Australian Football

Match Report

The football premiership. Final match witnessed by 32,700 people. A disappointing game. Fitzroy wins.

With the advantage of a beautiful day for what proved to be the last game of the season there was a great rush to the Melbourne Cricket-ground to see Fitzroy and Carlton play—the charge of a shilling for admission not having the slightest effect apparently upon the attendance, which, with the members of the two clubs counted in, reached 32,700, and the money taken at the gates was said to be about £1,050. As showing the sporting spirit of Geelong, they had the fullest special train of the season for a game in which their own club was not engaged.

It is always the case that in these final games the play is disappointing, and Saturday was no exception. The strain of the occasion is too much for the players, who are over-anxious, and in the effort to do too much make many mistakes. One met of course a great many people firm in the conviction that Carlton would be permitted to win, so that there should be another game and another gate. Those who follow suburban racing and cycling are so accustomed to being swindled that they cannot conceive such a possibility as a straight game when the other sort of match means the chance of eight clubs dividing another £500 between them. One can only hope that "sportsmen" of this type, on the strength of their dishonest connections, backed Carlton to win on Saturday.

First quarter

Both clubs had their strongest teams, and for some time after the ball was bounced there was a continual roar sufficient of itself to make the players lose their heads. In the opening dashes Flynn, of Carlton, was prominent, and twice the old Geelong player, whose face, like that of other men in the game, was white with excitement, stopped a rush on the Carlton goal. It came to the Carlton end again, and the Fitzroy captain, Brosnan, with his neat, clean style, and a long left-foot kick, passed on to the light-weight Kneen, but a free kick to Carlton stopped this advance. Barker, their persevering ruck man had a chance, but a crooked kick got only first behind for Fitzroy.

They were exceptionally active—it was all Fitzroy, and in these early stages then success was prophesied, though later on people changed their minds for a little while. J. Sharpe was especially prominent then. First he battled grandly against three Carlton men, then, with a fine mark, turned a dangerous attack. It raced to the other end, where Milne had a shot on the angle, which Walker marked right in front, and then scored first goal for Fitzroy. The play at that stage, if not absolutely rough, was certainly vigorous.

As soon as the ball was bounced Carlton surged along with it, their ruck men working like demons, and Topping from a free kick missed a chance. Grace had it next front a good mark, and though it seemed possible for him to score the goal, he tried to play out to one of his friends on the wing, and lost it. Topping, of Carlton, was deservedly hooted for a foul charge, which for a time knocked Johnson, of Fitzroy, out. One could see by the grim faces and threatening forefingers of some of the sturdy Fitzroy backs that Topping was being warned as to what would happen, and for a long time he was more watchful than useful.

McDonough got second goal for Fitzroy immediately afterwards, and from the cleverness of McSpeerin and Milne—who, in spite of his stripling look, was playing fine football—Brosnan after a beautiful mark scored their third goal. Just at the finish of the quarter Grace got a try for Carlton, and scored their first goal, but Fitzroy had 19 points to eight at the end of the quarter, and at that stage of the game one would not have given Carlton a chance.

Second quarter

The second quarter was the beginning of a Carlton revival, which went on till the last change of ends, and for that hour it looked as if Carlton's determination was steadily wearing down Fitzroy dash. The Blues were pressing the assault so hard that the watchful Brosnan at once weakened his forward lines by sending Milne into the ruck as an extra man. On the Carlton side there was some smart football in turn from Kennedy, Prescott, Elliott, Boyle and Grace, so that both Sharpe and Fontaine were kept hard at it in front of their goal. The assault was so determined that it could only have one result, and it ended in Prescott getting second goal for Carlton. For a moment, through the efforts chiefly of Brosnan, the ball hovered on the Fitzroy goal front, but Rowland and Leeds were equal to the occasion.

The play was very even then, but never really skillful. Bruce, of Carlton, was conspicuous in some fine dashes from the centre line forward, and he got Carlton's third goal. Thence on to half-time it was hard, even play with no advantage to either side, Elliott and Marchbank doing good work for Carlton, and Milne, Walker, and Naismith for Fitzroy.

At half-time there was only a point between them, and this one in Carlton's favour. One got the impression though that it had cost Carlton a great effort to equalise the points—that the balance of exertion was with them, and the balance of skill with Fitzroy.

Third quarter

In the third quarter the game was Carlton's, the score Fitzroy's. The impression was that if Carlton could hold their own up to half-time they would win, for in many a match this season Fitzroy has been just bagging points in the first half and fighting in the second to hold their lead. It was a fine effort by Carlton, carried right through the quarter, and marked by rather more vigour than judgment, especially when they played for a shooting position in front of goal.

Elliott worked grandly in the ruck, doing as much as any two others on the side. Snell was quick and clever, and Grace marked beautifully, generally letting his opponents get in front of him, then coming with a soar over their heads, but he always got it in a bad position. Johnson was the man on the Fitzroy side who generally prevented Carlton getting it in a good position. The ball was so constantly at the Fitzroy end that the field edged up with it, all organisation was destroyed, the players made just a jumbled crowd, where ruckmen could not be distinguished from placemen.

There was a period when, if one had drawn a line from goal to goal and another across the centre, he would have found 33 players jostling, smashing, bumping in one quarter of the ground and only three men outside it. Carlton crept on point by point— always single points, and never a goal. One could see that unless they were in the perfection of physical fitness this tremendous effort with so little to show for it must tell upon them. It was the irony of fate when, towards the close of the quarter the spasmodic rushes by Fitzroy each finished with a goal, Kneen getting the first and Trotter the second. Only twice had they been within scoring distance, yet all that was possible in points they scored, while unlucky Carlton, romping over the maroons, demoralising them, attacking in turn from left and right and centre, could gain only a few miserable points. It was cruelly hard luck.

As the fifth goal was scored for Fitzroy, Sam McMichael, the East Melbourne batsman, and an old Fitzroy footballer, said emphatically, "That settles it. Fitzroy were beaten in that quarter; they were confused, and lost all their method. But those two goals will give them fresh heart. You will see Fitzroy at their best in this quarter." And it exactly described the finish. No doubt the great effort made by Carlton in the third quarter exhausted them, as the failure to get goals dispirited them.

Fourth quarter

There were only eight points in Fitzroy's favour when they started the fourth quarter, but in a few minutes it was evident that they might just as well have been 80, for Carlton never had a chance of winning. Trotter, who had been showing spasmodic form in a place, went out roving, and, rising to the occasion, delighted the great crowd with the dash and accuracy of his play. Walker, in their ruck, was doing the work that Elliot did in the third quarter for Carlton. Barker, too, was particularly prominent in the ruck, and McSpeerin, playing with cool precision.

As soon as the Fitzroy men saw Trotter fairly going, they all played to him. He got the sixth and eighth goals, Sheehan the seventh, and Kneen the ninth. Carlton's defeat became a rout. It was all over. Just at the finish, and mainly through the exertions of Elliott, who never tired and never despaired, Topping and Snell scored goals for them, the last being kicked after the final bell had gone.

Summary

The best team on the day and on the season won the premiership; but, as I have already said, the game was far from being a good one, and the general indications were that no love was lost on either side. The point in which Fitzroy unquestionably surpassed Carlton was in playing for position in front of goal and in goal-kicking. Their forwards, taken man for man, were a long way in advance of those on the losing side. In ruck play pure and simple Carlton were best.

Best players

The men who did most to put Fitzroy in their enviable position were on their back lines; Johnson, J. Sharpe, and Naismith. They had no weaklings in their defence, but these three stood out most strongly. In the centre it seemed to me that they quite failed to hold their own with Carlton, for I would put Bruce, Kennedy, and Boyle ahead of any of the three Fitzroy men who opposed them, though Bartlett made a few good dashes. Kennedy, of Carlton, was about the best man on the centre line.

In the ruck there was some determined work, but no man on either side approached Elliott, of Carlton. If one man's exertions could have won the match, Carlton would have been getting ready for another game next Saturday. Walker and Milne, of Fitzroy, were very nearly as good as him. Snell roved cleverly and well for Carlton. McSpeerin, like Flynn, was good in patches, and of Trotter's work in the last stages I have already spoken.

Amongst the regular forwards of Fitzroy, Brosnan, Kneen, and McDonough were first rate, and Sheehan would have been, but once when he charged Leeds most unfairly on the boundary-line I heard the umpire say, "That's the second time, lad." When a player does a mean thing more than once, you naturally attribute it not to impulse but to deliberate intention.

Of the Carlton men whom I have not already mentioned, Roland, Trim, and Payne, in that order of merit, were the best of the backs. They kept Grace chiefly forward, and he took some fine marks, but was out of luck in his kicking at a time when Carlton sadly needed a little luck. Marchbank improved a bit on his average form.

The fact that there was little or no howling at the umpire shows that Crapp handled the game with sound judgment.