Lost words of Australian football: 1. Where on the field would you find...?
×
Right ▼
While recently perusing the obituaries of Port Adelaide's Stan Malin — the second-ever Magarey Medallist, who died in 1903, aged just 25 — I was struck by one in particular which referred to him as a "Portonian" and a "toeballer". I couldn't recall having seen the word "Portonian" before, but I was hardly surprised by it, having seen a similar phraseology used for Victorian teams, such as Carltonians and for Geelong, the town once commonly referred to as 'The Pivot', Pivotonians.
The word 'toeballer' was the one that really caught my attention. I hadn't seen or heard it used to refer to a footballer before. A quick search through Trove's online repository of newspapers shows that it was a term used to describe by Rugby League and soccer players in the 1950s, particularly by the Truth newspapers of Brisbane and Sydney. In South Australia it was a euphemism for Australian Rules players used sporadically prior to 1940, and similarly in Victoria. The Wiliamstown Chronicle of 25 May 1940 describes Harry Vallance as being "not just a good toeballer".
It is certainly not a word in usage anywhere today, one of many consigned to footy's vernacular rubbish bin.
Toeballer is not alone in being the victim of an ever-changing football glossary. It is fascinating to look back at some of the terms that were common a century ago but would have fans of today scratching their heads. Trove is a wonderful resource for looking at many of these, but the modern wonder that is social media can also provide many memories of phrases that are no longer part of the lingo. With that in mind I put out a call on Twitter, seeking contributions to this glossary of forgotten footy words.
The response was enthusiastic, to the point where including them all in a single article would create an enormous essay. As a result, Lost words of Australian Football will be split into multiple parts, to ensure that each word and phrase is given its proper due.
Part 1, which appears below, looks at archaic words denoting the various positions and locations on the footy fields of long ago. Here is a look at some that were once in regular usage in the footy world but are now found only in the pages of history.
Where on the field would you find a...?
WINGSTER: Some would argue that the position of 'wing' is redundant in footy these days (and in the AFLW it is!), such is the interchangeability of the various midfield roles these days. But in the 1970s, the decade in which I fell in love with footy, the wing, winger or wingman was a clearly defined role. I never once heard the word 'wingster' in that period, but having spent the last few years trawling through the sports pages of newspapers from the last century or more, I have seen many references to the wingster.
×
Left ▼
In 1918, the football writer of the local South Melbourne paper, the Emerald Hill Record, identified himself by the moniker Wingster and over the next four decades, the word attained fairly common usage.
The Sporting Globe used the term with some regularity in the 1930s, and the word can be seen in the Weekly Times, and in newspapers of Victoria's west and northwest in the same period. It also found its way to northern Tasmania during the '20s and '30s, and down to Hobart in the 1940s, but in an Australian football sense, it seems to have not made its way into the lingo in other states.
"Wingtser" was still getting an occasional run in the 1950s, as seen in the June 20, 1953 edition of the Melbourne Herald at left, but by the '60s it had faded away.
I would personally love to see the term return to our game, and suggested as much to Channel 7 commentator Jason Bennett, who had engaged in the Twitter discussion of footy's forgotten phrases. But Bennett was hesitant:
The problem may be it's so old it actually sounds like some new hip American-style jargon that will make purists roll their eyes! I'd take it out for a run during the upcoming AFLW season, but they don't have wingsters. Maybe VFL - 'the Willy wingster' has a nice ring to it!
Perhaps I'll get my wish in the upcoming VFL season!
GOAL SNEAK: 'Goal sneak' is a phrase that still pops up occasionally in commentary and newspapers (AAP's Shayne Hope has 'confessed' to using it) but it has largely been forgotten. It has been replaced in general usage by the official term, "full forward" and the casual "spearhead", although even "spearhead" doesn't seem to be in as wide use as it once was, especially with "bags" of goals by a single player far less common in today's iteration of our game.
The phrase has an interesting origin. In his seminal book, 'A Game of Our Own', Geoffrey Blainey explains that the phrase, as the word 'sneak' suggests, had its genesis as a rule-breaking practice:
'In the English codes of schoolboy football a 'goal sneak' was actually a description given to a player who was technically off side: the Eton College rules of 1846 so designated the practice of sneaking'.
While Australian football abandoned the off side concept quite early in its evolution, the negative connotation that accompanied a player who stayed back "watching for a chance close to the goal" persisted for some time, as evidenced in this 1860 article in Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle referring to 'that useful though much despised individual, the "goal sneak"'.
GOALKEEPER: Just as today's full forward was once known as the goal sneak, so too his opposite number was once commonly referred to using a term that these days among the football codes belongs almost entirely to soccer. Taken directly from Association Football, the goalkeeper in the early days of Australian Rules would spend most of a game virtually on the goal line, alongside the opposing side's goal sneak. This was the product of very low-scoring matches, in which — like soccer — a single goal was sometimes enough to win a match, making the prevention of a goal paramount.
×
Right ▼
"Goal defender" was another term used often in the 1800s, sometimes to refer to the goal keeper, or his 'lieutenants', as seen in the excerpt at right from the Australasian of 19 September 1874.
Another term that gained regular usage for this player was the "custodian", a word which also now faded from popularity.
CENTRE FORWARD & CENTRE FORWARD ON GOAL: Yet another position that can still be found on the soccer field but is long gone from Australian footy fields. As Blainey points out, while today's goal-to-goal line is comprised of five set positions — full back, centre half-back, centre, centre half-forward, and full forward. But in the year the Victorian Football Association was formed, 1877, there were seven set positions running down the centre of the ground from goal to goal: goalkeeper, back, half-back, centre, centre forward on goal and goal sneak.
While several of these came directly from soccer, the longer dimensions of Australian Rules fields, almost twice the length of Association Football fields fostered teams of greater size and allowed for the creation of extra set positions.
CITADEL: Where on the field would one find the goal sneak and the goal keeper? At the citadel, of course. Thanks to Richmond Football Club historian Rhett Bartlett for alerting us to this lost treasure.
×
Left ▼
The citadel was used to refer to the goals or goal square before the turn of last century, as eloquently exemplified in this passage from Cursor in the Melbourne Leader of 27 June 1874:
The Melbourne would make a fine rush, and propel the ball down the right wing in, the neighborhood of the enemy's goal, whence the gallant defenders of the Carlton citadel, Harry Guy, our old friend Boyle and a few others would send it away to the middle of the play again, when one of the flyers of Carlton, Monie, Lacey, or Gardiner, would take it right up the ground.
Usage of the word citadel in an Australian Football sense continued well into the 1900s in all of the 'Rules' states — Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania — but it had disappeared by the 1950s
CENTREMAN: Players are still named in the centre each week, but they are rarely referred to as such in commentary, sports pages or even general footy fan chat nowadays. While you might hear a commentator say "Dangerfield has moved into the centre" during a game, you won't hear of him being referred to as a centreman. Along with the ruck-rover and rover, and even the wingers (not wingsters!), they are all lumped into the category of midfielder.
FOLLOWER, ROVER AND RUCK-ROVER: When I was a kid, Gary Dempsey, Mick Nolan and Len Thompson were followers. They were also known, as they still would be today, as ruckmen but while ruck and ruckman remain well-used words in 2020s footy, follower has fallen out of fashion, although it still gets an occasional run.
Fifty years before I was a kid, a follower could also refer to the other players who contested ball-ups, the rover and the ruck-rover. A legacy of this remains in team announcements each week, with those three players grouped together and marked as "F" or "FOL" in various publications and websites. When weekly teams are read out verbally on radio and television, the word followers gets a run for probably the only time in the entire week!
×
Right ▼
UTILITY: My memories of St Kilda's Gary Colling are of him as a defender. Indeed his 1972 Scanlen's football card lists him as a "half back", but by 1974, those who made such decisions at Scanlen's HQ decided that he was a "utility". In fact, quite a few players in the 1974 Scanlen's VFL football card set were given the position of utility. In short, it means a player who has the size and skill to enable him to play in a number of different positions. Or, if you are being slightly less generous, a player who is not quite good enough to hold down any one position.
These days the size of players has become somewhat homogenised, and many are adept in multiple positions, making them to a large extent, all utilities, so the word has dropped out of the vernacular. Perhaps its nearest equivalent is the "swingman". (Or "swingwoman" in the AFLW? The non-gendered "swinger" has another connotation that probably means it won't catch on in the footy world!) The swingman usually refers to a big player who can hold down either a key forward or key defensive post.
In any case the term 'utility' has in today's footy world lost most of its... er... utility.
×
Left ▼
CENTRE DIAMOND: These days we know it as the centre square but when it was first introduced in 1973 to reduce congestion at centre bounces it was the 'centre diamond', with its four points directed to the goals and wings. In 1975 the diamond was rotated 45 degrees, becoming the centre square as we know it today.
RESERVE, 19TH MAN, 20TH MAN, GREEN VEST/SUB'S VEST: As well as specific positions, the number of players allowed on the field has evolved since the game was born in 1858. When the Victorian Football League was established in 1897, that number was 20. It was reduced to 18 in 1899 but in 1930 the concept of the '19th man' was introduced. While the number of players allowed on the field at any one time remained at 18, a 19th man could replace an injured player at any time (although the player leaving the field could not return for the remainder of the match).
The idea was expanded in 1946, with each team allowed a 19th and 20th man. Over time references to these two players changed from being numerically specific to just "reserves". That word, too, disappeared in 1978 with the introduction of the interchange system, which allowed players to be rotated on and off the field as often as required or desired.
For six seasons from 2011 the rule was further varied, allowing three interchange players and one "substitute" to be used in the manner of the old 19th and 20th man. In line with other codes, this person became known as the substitute or "sub", and the terms "sub's vest" and "green vest" became common until the end of the 2016 AFL season when the rule reverted to its previous incarnation, with all four players on the bench being interchangeable.
This list of redundant and antiquated terms for players positions on the Australian Rules football field is by no means exhaustive. Further suggestions for inclusion and clarification will be warmly welcomed.
In coming weeks, I will be adding further chapters to this series, looking at forgotten and out-of-use team references (e.g. Mayblooms), phrases associated with redundant rules and colourful commentary of days gone by.
Footnotes
Thanks to the many Twitter users who contributed terms to this discussion, including Channel 7's Jason Bennett, Rhett Bartlett ("citadel") and Adrian Ellis ("custodian").
Comments
This article does not contain any comments.
Login to leave a comment.