Australian Football

University Blacks

Melbourne University’s rich football tradition has derived from its involvement, at various times, in three of the of football’s historically most important competitions: the Victorian Football Association, the Victorian Football League, and - most particularly - the Victorian Amateur Football Association.

For the majority of its time in the VAFA, the University’s participation has been at least two-pronged. As early as 1893, the Association’s second year (when it was known as the Metropolitan Junior Football Association), the popularity of football amongst the students was such that the University found itself in the rare, if not quite unique, position for those days of being able to field both senior and second eighteens. When University was admitted to the VFL in 1908 a similar situation arose, with what was in effect a University B team continuing in the MJFA.

University withdrew from the VFL, and the club went into temporary abeyance, at the end of the 1914 season. When it reformed after the war in 1919 it competed initially in the newly established VFL junior competition (precursor to the reserves), and in 1920 it once again entered a B team in the Metropolitan Amateur Football Association, as the MJFA was by that time known.

The University’s A team acquitted itself with immense credit, finishing as runner-up in the VFL juniors in both 1919 and 1920. In 1921, it crossed to the MAFA, where it would develop in time into the team known today as University Blues. The B combination meanwhile was the direct antecedent of the University Blacks.

Right from the outset, the A-B classification proved itself misleading, if not downright meaningless. Indeed, between 1921 and 1932 every effort was taken to ensure that the University’s two teams were as similar to one another as possible in terms of standard, with the very best players being equitably distributed between them by means of what would nowadays be termed a pre-season draft. In 1921, this draft system worked impeccably, with the two sides vying with one another for supremacy all season, and ultimately confronting one another in the premiership-deciding match. That match was won by the B team, which would go on to establish itself in time, albeit for only a brief period, as the de facto senior partner in the arrangement. Another step towards the establishment of this temporary pecking order occurred a year later when the B team once again went top. On this occasion it defeated Collegians for the premiership despite the fact that the decisive match of the year took place during the university vacation when many of its best players were unavailable. Indeed, when the ball was bounced to start the game, University B only had seventeen men on the field, but it still ended up winning a low scoring match by 14 points. Both the 1921 and 1922 premierships were achieved despite an apparently lackadaisical attitude that frequently saw such things as players taking to the field wrongly attired, club delegates not bothering to attend Association meetings, and, on one occasion, a match for premiership points against Teachers College being played midweek without either the knowledge or sanction of the MAFA.

In 1928, University B adopted its present name of University Blacks, while the A team became the Blues. The MAFA had become both considerably bigger, boasting three sections each of ten clubs compared to just eight clubs in a single division in 1920, and much better organised. The somewhat slapdash, happy-go-lucky attitude that had spawned successive premierships in the early 1920s would by this stage have simply been a recipe for relegation. Fortunately, though, the Blacks had moved with the times. Efficiently administered off the field, and with a wealth of talent on it, their only loss during the 1928 season was by a single point against St. Paul’s. Without needing to invoke their right of challenge they won the premiership in emphatic fashion thanks to a 15.18 (108) to 7.6 (48) thrashing of Old Melburnians. Full forward Jack Green, who had topped the A Section goal kicking list the previous year with 86 goals, became in 1928 the first player in the Association’s history to ‘top the ton’, ending the season with 118 goals to his name. In 1929 he left the amateurs behind to embark on a successful VFL career which saw him perform with distinction for two clubs as well as represent the state.

The Blacks were far from a one-man team, however. Other prominent members of the 1928 premiership combination included captain Stuart King, long kicking half forward Ken Cussen, and dashing half back flanker Ted A’Beckett, who also found fame as a cricketer.

Weakened by the departure of several members of its 1928 premiership side, the Blacks struggled during the early part of the following season, but recovered well to reach the finals. In the end, the same two teams as in 1928 contested the grand final, and despite managing considerably fewer scoring shots than their opponents, the Blacks won a remarkable match by 8 points. Final scores were University Blacks 9.10 (64) to Old Melburnians 5.26 (56) after 20 of Old Melburnians’ first 22 scoring shots had produced behinds.

The 1930s proved to be another highly successful decade for the Blacks. It also gave rise to a controversial change in the way that players were allocated to the University’s two teams. In 1933, following the Blues’ relegation to B Section, it was decided that the Blacks should be given priority access to the cream of each year’s crop of new players. For the next decade and a half, the Blacks were in effect the University’s senior side, with the Blues relegated to the status of a second eighteen.

Not surprisingly, this change had a marked impact on both teams’ on field performances. During the 1930s the Blacks contested grand finals in A Section on five occasions, for three flags, while the Blues’ achievements were limited to promotion via losing grand final appearances in B Section in 1935 and C Section in 1938.

There can be no doubt that Blacks teams boasted a wealth of talent during this era. Some of the key players to represent the club included centre half back Ian Galbraith, who skippered Victoria to victory at the inaugural AAFC Carnival in Adelaide in 1936, and repeated the feat two years later in Launceston, vibrant wingman Tommy Graham, and future VFL footballers such as Ray Steele, Ted Cordner, Jim Yewers, and Allan La Fontaine. Of these, there can be little doubt that La Fontaine had the greatest impact. Having already earned immense kudos in 1929 for his displays at full forward for C Section newcomers Old Paradians, the future Melbourne skipper crossed to the Blacks the following year and went from strength to strength over the course of his three-season stint with the club. In 1933 he piled on no fewer than 168 goals (easily a VAFA record at the time) and won the JN Woodrow Medal, but perhaps surprisingly could not help his side withstand the challenge of Old Scotch Collegians in the A Section flag decider.

When the VAFA went into recess because of the war in 1939 University Blacks, A Section premiers in both 1938 and 1939, had seemed set to dominate the amateur game for many years to come. It might therefore have been expected that the five year break for war would have thrown a major spanner into the works as far as the club’s ongoing prospects were concerned. In actual fact, quite the opposite happened, with the Blacks side of 1946 not only resuming where its predecessor in 1939 had left off, but stamping itself as without doubt one of the greatest amateur combinations of all time, and indeed the only one ever to go through an entire A Section campaign unbeaten. With the player distribution policy at the University still heavily weighted in the Blacks favour, the side made figurative mincemeat of virtually every opponent, culminating in a resounding 22.19 (151) to 13.16 (94) grand final defeat of Old Scotch Collegians.

If the Blacks’ 1946 premiership win was impressive, that of 1947 almost defied belief. In their semi final clash with Coburg they went into the last quarter facing a deficit of almost 7 goals, but then rattled on 8.3 to 1.3 to snatch victory by 4 points. A week later in the final the Blacks trailed Ormond by 53 points at one stage, but a 10 goal last quarter saw them finish 9 points to the good. Players like Peter Murphy, Denis and John Cordner, Claude Richards, Doug Heywood, Pat Cash (father of the famous tennis player) and Harry Meredith were at the forefront of University Blacks’ post-war dominance of the VAFA, which continued with further A Section flags in 1948 and 1949. In 1950, however, came a development that was to have a dramatic inimical impact on the side, although its full effects would not be felt for several years. 

In 1949, University Blues had achieved promotion back to A Section and as a result it was decided that, for the first time in almost two decades, newly arriving players would be assessed for talent, and evenly distributed between the University’s two teams. With a residue of top players from their 1946-7-8-9 premiership teams still available, the Blacks continued to perform strongly, reaching what was effectively (ignoring the five year hiatus for the war) a seventh straight A Section grand final. They went within an ace of winning it, too, but an after the bell goal by Ormond’s Jack Boland gave the district team a heart-stopping victory by 4 points, 9.12 (66) to 9.8 (62).

The Blacks’ era of supremacy was now at an end. When the side next won a premiership, in 1964, it was in the hitherto inconceivable depths of B Section. During the interim it had been the Blues, with A Section flags in 1952 and 1960, who had been the University’s principal standard bearers.

In the six decades and more since 1950 success has not exactly dried up for the Blacks, but it has been achieved less frequently. After winning the 1964 B Section grand final against Commonwealth Bank the side went back to back by trouncing Coburg in the A Section play-off a year later. In what was a very good year all round for the Blacks, their reserves also went top. Players like future Hawthorn wingman Ray Wilson, who skippered the 1965 premiership team, Pat Patterson, Graeme Crouch, David Morgan and Adrian Hunt were among the principal keys to the Blacks’ success during the 1960s and on into the ‘70s. The 1974 season produced the team’s last A  Section premiership for fourteen years. Coached by Peter O’Donohue, and with Jack Batten as captain, the Blacks scored a gutsy 14 point grand final win over an Ormond side that was aiming for a fourth consecutive A Section flag. The win was all the more noteworthy and satisfying in that the Blacks been thrashed by Ormond in both home and away encounters between the sides earlier in the year, and in fact you had to go back to round seven 1962 for the Blacks’ previous win against the Os.

After their 1974 triumph, the Blacks’ on-field fortunes dipped for some considerable time By the mid-1990s the team had plummeted lower than ever before, but a 1 point grand final win over North Brunswick in E Central Section in 1997 was a prelude to a decade of slow but steady improvement. In 2005, the Blacks won the C Section flag thanks to a 20.12 (132) to 8.5 (53) grand final trouncing of Beaumaris, and the 2006 season saw them win 10 out of 18 B Section games to miss the finals only on percentage. Promotion to A Section finally arrived in 2007 as the side qualified for the finals in third place before battling through to a grand final clash with minor premier St. Bede’s Mentone. The game was lost, but only narrowly, and in any case promotion was assured.

The 2010 season bought new labels for the VAFA’s various tiers, with University Blacks lining up in Premier B section, hitherto known as B Section. After a couple of mediocre seasons the Blacks broke through for a premiership in 2012. The team lost only twice all season en route to a grand final clash with Beaumaris which the Blacks dominated from the outset, ultimately winning by 27 points, 15.12 (102) to 11.9 (75). In 2013 the Blacks made it to the Premier preliminary final before losing to St Bedes-Mentone Tigers. The following year they won 15 and lost 3 home and away matches before dominating both of their finals matches to claim their twentieth senior grade premiership. Their semi final opponents were St. Bernard's, the Blacks winning by 43 points, 15.17 (107) to 9.10 (64). In the grand final, opposed by Collegians, the Blacks actually trailed by 3 points at half time before producing some devastating football in the remaining two quarters to add 11 goals to 4 and win easily, 13.12 (90) to 7.4 (46).

After missing the 2015 finals the Blacks got as far as the first semi final in 2016 but the 2017 season was enormously disappointing as the Blacks won just 4 matches all year to slump to relegation to Premier B. A year later they performed promisingly to qualify for the finals and ultimately finish third after losing a hard fought preliminary final to Old carey by a margin of 4 points.