The 1891 VFA season in review
Although it has been said year after year that football had reached the limit of its popularity, the game still holds the attention of a vast number of pleasure-loving people in Melbourne, and of the 1891, as of past seasons, it can be said that we have had none more active or interesting. And it is safe to prophesy for the future that though a couple of teams may be damaged in some measure by the more stringent legislation as to the transfer of players from one club to another, the action of the Association in this respect will benefit the game, and certainly induce the public to look upon it none the less favourably.
The notable incidents of the season have been the success of the Essendon club in gaining the premiership for the first time; and the marked falling off in the performances of the South Melbourne team, who had only once before since the year 1879 failed to hold a place amongst the first three.
The first defeat for the season was sustained under extraordinary circumstances, in a match which should never have been played, and it led to internal troubles which in the end did what outside opposition rarely succeeded in doing, viz., depriving the team of the high place it has so long held in Victorian football. When the team began to go to pieces a great many silly charges of one kind or another were made against them. This is to be expected so long as silly people attend football in common with other sports and draw extraordinary conclusions from very plain facts. That the South Melbourne club should have lost many matches late in the latter part of the season was hardly surprising, as it had lost quite half the twenty with which it commenced the campaign. The method in which the team was got together was calculated sooner or later to create dissension, and as a consequence South Melbourne suffers largely from its own misdeeds.
The success of the Essendon players is altogether a more pleasant theme. They had so often got almost within reach of the coveted prize that few begrudged them the satisfaction of being finally able to grasp it. They brought a fine team together at the beginning of the season, such players as Webb, Campbell, Crebbin, R. Dick, Watson, and Christian more than filling up the blanks, and the team had much better luck than last year in so far that they suffered less from accidents.
It is somewhat strange that the first two clubs on the list, Essendon and Carlton, are both looked upon as wanting in one of the essentials of a perfect twenty, viz., the possession of a goal-kicker. Comparing the goals and behinds got by each of these clubs with the performances of Fitzroy in the same direction, it will be seen that the proportion of goals to behinds is far better in the case of Fitzroy. This is without doubt attributable to the fact that Fitzroy has a champion goal-kicker, but the result may be looked at in two ways. One is that Fitzroy was able to get ahead of Geelong and South Melbourne purely by superiority in goal-kicking, while being otherwise weaker than both these clubs; the other is that the Fitzroy forwards in trying to play to Grace lost many chances of shooting for goal which might at least have scored behinds.
The significant fact is that Essendon, not having a goal-sneak, was able to get more goals than the club which possessed the best goal-kicker of the season. The moral, perhaps, is that, although it is best to play to the goal-sneak when it can be done with a fair degree of safety, it is better for a player to try for goal than to play to someone else possibly in a worse position.
Between the first two teams on the list there has been little to choose this season, for what Essendon gains in a comparison as regards forward play, Carlton regains from the centre line back to goal, where the Carlton players were unquestionably stronger than any other twenty. This was the impression gained from watching their play, and it is continued in a reference to the scores, from which it will be seen that, although playing one match more than Essendon, the Carlton team had 11 goals less kicked against them.
Even though Fitzroy may have suffered in playing to one man, it must be confessed that the ingenuity and persistency with which the players did so was to a spectator, one of the attractions of their play, scarcely less striking a feature, perhaps, than the work of those three wonderful little ruck players, Cleary, Melling and Fribbs. With a limit fixed to height, the Fitzroy club would have been supreme in the ruck, but in football a good big man is always better than a good little one, and this was very forcibly shown in the return match between Fitzroy and Essendon, when the trio, good as they are, could do little against such comparative giants as Forbes and Webb.
Reference has already been made to the conspicuous failure of the South Melbourne team, a failure the more marked when it is remembered that, although Carlton was somewhat unluckily beaten in the first match of the season, the South Melbourne team commenced in such form that many people believed that it would not lose a match. It is pretty generally thought that Geelong may claim to be the "in and out" team of the year, but this is not so. They were a bit fortunate in beating Essendon and Carlton in one of the two matches with each, but they were really inferior to all those above them, and hold a place strictly in accordance with their merits.
It is highly probable that Melbourne, had not the team been broken up so much by illness and injury towards the finish, would have headed Geelong on their merits and South Melbourne also by reason of its internal troubles; but Melbourne, while showing itself without doubt a wonderfully improved team, had very bad luck. Like Fitzroy, the Melbourne rejoiced also in a phenomenal goal kicker, Smith and Grace being alike in one respect, viz., that neither was much good for long shots.
St. Kilda, although making a promising start, was unable to follow it up, and played a more erratic game than any other team in the field. North Melbourne afforded some of the season's surprises, for though undoubtedly weak, the team was able, rather by good luck than good play, to beat South Melbourne and draw with Carlton. Almost equally fortunate draws against St. Kilda and Melbourne helped to ease the natural anxiety of its members lest the club should fall even further down.
Between Williamstown, Footscray, Port Melbourne, and Richmond there was an exciting struggle as to which should not be last, and Richmond lost it.
Individual play is a subject upon which opinions differ very much, but, taking all points into consideration, no other player approaches Burns, who is as nearly as possible the ideal footballer. The first half-dozen probably stand in the following order:
P. Burns, South Melbourne
C. Forbes, Essendon
G. Currie, Carlton
L. J. Webb, Essendon
J. McShane, Geelong
T. Banks, Fitzroy
Amongst the second twenties, North Melbourne beat Essendon for first place, and a very interesting series of junior matches leaves the Marylebone Club premiers. So many clubs had entered for this competition that the executive were obliged to divide them into three sections, and having reached a certain stage to allow the two highest in each section to play off on even terms. The method is not quite satisfactory, as the Napier Imperial, which would, according to the V.F.A. method of scoring, have won the premiership, takes only fourth place.
Footnotes
Title: CLOSE OF THE FOOTBALL SEASON. RECORDS OF CLUBS. Author: Argus Staff Writer Publisher: The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria, 1848 - 1956) Date: Monday, 28 September, 1891, p.10 (Article) Web: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/8625627
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