previous seasons. One round into the fixture, the season was suspended for three months when, during the third week of March, the National Government announced a nationwide shutdown which not only included even stricter constraints on people assembling in shops, bars, cafes, and entertainment venues, but also bans on non-essential air travel. The AFL’s national league was rendered inert for nearly three months. When the competition restarted in June the duration of games was shortened, spectators were initially banned (although attendance restrictions were progressively eased), no games were played in Melbourne, a major training and competition hub was centered in south-east Queensland, and in the last few weeks of the season games were played at least every second day. The MCG, the spiritual home of Aussie rules, lay dormant for most of the season. Moreover, no final series games were played in Melbourne, and when it was announced that the Grand Final was going to be played under lights at Brisbane’s Wooloongabba ground, the last grand tradition had been erased from the game. Teams were traumatized by having to meet rigid social distancing protocols, with players and officials were forced to live under strict quarantine conditions. But the competition was sufficiently authentic to keep most stakeholders happy, attract large television audiences, and ensure that most fans maintained their passionate engagement with the game. What might have been a horror event ended up being relatively successful. While the Melbourne - the birthplace of Aussie rules - suffered the most, and despite a $400 million revenue shortfall and the added cost of running the Brisbane-Gold Coast hub – the AFL had, once again, successfully navigated its way through a major crisis.

AFTERWARD

A NATIONAL TREASURE

Chapter 55 aimed to make sense of what has gone on over the 163-year history of Australia’s indigenous/native game of football. It had been a remarkable journey. Having begun in 1859 as a rough and tumble, and sometimes chaotic affair played in Melbourne’s parklands, and having overcome many economic, social, demographic, and environmental obstacles, it had, by 2020, become Australia’s most watched, most talked about, and wealthiest sport. AFL revenues exceeded $1 billion, one million fans were paid-up club members, and just under 1.7 million Australians played the game, with 530,000 being female. The AFL had not only established itself as a sporting juggernaut, but its national competition had also become the most talked about game in town, and a significant economic and political entity. At the same time, Australian football, in looking into the 2020s, faced many challenges. Despite its record participation levels, the Australian game had difficulty securing broad support from the most recent waves of migration - Vietnam, India, the Middle East, and China – since these new arrivals bought with them a radically different set of sporting traditions. In global terms, Australian football had always been a peripheral sport, and this uncomfortable truth had been front-and-centre for its entire existence. But this multi-cultural barrier has not deterred the AFL’s determination to offer something for everyone by supporting social causes that needed helping hand. This acute sense of social responsibility led to accusations that the AFL has become little more than the social marketing arm of the Victorian State government, and as a result taken resources away from its core mission. Political correctness notwithstanding, the game had accumulated a vast repository of cultural capital and community goodwill and become an iconic feature of Australia’s sporting landscape. As the 2020s unfolded the future of Australian football looked bright. However, in such a changing world – with the COVID-19 pandemic the most recent crisis event the AFL has had to deal with - nothing was certain. But, at the end of the day, we could, with some certainty, say that Australian football will - no matter what happens in the future – forever be AUSTRALIA’S GAME.

And, if this summary is a bit too long for you, then the following distillation should suit you down to the ground, so to speak:

Phase 1: Prologue -Chapter 5 (1857-1861) Gold was discovered in Victoria and NSW, optimism permeated the colonies, and an eclectic ensemble of young middle-class Anglo-Melbourne men created a unique football code that captured the public’s imagination.

Phase 2: Chapter 6 – Chapter 8 (1861-1876) Affluence was everywhere, clubs were formed, rules were regularly modified, matches were fixtured, and premierships were awarded to the champion teams.

Phase 3: Chapter 9- Chapter 15 (1877- 1896) The game expanded to the rest of Australia, coordinating associations were formed in every colony, and inter-colonial games began.

Phase 4: Chapter 16- Chapter 18 (1897- 1907) The game went international, an economic recession thwarted the game’s local growth, Federations created a single unified nation, while internal turbulence divided the game in Victoria.

Phase 5: Chapter 19 - Chapter 20 (1908- 1920) Fifty years of what was now the Australasian game was celebrated with an interstate jubilee carnival, WW1 intervened, a national governing body was established, and the war made space for women’s football.

Phase 6: Chapter 21 - Chapter 23 (1921- 1938) Prosperity became the norm, across the nation, the game recovered, it surged in the southern states despite an economic recession, with Melbourne’s VFL competition dominating. Interstate carnivals featured strongly, radio became a great promotional tool, but the game languished in NSW and Queensland.

Phase 7: Chapter 24 – Chapter 25 (1939-1949) WW2 curtailed the game’s development, many leagues were abandoned but recovered quickly after peace was declared, while the profile of the game’s national body, the ANFL, was enhanced with the inclusion of the previously marginalized VFA

Phase 8: Chapter 26 – Chapter 31 (1950-1969) This was a ‘golden age’ for Aussie rules where the major city leagues in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth flourished, participation surged, players became public figures, interstate carnivals attracted big crowds, television magnified public interest, and the game got saturation media coverage. But the game’s traditions were being slowly undermined by its growing commercialization.

Phase 9: Chapter 32 – Chapter 35 (1971-1980) The 1970s ushered in the wholesale commercialization of Aussie rules, with player militancy creating a wage-price spiral which inflated player payments to record levels. The Big city leagues secured big sponsorship deals and being flush with funds sought to build stadiums of their own and thus weakening the influence of cricket clubs on fixturing and ground use.

Phase 10: Chapter 36 – Chapter 40 (1981- 1990) The game was revolutionized in the 1980s, which began with the relocation of South Melbourne to Sydney and followed by the admission of teams from Brisbane and Perth, culminating in the reinvention of the VFL as the Australian Football League.

Phase 11: Chapter 41 – 43 Chapter (1991- 1999) The revolution continued with Fitzroy being sacrificed at the altar of an expanded AFL, followed by a wave of player payment inflation, the introduction of a full-scale national player draft, increased controls over total player payments, a massive increase in the TV rights fee, the theming of games around the ANZAC narrative, and dealing with racism.

Phase 12: Chapter 44 – 48 Chapter (2000- 2012) The AFL was flush with funds and decided to invest in two new national league teams, the Gold Coast Suns, and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. The results were mixed.

Phase 13: Chapter 49 – Chapter 52 (2013 -2018) The AFL provided roller coaster ride for not only fans and business partners, but also players and officials. It started with an attempt to insert some integrity into the game by introducing a raft of social responsibility and social justice policies, but then quickly degenerated into a drug use scandal. But this decent into farce was countered by the hugely successful introduction of a women’s football league in 2017. The future began to look bright again, although racism had once again reared its ugly head.

Phase 14: Chapter 53 – Chapter 55 (2019-2021) This was the most tumultuous time in the history of the game. The 2019 AFL season was as good as you could get from a commercial perspective. TV audiences and game attendances were at record highs, while every big business enterprise wanted a share of the action by becoming an AFL ‘partner’. But everything went hideously wrong in early 2020 with the Covid 19 outbreak. A truncated competition saved the day for the flagship AFL, as did a rejigged competition in 2021. The turnaround was extraordinary, and, as was predicted, by 2024 the game was once again flourishing. It had retained its position as Australia’s sporting juggernaut.

And, if you want to get the full historical treatment do yourself a favour and buy the book.

Bob Stewart

19 July 2024.

Sport - Football

Item 1: AUSTRALIA’S GAME

Another entry

Nothing here

Sport - Football

Item 1: AUSTRALIA’S GAME

Another entry

Nothing here

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