University football: Application to the League
The principal member of the University Football Club, delighted at having gained the premiership of the Metropolitan Association twice in succession, are making efforts to be admitted to the Victorian Football League. The feeling is that now that the University Sports Union is firmly established, and the club has shown its strength, there should be nothing to prevent the students as a team, taking part in the highest class of football. When some few years ago the University club made application, it was refused mainly because there was no guarantee that it could put a good team into the field. The members of the present committee feel, however, that they have shown their bona fides, and recommended to the members that some steps should be taken to gain their wishes. The presence of a University team in the premiership competition would undoubtedly add to the strength of the league, and would be popular.
A meeting of the University Football Club was held in the Biology School at the University yesterday, when there were about 100 undergraduates present. The president (Professor Baldwin Spencer), who was in the chair, began by congratulating the University team on is success. The premiership of 1906 and 1907 had been due to the increase of sporting feeling in the University, and to the men sticking to the University instead of playing with senior teams. A different era of sport had set in at the University and they feel that they could hold their own in the highest grade. This improvement in conditions had been caused by the Sports Union and the compulsory sports fees, and the satisfactory result had been obtained of continuity of sport. The position of the University football team was very different from what it had been in the days when it was in the senior ranks. Those days would never come again, for there was complete organisation now, and with three times as many students, the continuity was maintained. They had a great team now, and also the promise of other league players. The question to decide was whether a strenuous effort should not be made to get into the highest grade of football.
His idea was that if they could do that they would run their second team on the Metropolitan Association. It would be a mistake to drop out of that association especially as it would provide training for the senior grade. There was not the slightest doubt of their being able to put a good team into the field. (Hear, hear.) The University team had done good service not only to the University, but to sport, and they should be in a position to take a leading part in the football of Victoria. (Cheers.) He realised that for the present their ground was not at its best, but for the first year at any rate they were in treaty with two leading grounds, and that difficulty could be got over. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. H. Cordner (captain of the University team) said that the play of the team during the last two seasons had proved conclusively that there was no club in the Metropolitan association to touch them. The best team in the Metropolitan Association could not be far off the lowest team in the league. Their success against the Essendon Association team showed them to be equal to those teams. The present players and those they would get next year would give them a team fit to enter the league. In tennis, cricket, lacrosse, and rowing the University played with the seniors, and so shared the best in those games. The football club was the most enthusiastic in the University, but they were not able to participate in the highest grade in the state. The gate money they would get from the league games would soon enable them to fix up the ground. (Hear, hear.) He, therefore, moved:
“That this morning is of the opinion that it is desirable for the University Football Club to apply to enter the Victorian Football League.”
Mr. John Lang (hon., secretary, University Sports Union), in seconding the motion, referred to the struggle that had taken place to put University sport on a sound footing. They had worked their way up, and now sought to still further advance. The old days of apathy had gone, and now there was enthusiasm, which worked for success. (Cheers.)
The motion was carried unanimously, and application will be made to the league forthwith.
Footnotes
Title: Football. University Football. Application To The League. Author: Argus Staff Writer Publisher: The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria, 1848 - 1957) Date: Friday, 13 September, 1907, p. 7 (Article) Web: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/10130153
Comments
On October 4, the motion to admit "the students" was moved by the Carlton delegate, Mr. J. Urquhart and seconded by Mr. M. Wilson of Essendon, but unfortunately included an additional clause that the League should also admit a second club to expand the competition to ten teams.
The inclusion of the University was unanimous, but the second half of Urquhart's motion caused rather more discussion. Collingwood (who were pushing the case for neighbours Richmond) and South Melbourne were strongly in favour, Geelong and Essendon rather less so. The reactions of other clubs were not recorded, but Mr. Henry Skinner, one of the South Melbourne delegates, perhaps revealed a hidden agenda when he suggested "… League clubs should have metropolitan grounds and let the Association look after the suburbs … if we take in University and Richmond, we'll have two good central grounds.
Skinner's ambition of a "good central ground" fell apart almost immediately.
Unfortunately, the Sports Union (made up of representatives of around a dozen other amateur sports and senior University officials) were rather less than impressed with Spencer's move of their football club to the somewhat dubious "amateur" Victorian Football League and refused permission for the team to use the University Oval.
The new team was forced to use the East Melbourne Cricket Ground with Essendon for the 1908, 1909 and 1910 seasons, then switching to share the M.C.G. with Melbourne, the latter switch leading some historians to incorrectly suggest that the two clubs officially merged with the demise of the alma mater in September, 1914 . Ironically, in South Australia, the University of Adelaide had applied to the South Australian Football League for admission to the senior competition. A delegation was promised a hearing of delegates representing the League, but a later resolution saw the latter's Secretary inform the prospective students that a resolution had been passed that their delegates not be heard - the reason that it could threaten the existing "electorate" system (or the district residential system later introduced by the V.F.L). The Adelaide Advertiser added "… that the University officials are indignant goes without saying".
Juddy, eat your heart out!
Some further notes I have reveal that The Argus a few weeks into the season and after the alma mater's first win noted that “… it was emphatically declared by numerous “know-alls” that the medical students in the team or amongst its supporters had instructed their comrades how to elbow opponents in such part of their anatomy that they would be greatly hampered in their play, but would not be in danger of permanent injury".
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