Tassie's first foray 1882 challenge match: Tasmania vs. Essendon
The first ever match involving a Tasmanian team representative of the entire island took place on 29 August 1882 at the Upper Cricket Ground, North Hobart. The opposition was provided by Essendon, which was enjoying its best VFA season to date, and would ultimately finish in second place on the ladder behind Geelong. The Sash Wearers, as they were known, had already scored comfortable wins over northern and southern Tasmanian combinations, and boasted a large number of fine players, including skipper Ned Powell, renowned long kicker G.Cairns, and colonial representatives Fred Hughes, Paddy McShane, ‘Jumbo’ Carter and C.Griffiths.
Football in Tasmania was going from strength to strength in 1882. Earlier in the year, the first Northern Tasmanian Football Association had been formed, with three inaugural member clubs: Launceston, City and Longford. This brought the north in line with the south, which had had its own Association since 1879, with the four founder member clubs of City, Cricketers, New Town and Railway having been joined since 1880 by Holebrook. Railway went through the 1882 season unbeaten to secure its second consecutive premiership before beating northern premier Launceston for the unofficial state championship.
Prior to that, however, the Hobart public came out in force to witness arguably the most important single match played in Tasmania up to that point, with the Tasmanian team lining up as follows: W.H.Cundy (captain), C.Goddard, T.Bagley, A.Stuart, L.McLeod, O.G.Douglas, W.Cheverton, G.Cheverton, B.Stuart, F.Turner, H.Paul, R.Kirby, J.Briggs, J.Cleary, J.H.Cato, K.Burns, D.Murnane, W.Boyd, E.Lucas, T.Molloy, W.Edmonson, W.Walch, E.Ritchie (emergency). The fact that there are twenty-two names (excluding the emergency) in this list strongly suggests that this was an ‘odds match,’ as the standard size of teams in 1882 was twenty players.
Match report
From ‘The Mercury’
Nearly 3,000 people assembled on the Upper Cricket Ground for the match on August 29, 1882, between Essendon and Tasmania. The ladies’ pavilion was crowded and many of the fairer sex took up positions around the ground and watched with great interest the struggle between the two teams.
The weather was wet and threatening, and consequently the ground was wet and heavy, and before the ball had been in play many minutes it became very wet and heavy and slippery and members of both teams had difficulty in holding it.
Tasmanian captain was the Railway skipper W.H.Cundy, who won the toss and decided to kick northwards.
At the start the Tasmanians played very strongly, and it was thought they were going to make a good stand against the visitors. Before the game had commenced many minutes W.H.Cheverton obtained a mark about 20 yards in front of goal, and with a well judged kick secured the first goal for Tasmania. The ball was then sent down the west wing where Bagley (Tasmania) got it and he carried it down to the south west corner of the oval.
McLeod, G.Cheverton, A.Stuart and A.G.Douglas were all playing well for Tasmania at this stage, while McShane made some brilliant runs for the Victorians. Shortly afterwards, Nully sent the ball to the centre of the ground from the west wing, where it was laid hold of by F.Hughes, who then secured the first goal for Essendon.
The play which followed was very fast. Martin, after a brief run, placed the leather in McShane’s hands, and he sent it down to Feehan, who tried for goal and almost got it, scoring a behind instead. Tasmania then rallied and played hard, but Essendon secured another behind.
Bagley, the two Chevertons and Lucas all played well, and they carried the ball close to their goal, but Essendon relieved and shot the ball back towards their goal, where they had two shots and missed. In a second or two ‘Jumbo’ again collared the centre of attraction when he marked and passed to Feehan, who punted it on to ‘Gobbo’¹ who kicked the second goal for Essendon.
The play which succeeded this was fast and furious, and caused great excitement among spectators. K.Burns (Tasmania) had a shot for goal, but hit the post. The Tasmanians played well but they were finding the Essendon backs hard to penetrate.
McShane made a splendid run down the centre of the ground and with a brilliant kick secured another goal for Essendon.
(For Tasmania) A.Stuart made some brilliant runs and Kirby worked like a bullock. Shortly afterwards ‘Gobbo’, from a mark, secured Essendon’s fourth goal. At half time the score stood at Essendon 4.13 to Tasmania 1.3.
After the break the Tasmanians worked well with all the skill and judgement they could, but they found the Victorians tough nuts to break through and score the much needed goals. Briggs, Kirby, A.Stuart and McLeod had several shots, but only behinds resulted. Feehan scored a mark and notched another goal for Essendon. Not long afterwards the same player scored their sixth goal. From this point on the match took little change and when time was called the score stood at Essendon 6.27 defeated Tasmania 1.8.
Best players for Tasmania were Goddard, Bagley, Cundy, A.Stuart, McLeod, Douglas and Cheverton (2).
Messrs. W.Ray (Tasmania) and Heath (Essendon) acted as central umpires², with F.Lovett (Tasmania) and P.Lyins (Essendon) as goal umpires.
Postscript
The standard of Tasmanian football gradually improved as the 1880s went on. When Essendon next toured the island in 1886, it played two matches against the TFA, drawing the first, and getting soundly beaten in the second. Later that same season, a TFA combination inflicted a sizeable defeat on Melbourne, a result for which the VFA side only partially atoned by managing a narrow victory in the return encounter. By the late 1890s, however, the halcyon days were well and truly over, as a combination of economic privation and the escalating exodus of the island’s top players to the mainland had a savagely inimical effect on playing standards.
Essendon, by contrast, was to enjoy arguably its greatest ever era during the 1890s, winning four consecutive VFA premierships between 1891 and 1894, and raising standards of play to previously unimagined heights. Players like Albert Thurgood, Charles ‘Tracker’ Forbes, August Kearney, Jim Anderson, George Stuckey, Harry Wright, and Tasmanians Colin Campbell, Edward Officer and George Vautin arguably had few peers in the game during their careers, and were largely responsible for establishing the ‘Same Old’ tradition that remains one of the most distinctive and enduring in Australian sport.
The idea of picking a single team to represent the colony of Tasmania as a whole did not take hold as it might have done. Indeed, because of the almost incessant bickering between the northern and southern Associations it was to be five years before a genuinely representative Tasmanian side was again chosen. In 1887, a team comprising seventeen southerners and eight northerners toured Victoria, winning 3 and drawing 1 of its 6 matches, and performing overall with considerable credit. Sadly, from a Victorian perspective all the tour really did was alert club recruiting officers to the existence of a vast pool of comparatively untapped playing talent residing temptingly within reach just across the Bass Strait. Once the recruiting officers had begun responding to this temptation, Tasmania’s days of being able to compete on more or less equal terms with the Victorians were numbered. The emergence of the VFL in 1897 only served to hasten the process of attrition, and by the 1920s the standard of play in Tasmania was scarcely higher than that in the football backwaters of Sydney and Brisbane.
Footnotes
Michael Maplestone in Flying Higher, his history of the Essendon Football Club, professes perplexity over the identity of both ‘Jumbo’ and ‘Gobbo’. I am unable at present to shed any light on the identity of the latter player, but ‘Jumbo’ presumably refers to ‘Jumbo’ Carter, who was a prominent and well known Essendon footballer at this time
It is unclear whether these umpires operated in tandem, or took charge for half a game each.
Comments
Barkly St End 26 June 2012
Interesting to note that even in the 1880s, the North/South divide in Tasmanian footy was already evident, and it continues to hinder footy on the Apple Isle to the present day.
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