Australian Football

Acton was one of four founder member clubs when the Federal Territory Australian Rules Football League, antecedent of today’s AFL Canberra, was formed in 1924. The team, which was often referred to as ‘the Jackeroos’, drew most of its players from Canberra’s white collar sector, and was immediately successful. In the 1924 grand final [1] it overcame a Canberra team primarily comprised of tradesmen and builders by 25 points, 10.7 (67) to 6.6 (42).

After losing the following season’s grand final to Federals, Acton was described in ‘Canberra Illustrated’ as “the prettiest team on the Territory to watch. Their unselfish systematic play makes them popular to watch wherever they go”. [2]

Acton appeared to be well on course for another premiership in 1926 after going through the entire minor round without losing a game. However, when the crunch came in the finals, Federals once again proved too strong.

In 1927 Acton claimed premiership success for what proved to be the last time as an autonomous club with an emphatic 12.13 (85) to 7.9 (51) grand final defeat of Eastlake. Thereafter, while the standard of football in and around Canberra improved steadily, [3] Acton fell on hard times, dropping to fourth place (out of five teams) in 1928, and earning the first of what would ultimately be a league record eleven wooden spoons the following year.

The 1929 season also saw the visit to Canberra of a powerful Broken Hill combined side, and Acton, perhaps a trifle surprisingly in view of the team’s apparent ineptitude, was given the ‘honour’ of fronting up against the visitors. Not surprisingly, the team from the Silver City experienced little difficulty in racing to a substantial win, 18.14 (122) to 3.10 (28).

For Acton, the 1930s was a decade of predominant mediocrity interspersed with two legitimate, if ultimately ineffectual, stabs at glory. In 1931, the first year of the Page-McIntyre finals system, Acton lost the grand final by 19 points against Manuka, while five years later it gave unbeaten premiers Ainslie one of its hardest games for the year before succumbing by just 10 points.

Another noteworthy development in 1936 was the inception of the Mulrooney Medal for the best and fairest player in the league. Acton’s eighteen year old half back flanker Roy Seton was a joint winner of the inaugural award, along with Ainslie‘s Richard Rae.

Throughout the war years organised football continued to be played in Canberra but, owing to a shortage of players, teams sometimes felt compelled to forge temporary partnerships with each other. One such fleeting liaison, between Queanbeyan and Acton, foreshadowed a rather more formal future arrangement between the clubs which had its origins in a dispute between Acton and the league over where the club should be based. Originally from the north side of the Molonglo River, Acton by the early post war years was happily ensconced on the south, leaving just one of Canberra’s four district clubs situated to the north. This was an unacceptable state of affairs to the league because the population on either side of the river was more or less the same. Conscious of Acton’s origins, the league felt justified in instructing the club to ‘return whence it came’, but Acton demurred. Things came to a head in 1951 when Acton finally agreed to the proposal, but asked for a three year period of grace in which to make the necessary arrangements. At this point, the league lost patience: Acton was relegated to ‘B’ grade for season 1951, and a new, northern-based club, Turner, was admitted to the senior competition in Acton’s place.

Between 1952 and 1957 Acton again combined with Queanbeyan, with ‘the Combine’ as it was called enjoying considerable success. See the entry on Queanbeyan-Acton for further details.

‘Flying solo’ once more from 1958 proved inordinately problematical for Acton, which would never again taste premiership success, or even contest a grand final. Nevertheless, the club continued to provide a home to some accomplished players, including Mulrooney Medallists Barry Griffiths, Jim Wilson, Col Monger, Neil Lewthwaite and Russell De Goldi, and talented full forward Bob Dennehy. During the club’s entire existence no Acton player managed to register 100 goals in a season, but Dennehy, who bagged 99 in 1964, came closer than anyone.

Col Monger’s story was especially inspirational. As a youngster in Brookton, Western Australia he spent three years crippled by Perthe’s disease, but recovered to enjoy a productive and highly successful football career. In addition to his Mulrooney Medal, he was vice-captain of the ACT side which lost to Queensland in Brisbane in section two of the 1965 Australian championships.

Acton’s remaining seasons of league competition were inauspicious, although the side did contest the finals in 1973, its last year. From 1974, Acton was replaced in the ACTAFL by West Canberra, which not only adopted Acton’s black and white colours, but also recruited the vast majority of its players.

Although it may not have been the most successful club in the history of ACT football, Acton’s contribution to the code was nevertheless significant. Of the competition’s four founder members, it was the only one to endure more than a few years, and the fact that it was the winner of the Territory’s very first official premiership affords it a special place in football history that can never be either gainsaid nor emulated.