The 1887 VFA season in review
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If there has been a worse winter for football than that just closed, it is not within the memory of any of the players of 1887. The constant recurrence of wet Saturdays interfered very seriously with the popular enjoyment of the game, for, although a winter pastime, football, quite as much as cricket, requires fair weather to be seen at its best.
Amongst the many thousands who have witnessed one or more of the matches played during the last few months there was, no doubt, a certain percentage who saw the Australian game of football for the first time, and to those, just as they happened to be in a mood for appreciation or adverse criticism, the play may have caused disappointment or satisfaction, but very rarely enjoyment. Yet interest in football has not abated, and there have been a greater number of "big matches" than ever. It would be interesting—possibly alarming—to ascertain how many people have suffered in health through sitting out the matches of those miserable afternoons. Football has with some considerable exaggeration been termed the "doctors' game" and the term has rarely been more appropriate than during the past season, but it is the spectator, not the player, who has suffered. The disappointment over those miserable Saturdays—gloom overhead, damp underfoot—has been keen indeed.
At the outset it may be said that the alterations in rules with which the Football Association determined to start the present season have all helped to improve the game, and none more so than the strict enforcement of the law inflicting a penalty for one player pushing another from behind. Before this regulation came into force there was no more severe test of a player's spirit than to see whether he flinched in going straight for the ball with the knowledge that an opponent was close behind him, and would certainly send him rolling as soon as he had stooped to lay hands on the ball. It was something of a disadvantage under such circumstances for a footballer to be a trifle fleeter than his opponent.
That the association had a number of disputes to determine during the season was in no degree attributable to any fault of the revised rules. The disputes were of a technical nature, such, for example, as whether a particular contest did or did not come under the definition of being an associated match. Further, it is an agreeable feature in the season's contentious that complaints of rough play were unusually rare, although umpires had specific instructions to bring any exception case of this kind under the notice of the association. The fact of the matter is that the patrons of football take the regulation of this particular matter into their own hands or rather mouths, and things soon become excessively unpleasant for any footballer who offends repeatedly against the canons of fair play.
The honours of premiership have so long been a monopoly with the Geelong and South Melbourne clubs that a break in the succession was much needed and it recalls old times to find Carlton in that enviable position. And they have earned the position honestly enough, for, while it may be admitted that they should not have beaten South Melbourne in the return match, they certainly should have won both engagement with Geelong. Had the results of both matches been in accordance with the merit of the play Carlton would still have been at the head of affairs, with the difference that the question would have been sooner settled, since their final engagement with Fitzroy could in no way have affected the result.
A defeat on Saturday last would have only meant two losses for the club as against three each for Geelong and South Melbourne. In no other matches were the Carlton team seen to such fine effect as against Geelong on the Melbourne Cricket- ground. Determining to force the game from the kick-off they found that the Geelong players, who usually stand alone in that capacity, were fairly paralysed. But for this match and that of Saturday last which were played on the two good days of the season, it might have been supposed that the Carlton were a wet weather team, and owed their good fortune to an exceptional winter.
As a test of gameness, nothing could be more conclusive than the match with Hotham on that club’s ground, where the Carlton, starting the second half with five goals to the bad, yet won the match in the most brilliant style, playing, perhaps, the best up-hill game that has been seen tor years.
After such a season the finances of the club must remain in a particularly healthy condition, for the Carlton have played a series of great matches, and for at least half the season have been followed here and there by such crowds as only prospective premiers can attract. Under the circumstances, they must greatly regret that they were not permitted to spend some of it in establishing, conjointly with the Carlton Cricket Club, a new ground. It is not desirable that a club should lose touch of its local surroundings and the Carlton players certainly run this risk in coming down year after year to play their more important matches on the Melbourne Cricket ground. There was thought to be the less objection to the proposals of the Carlton clubs since they were prepared to give up in exchange for the new site an almost equal area of land, more valuable and more centrally situated but from its shape not suitable for football matches.
The premiers for the year have a wonderfully even team, their forward players especially being the best the club has managed to turn out for many a season past. The players who have, perhaps, done most to place Carlton in front are Strickland, Baker, Leydin, Bloomfield, Moloney, Cook, Whelan, Berry, Jones and McKechnie.
Out of the 14 clubs commencing the season but five made any pretence of a struggle for the premiership viz., Carlton, Geelong, South Melbourne, Fitzroy, and Port Melbourne. The chances of Geelong were much affected by the loss of one of their finest players in the middle of the season, and some slight disorganisation which seemed to follow. They went to Ballarat with a very much weakened team, an experiment which events of the season have shown that no club can afford to make, and were beaten in a match which the club desired should not be included in the score for the premiership, but the association decided against them. But for this they might fairly have challenged Carlton to play a final match for the premiership, for the fact of their having one more drawn game than their opponents with three additional matches played could not in strict fairness have settled the question against them and in favour of Carlton. There would probably have been sufficient controversy, however, to ensure some new system of scoring being adopted for the following season.
Under the present method it is something of a drawback that in the case of the clubs playing, say, 20 matches each, the team winning 19 and losing one would be defeated by the team winning 12 and drawing 8. The last team might certainly claim to be unbeaten, but it would be none the less a fact that they had been unable to win eight matches as against one which their rivals could not win. Such a state of affairs, which is always possible though hardly probable, would cause endless discussion.
South Melbourne, with four defeats, have fallen further back than was expected in the earlier part of the season. In the first matches their forwards more than once saved the club by their admirable goal kicking, but they seem to have broken down at critical times, and the return matches against Carlton and Fitzroy were both lost for want of average accuracy or luck in kicking at goal.
Although Fitzroy is ahead of Port Melbourne according to the present practice of allotting places, there can be no doubt that the performances of the latter club are the more meritorious. They have two additional victories as a set-off to an extra defeat, and a comparison with Fitzroy in the matter of goals lost and won gives them a distinct advantage, for, like Carlton, they wanted only a single goal to complete the century
The Richmond club are improving slowly, which is perhaps better than to go up like a rocket and come down like a stick. The University team have also been a trifle more fortunate than in former years. During their first two seasons they won but one match against a senior team, and this winter they have four victories. It would probably be a mistake to conclude from this that they are over likely to stand high in the ranks. The very fact that the team is composed of students, who have a more serious purpose in life than to talk and think and dream of football only, forbids it. They play the game in the true spirit of sport, making such preparation only as is healthful and commendable but that is not sufficient to give them the barest chance of gaining the game level as those whose every faculty is absorbed in football.
The Footscray players have not a sufficiently wide area to recruit from, and must recognise by this time that their experiment is a failure. When the Essendon club, after being second on the list for two successive seasons, dropped down so suddenly last year, the decline was thought to be only a temporary one, but this year their performances have been even worse, and they seem to have closed these season in a state of disorganisation.
Hotham commenced well on Queen a Birthday, when they drew with Geelong after one of the most exciting matches of the season, but latterly they have fallen far behind their record of last season. Under the more pretentions title of North Melbourne—discarded some years ago—they may have better luck next winter.
Some of the second-rate clubs may, if they so desire, find matter for meditation in the appended tables. Another season has, for example, failed to shake the theory that no suburb can maintain two senior football teams with the hope of either gaining anything like distinction in the field. Outside their own particular following, there will be few to sympathise with St. Kilda, Prahran, Williamstown, and South Williamstown in that they were unable to get a place nearer the head of the table. The fact that all four should continue a separate existence is the more to be deprecated, because in each case amalgamation offers exceptional opportunities for founding a really first-class team.
It is said that both the St. Kilda district and at Williamstown the two clubs are not absolutely averse to joining forces, and the chief difficulties are those of names and grounds. On the question of name there should be little difficulty as far as the Williamstown clubs, at any rate, are concerned, but in the other case, St. Kilda and Prahran have about equal claims, though it is noticeable that some members of the Prahran City Council wish to change the name of the municipality. Each of these clubs declares itself content if it can defeat the other. It is very desirable that a club should be identified by name with some particular locality, but an indefinite title will sometimes serve a very definite purpose.
The Prahran club are clearly without a habitation, for they played last season in the Warehousemen's Cricket ground, and this winter in the ground of the Wesley College, neither of which is generally regarded as forming part of the city of Prahran. As far as the convenience of their players is concerned, the St. Kilda Cricket ground would seem to be equally suitable. A really good club in the St. Kilda district may naturally expect to obtain the services of the best players in the public schools within their boundaries, and the success of the Geelong team is proof of the value of such a recruiting ground.
Failing action from any other source, the association might very appropriately close its executive functions for this season by the appointment of a committee to confer with representatives of the four clubs named with a view to amalgamation before the next football season. Should the association, however, deem such a duty to be outside its scope, then the matter might be settled by a little quiet arbitration, as so many and more complicated questions have been.
For individual excellence, Dick Houston of Hotham, Peter Burns of South Melbourne, Jack Worrall of Fiztroy, Bill Strickland of Carlton, and Dave Hickinbotham of Geelong, share between them the chief honours of the season.
Footnotes
Title: The football season
Author: Observer
Publisher: The Argus (Melbourne, Vic: 1848 - 1957)
Date: Monday, 26 September 1887, p.6 (Article)
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