Brave the Lion in His Own Den
The first British Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1888 saw the team play several games of 'Australian Rules', including one against Carlton in front of 26,000 fans at the MCG. In this extract from his book 'The First Lions of Rugby', Sean Fagan paints the picture of the build-up to the match, the game itself, and its aftermath.
“A good football match in Melbourne is one of the sights of the world.”
- Richard Twopeny, Town Life in Australia, 1883
With hundreds of hither and thither trams, cabs and carriages, Flinders Street was packed, and even the surrounds beyond were fairly filled as thousands upon thousands of people were making their way to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). “Waggonette drivers were pushing desperately and hansoms were flying in and out at rates and fares which were by no means in accord with town hall regulations,” wrote The Argus. The sky was pale blue all over, the air crisp, the breeze fresh; an early winter afternoon made for football. It had the feeling of anticipation of Melbourne Cup day at Flemington. As people hurried along the streets or stepped out of the doors of nearby pubs, all heavy coats and covered heads, many could be seen disporting the colours of their favoured team in ribbons or crape on their lapel or hat—“the dark blues of Carlton” or “the Union Jack men”. Similarly, all the waiting and scurrying vehicles were adorned to show their driver’s allegiance.
“A large and fashionable crowd,” Lions' captain Bob Seddon (above right) described them as.
As the time of the kick-off drew ever closer, there could not have been less than 26,000 within the enclosure. “Every part of the ground was packed with spectators,” continued The Argus. “In the grandstand there was not a spare seat and the lawn in front of it, looked at from the south, suggested some strange pavement of human faces, while the slope round the ground presented very much the same appearance. The reserves have not for a long time past looked so bright nor so well packed, an unusual number of ladies being among the spectators.” On one hand Arthur Shrewsbury (left) and Lillywhite must have been most pleased. On the other, they would have been despondent that most of the gate would end in the bank accounts of their cricket rivals, the MCC.
The Lions had arrived in Melbourne just two days before. Primarily as a result of the profits from gold mining boom in country Victoria, that began in the 1850s, the colony’s capital had surpassed Sydney for number of people, the height and scale of buildings and just about all else, aside from the Yarra River being no Port Jackson. “We had the greatest reception we have met with throughout the tour,” said Seddon of the greeting.
The Argus reckoned the Lions “were accorded the most cordial welcome ever extended in this way to a body of English visitors. Several hundred spectators assembled at Spencer Street station, and as the express came in three cheers were given for the visitors. When the VFA decided to take no action in the direction of formally welcoming the team, the more manly among the lovers and followers of the game resented the spirit thus exhibited, and instead of the mere formalities observed by a reception committee, the reception took something of the form of a generous demonstration.”
Despite the VFA’s stance its secretary, Theo Marshall, who had declared earlier “An English team would have no chance against a Victorian 20”, went out to heartily shake the hands of the Britishers in his capacity as a Carlton FC vice-president.
Leaving the station, the team was driven in a convoy of horse-drawn drags to the Melbourne Town Hall and by the time they reached their destination a crowd of several hundred surrounded them, hoping to get a glimpse or a quick word with any of the team members. Hurried inside, the Lions were led to a balcony to witness a musical performance in the main hall, “a special programme concluding by way of compliment to the visitors with a selection of English airs,” wrote The Argus. “The organist played Home, Sweet Home, very feelingly, and it seemed to touch our lads very keen,” Seddon said. The players were then, along with a large number of local gentlemen accompanying them, led to the mayor’s private rooms for champagne at the generous price of a few speeches.
In returning thanks to the mayor, Seddon said: “So far we have been so absorbed in our Rugby matches that we had only a few opportunities of practicing the Australian game. But the more we saw of the game, the better we liked it! Some of our players have gone so far as to say already that they like it better than their own game, while others do not care to express any definite opinion until they have seen a few matches. We are certain that Victorians will be much pleased if, on a closer acquaintance, the members of our team take kindly to the Australian Rules and introduce the game into England upon our return so that in a few years we might expect to see an Australian team of footballers meeting the best teams of England, as the cricketers are now doing!”
The afternoon was spent at another formal welcoming function in South Melbourne and afterwards at the local cricket ground where an Australian Rules match was being played. Ever eager, Speakman dived into some football togs and was into the game. In buoyant news for the promoters, the South Melbourne club (today the Sydney Swans) had resolved to not keep any of the gate-money, leaving all of their share to the visitors.
It was hoped this would set the other metropolitan football clubs a generous example, though the real brigands, said the Morwell Advertiser, were the Melbourne and South Melbourne cricket clubs, who continued to “insist upon the exorbitant charge of one-third of the gate receipts for the use of their respective grounds”.
An unattributed clipping said, “Shylock, in the Merchant of Venice, would have his pound of flesh, and by all accounts so will the MCC. The Victorian Government when granting the land [which became the MCG] to the MCC never intended that the same should be the means of extorting money from visitors and strangers.”
For the team the daily and evening “grind” of being entertained by one and all continued at full pace. The only discernible difference was that many of the team, including Seddon and the promoters, were dipping out on many of the football club concerts and civic receptions—“Mr. so-and-so sends his apologies”—opting instead to accept private invitations to dinners and parties, catch up with friends, pursue business opportunities or to simply escape.
The day that the tour had been leading up to since the venture was first mooted had finally arrived. The Britishers and the Victorians, in the form of Carlton, were to meet in battle on the MCG under Australian Rules. Despite modern hearsay, none of the Lions games were played under concessionary rules or a merged code.
The British players were under no illusion as to this contest’s importance: “Upon the merit of the game will depend very largely the success of their Victorian campaign,” wrote The Argus. A poor and inept showing would ruin the appeal of further matches whereas a victory, though exceedingly unlikely, would make Victorians sit up and take notice. Shrewsbury’s local recruits, Scarborough and Chapman, the two Englishmen who had migrated to Melbourne, were welcomed into the touring party, though their names will never appear in the list of British Lions representatives. Playing as a “20” meant almost every member of the touring party would be needed and with Kent and Penketh still injured and Clowes persona no grata, the two new men (both backs) came straight into the starting team. The only one to miss out was forward Robbie Burnett.
When the Lions appeared from the pavilion, they were met with rousing cheers and applause which was renewed again when the two sides drew up near each other, raised their caps and cheered one another. One immediately saw that many of the Victorians, who had over time and tradition adopted the gladiatorial practice of wearing sleeveless guernseys (linen or dungaree front lace-up vests, chamois shoulders) presumably to hinder opponents grabbing at the arm in contests, contrasted distinctively with the Lions in their triple-colour hooped baggy woollen jerseys, buttoned and collared at the neck, fully sleeved to the cuff. In Rugby territory, especially if ladies are wanted to watch the contests, it was considered “anything but good taste” to take to the field in an “exhibition” of bare arms or not fully covered legs.
Today Australian Rules games commence with the teams having already taken up their positions and the umpire bouncing down or tossing up the ball in centre-field. In 1888 it wasn’t so—the match began with one of the last of the easily recognised remnants of Rugby still to be found in Australian Rules—the on-side place-kick kick-off. The captain that won the coin toss chose which way his team would run and the losing skipper’s team got to kick-off. While each side’s defenders dropped back to take up position, the rest of the players were corralled in their own half of the field until the kick-off had been taken. This obviously redundant but still insisted upon (by the laws) routine was also repeated after each goal. With the game underway, the forwards immediately took off towards the far goal posts, to square up with their opposing back—essentially there were five players from each side always ‘on the ball’ (followers), and another 15 pairs of opponents each stationed in their allocated part of the field.
As with soccer, the score was simply a tally of goals, and while ‘behinds’ (kicking the ball between the outside of either goal post and the smaller post 10 yards away marking the limit of the goal line) were recorded, unlike today they had no relevance to the game’s result. There was no cross-bar between the goal posts to worry about, and goals could be kicked via a punt, drop, place or ‘soccering’. A player taking a ‘mark’ (catching the ball on the full from a kick, from either friend or foe), was rewarded with a free kick.
Carlton opened up the game very quickly, having three shots on the Lions’ goal; though all went wide of the posts, it became evident that the concerted play of the home side would altogether puzzle the visitors. The British backs though—particularly Haslam, Eagles, Andrew Stoddart (right), and Chapman—made a gallant defence, repeatedly turning away the forays of the Carlton forwards. The spectators realised the Lions were not giving in despite the difficulties they were facing trying to come to grips with the new code—every bit of good play was warmly cheered. Their followers too were playing a sound game, but said The Argus, “perhaps were a bit too conscientious in striving to follow our rules” instead of trying to bring a bit of Rugby’s “lusty vigour” to the contest.
Scarborough secured the first behind for the Red-White-and-Blues, however, by then the Blues already had a few behinds of their own plus a goal. “The visitors were most puzzled by the marking of the Carlton men and the style in which they played (kicked) to each other,” wrote The Argus. The Lions were soon failing to “stay on their man”, leaving the home men free “to give a very pretty exposition of those two most attractive points in the Australian game”. The ‘little-marking’ between the Carlton players completely perplexed the tourists—the laws of the game awarded a mark provided the kicker and catcher were at least two yards apart and any team of modestly competent Australian Rules footballers could exploit that opportunity at will. The speed, manner and dexterity with which it was done was often incomprehensible to the Britishers.
After Carlton obtained their second goal, “the English captain, Seddon, fairly got the best of a tussle with Moloney, and the latter pushing him from behind gave the English side their first free kick. The great fault in their play, however, was that the forward men to a greater extent than the backs, were nonplussed by the requirements of the new game.”
The Lions were playing their Rugby forwards in the forward positions here too; yet these men were the not the best kickers of the ball (apart from dribbling and in some cases place-kicking). The team individually and collectively had no concept of working the ball between each other by kicking and catching to position themselves and their forwards to within range of the goal. Passing the ball backwards with the hands they understood but passing with the feet in any direction was another matter entirely.
Dr. Brooks and Paul (“the spectators got a fair idea of what a dangerous forward his straight place-kicks must make him at any point within 60 yards of the enemy’s posts”) were the only two of the forwards to regularly threaten Carlton’s defence and goal. Scarborough and Seddon obtained their share of cheers but overall “the disheartening thing to the team was the weakness of their forwards”. At half-time the score read 7.7 (7 goals, 7 behinds) to 0.1 (0 goals, 1 behind) in favour of Carlton.
After the long break the visitors seemed a different outfit, coming back with three successive goals (though one must suspect Carlton lightened their own effort) with first Thomas, then Dr. Smith, followed by Banks scoring. Among all this happening, a kick by Bumby hit the post and a long distance place-kick from Mathers just went wide. Each goal received an almighty roar from the crowd “who were much pleased with the way in which the team were fighting against their heavy handicap”. The rally faded. The team could out-last any Rugby side, but they were soon out of condition compared with Carlton and in the last quarter their effort died away altogether.
The crowd cheered both teams off the ground, thus bringing to a close the first international game of Australian Rules football.
“Our first match under the Victorian rules has been played and lost,” was Seddon’s entire summation of the game for the readers at home. Carlton won 14.17 to 3.8. Even by today’s high scoring game, that would still be a belting; in 1888 it was as a big a hiding as one could hand out between equally capable footballers. By way of comparison, on that same afternoon Richmond beat North Melbourne five goals to four, Port Melbourne downed Essendon 3-1, Williamstown rolled St. Kilda 3-1 and South Melbourne and Fitzroy drew 2-all. But the post-game consensus, perhaps being generous to the colony’s guests and wanting to encourage them, was that the Lions did better than many expected. The Argus offered an ultimately positive review of the tourists’ first outing:
Their opponents had them at their mercy all through the last half-hour, and left a record on the board which disclosed about as thorough a beating as one team ever administered to another. And, therefore, what? Hurrah for Australia or for Carlton or the Victorian game of football as against the Rugby?
There are not wanting those who say that the Englishmen would at their own game give their late opponents just as decisive a beating, and there are others who say that the Englishmen were inferior in all essentials of footballing under any rules They could not kick so surely, nor catch so well, nor dodge so smartly. Be this as it may, they are all good men and the Victorian is a good game, the Rugby also, doubtless. The visitors played the Australian game better than their most sanguine friends anticipated, for the fact may as well be admitted that on going into the field on Saturday, all that they knew of it practically had been picked up in two muff practice matches. In face of this, the task they were asked to perform in going into the field against such a team as Carlton was an impossible one and it becomes a matter for wonder how they managed to play as well as they did.
At least half the team gave evidence of being naturally fitted to play our game, and it would surprise none of those who saw them play yesterday if by the close of their tour they are able to hold their own with the best of our seniors. At present they lack perfection in drop-kicking, and made no attempt at marking from long kicks, in which Carlton were so successful. Neither was there any of that roughness in their play which might have been expected from players so long accustomed to Rugby rules. The game was played in a fine spirit by both sides and in this respect also the Englishmen, after their experiences in some of the New Zealand towns, will be in a position to make comparisons not unfavourable to our game and those who play it.
During the week the English team will play matches at Sandhurst and Castlemaine and on Saturday next they will meet another formidable 20 in the South Melbourne team.
The Bendigo Advertiser reported that Seddon (left) “expresses admiration of the way in which the Carlton team play, and their sustained energy. As to the game, he considers that it is full of tactics, and that it is the study and introduction of these that makes the success of a team. He fancies that if the tables had been turned and Carlton had been playing Rugby, the result would also have been reversed. The captain of the Carlton team (Leydin) thought the Englishmen would have done much better. ‘But we mustn’t expect too much’ (he says). ‘They are under terrible disadvantages in playing our rules. They have more actually to unlearn than they have to learn. From my observations to-day, I think that the unlearning part of the business will be found by them to be the more difficult. I suppose they will improve as they go on, but I am afraid they will make slow progress at it. They are a fine set of men and play a gentlemanly game. Not a sign of roughness.’”
Melbourne correspondent for Sporting Life told football enthusiasts in England: “In my opinion, if they continued playing for a year, they would have no more chance of winning a match against these men than they would have racing the ‘Flying Scotchman’ (Edinburgh-London train).”
The next game was at Sandhurst—though all preferred to call it Bendigo and the name was officially changed in 1891. Just under three hours steam train ride north-west of Melbourne, the town grew rapidly when gold was discovered thereabouts in late 1851. The Lions game against Bendigo FC was played at the Back Creek Cricket Ground. There was also a Sandhurst FC (who would be played later in the tour) and among the city’s many smaller, workplace and junior teams could be found wonderfully lyrical names such ‘The Sailors Gully Stars’, ‘Dark Town’, ‘Union Jack’, ‘Moonlight Stars’, ‘Ironbark Stars’ and ‘Snobs’ Hill’. The tally of young men and teenage boys forming teams in just the Sandhurst area, let alone the whole of Victoria, was more than ample to reduce any NSWRU official back in Sydney to tears in astonishment and envy.
The weather in Sandhurst had been bleak and cold with heavy rain for days leading up to the match and on the day itself. In a measure of the interest in the Lions at this part of their tour, despite the dreadful conditions to be outside standing in rain, near on 5000 people ringed the oval to witness the encounter. With the new players Chapman and Scarborough being among the tricolours best against Carlton, the decision was made to add Lawlor (24 years old) and McShane (30)—the team’s two Australian Rules coaches—to the side for games outside of Melbourne, and ignore any claims they weren’t Britons (Lawlor countered this by pointing out he was born in Kerry County, Ireland).
Apparently Seddon also now carried a clearance from VFA allowing the two Victorians to play due to the number of injuries the British had (though it seems a little odd that the VFA would provide such a letter given they refused to sanction the tour). It was very quickly seen by the tourists that the Bendigo team couldn’t keep their feet in the heavy going and had all sorts of difficulty attempting to pick up the ball in their hands. Seddon recognised opportunity and commanded his players to “adopt the dribbling game”, making use of their skills as Rugby forwards. The Britishers were also noticeably bringing more robust and forceful play into marking contests. At times they caused roars of laughter from the crowd due to the boorish and clumsy way they threw themselves into the ruck, but it succeeded in disconcerting the home men, disrupting their ability to move the ball in a chain-link upfield.
The Bendigo Advertiser praised the visitors’ efforts to master the new game: “Though the Englishmen were favoured by the condition of the ground, there can be no question that they are a much finer team than Bendigo and when once they become familiar with the rules of the Victorian game, the metropolitan teams will find them very difficult to beat. They are continually on the ball and their speed and dash enable them to carry all before them in their rallies.” By full-time the Lions had notched up their first victory under Australian Rules, defeating Bendigo 5.16 to 1.14.
The Bulletin, in its own uninhibited style—and with a little Sydney preconception—wrote that “the English footballers are developing far more aptitude for the Victorian game than was anticipated after the strong Carlton team had made such a ‘holy show’ of them. But, given more practice and less cakes and ale, it may yet be possible for the burly Britons to beat a premier Victorian team at their own game. And if such an event did come to pass it would bring lamentation and woe to an army of critics who honestly believe that their particular kind of football surpasseth all outside understanding. The Carlton captain, for example, expressed a scientific opinion that the Englishmen couldn’t play ‘our game’ properly if they practiced for 20 years. Yet those same novices defeated Bendigo in their very next match. If they are intelligent young men and avoid banquets, they will certainly knock the stuffing out of many foolish notions peculiar to Victorian footballers.”
The two teams gathered for the post-match dinner at the Beehive Exchange, one of the many hotels in Sandhurst, before all the footballers went to the skating rink for a series of match races against each other. In the morning all of the Lions were taken down a gold mine to see how that strenuous industry operates.
“By 12 o’clock we were in the train again on our way to Castlemaine, some 50 miles away, where we had to play Castlemaine and district,” said Seddon.
In this game the weather was again bad and the field and ball slippery. The Red-and-Blacks scored the match’s first goal—which brought forth many loud cheers from the locals—but the Lions responded shortly after when Nolan dribbled the ball between the uprights. The final result was a tie, Castlemaine 1.4 drawing with Britain 1.2. “England had the honour on this occasion of the ‘best man of the 40’ in the person of Stoddart, who played brilliantly,” declared the Melbourne Sportsman. The Bendigo Advertiser said of the visitors: “The general opinion is that they are a jolly lot of good fellows who, when they learn Victorian game, will make it warm for any Victorian team.”
The team boarded the late evening train and headed back to Melbourne. “Saturday’s match against South Melbourne is, perhaps, the best match we have to play,” said Seddon. “Although we cannot expect to win, I hope we shall show some improvement on last Saturday’s play.”
This is an edited extract of The First Lions of Rugby by Sean Fagan, published by the Slattery Media Group. It is available at http://www.slatterymedia.com/store/viewItem/the-first-lions-of-rugby.
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