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1870 Victorian football season

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1870 Victorian football premiership season
PremiersMelbourne
Challenge CupAlbert-park (disputed)
← 1869
1871 →

The 1870 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1870. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan football clubs in Melbourne in the colony of Victoria. The premier club was Melbourne.

Historical status

By convention, the 1870 season has often been considered to be the first season of senior football competition in Victoria's history; or, at least, the first for which a premiership can be formally allocated. The reasons for this are somewhat arbitrary, since the competing clubs, the structure of football organisation and the standard and style of play in 1870 were not materially different from 1869. However, the view of 1870 as being the inaugural premiership has existed since the late 19th century, when The Argus newspaper annually published a table of historical premiers and place-getters dating back to 1870 and no earlier; in the article which adjoined the publication of that table in 1889, the reporter commented that the haphazard nature of scheduling, the frequency of cancelled matches, and the lesser standard of play made it difficult to assign a premier team to seasons during the 1860s.[1] As late as 1915, the VFL's Football Record also showed the same list of premiers, dating back to 1870 and no earlier.[2]

A recommendation was put forward to the AFL Commission in 2014 to formally backdate the history of Victorian senior football to 1870, which would elevate the status of the unaffiliated period from 1870–1876 and the Victorian Football Association from 1877–1896 to be equivalent to that of the Victorian Football League from 1897–1986. If this is accepted (a decision on which is expected in 2015), it will be a formal endorsement that 1870 is the inaugural season of senior Victorian football.[2]

1870 season

Five clubs participated in senior football during the 1870 season: Albert-park, Carlton, Hobson's Bay Railway, Melbourne and South Yarra.

During the 1870 season, the senior clubs competed in specific matches for the Challenge Cup; and, separately, a premier team was selected based on all matches during the season, including Challenge Cup matches.

Challenge Cup

In 1870, the South Yarra Football Club purchased and put up a new trophy, known as the Challenge Cup (or sometimes as the South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup, to differentiate it from other challenge cups donated by different organisations), for competition. South Yarra was the permanent holder of the previous Challenge Cup, and decided it would be appropriate to provide a new trophy for competition. The rules relating to the new Challenge Cup were as follows:[3]

  • South Yarra would be the initial holder of the cup
  • Any match between the holder of the cup and another senior team would be played for the cup
  • In a cup match, the winner of the match would take possession of the cup; and the incumbent would retain the cup in the event of a draw
  • A club would become the permanent holder of the cup if it won the cup four times in a row without a loss (but with no limit on the number of drawn games during that streak); until that time, the cup would remain a perpetual award.

Other rules relating to Challenge Cup games were that central umpires were required and that no player was allowed to play for more than one club in Challenge Cup games during the year.

Albert-park took possession of the Cup in the first game against South Yarra, and never relinquished it. However, the fate of the Cup became controversial when Hobson's Bay Railway forfeited its 11 June match against Albert-park due to lack of players; Railway declined to play when only fourteen of its selected twenty turned up on the day of the game,[4] and Albert-park took to the field and scored two goals against no opposition as a walk-over formality.[5] Albert-park claimed the walk-over as its second Cup victory, and consequently claimed permanent possession of the Cup with its fourth win of the year on 20 August; South Yarra, as cup donors, and several other clubs argued that the walk-over should not have counted as a victory, and that another win was needed to claim permanent ownership of the Cup.[6] Albert-park argued that enough procedural requirements, such as the appointment of umpires and the pre-game coin toss, had been carried out for the game to be considered official[7] – Railway denied that these procedures had been carried out[4] – and Albert-park argued that it was entitled to claim victory because Railway had declined the options of playing short or fielding other club officials or members who were present. Albert-park's position in claiming victory on a technicality was considered to be against the spirit of competition. There was no specific rule regarding walk-overs written into the rules which could be used to resolve the dispute.[6]

Ultimately, the dispute was unresolved. There was no central body which could make a binding ruling on whether or not the walk-over counted as a victory, and neither side conceded its opponent's point. Albert-park played only one further game for the season, a draw against Melbourne, but it refused to put the Cup up for contest in the match. Albert-park ultimately gave the Cup back to South Yarra at the end of the year, but maintained its position that it had won the Cup outright and was donating it in its capacity as the Cup's owner.[8] South Yarra maintained its position that Albert-park had not won the Cup, and had forfeited its position as incumbent holder.[9]

The following table lists the final results of all Challenge Cup games.

1870 Challenge Cup games
Saturday, 28 May South Yarra 1 def. by Albert-park 3 St Kilda Cricket Ground [10]
Saturday, 4 June Albert-park 0Note drew with Melbourne 0 Emerald Hill Cricket Ground (crowd: 1,500) [11]
Saturday, 11 June (walk-over, disputed) Albert-park def. Hobson's Bay Railway Emerald Hill Cricket Ground [5]
Saturday, 18 June Carlton 0 drew with Albert-park 0 Royal Park [12]
Saturday, 9 July Albert-park 2 def. South Yarra 1 Emerald Hill Cricket Ground (crowd: 450) [13]
Saturday, 16 July Melbourne 0 drew with Albert-park 0 Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 2,500) [14]
Saturday, 23 July Albert-park 0 drew with Carlton 0 Emerald Hill Cricket Ground (crowd: 3,000) [15]
Saturday, 6 August (cancelled due to rain) Hobson's Bay Railway v Albert-park Lonsdale Cricket Ground[16] [6]
Saturday, 13 August Albert-park 1 drew with Carlton 1 Emerald Hill Cricket Ground [17]
Saturday, 20 August South Yarra 0 def. by Albert-park 2 Melbourne Cricket Ground (crowd: 2,500) [18]

Premiership

Although it had won the Challenge Cup and was undefeated during the season, Albert-park was not recognised as the premier team of the 1870 season: instead, Melbourne, which was also undefeated, was named as the premier. Melbourne had recorded more wins than Albert-park during the year; and, while all of Albert-park's on-field wins had come against the weak South Yarra club, Melbourne had won games against Carlton, which gave it a better claim to the premier position. It is noteworthy that Albert-park's claim to the Challenge Cup was helped in large part by the fact that it was the first team to play against South Yarra during the year; had South Yarra played its first game against Melbourne, Melbourne would have been in a strong position to win the Challenge Cup as well as the premiership.

The following table shows the five clubs' senior results during the year. This includes all matches played amongst the five Challenge Cup teams, plus matches Melbourne played against the Police and against the 18th Royal Irish Regiment. Albert-park's disputed walk-over victory against Railway is not included in the table.

1870 Senior Clubs' Results
No. TEAM P W L D
1 Melbourne (P) 11 7 0 4
2 Albert-park 8 3 0 5
3 Carlton 8 1 2 5
South Yarra 4 0 4 0
Hobson's Bay Railway 3 0 3 0
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, (P) = Premiers Source:[19]

Notable events

  • ^ In its Challenge Cup game against Melbourne on 4 June, Albert-park scored a goal in the first half, but it was disallowed after it was discovered that Albert-park had two too many men on the field. The game ended in a 0–0 draw.[11]
  • The practice of stopping play at half-time and changing ends was first introduced in the game between Melbourne and Carlton on 11 June; prior to this, teams had changed ends after each goal was scored.[5]

References

  1. ^ "The Football Premiership". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 23 September 1889. p. 5.
  2. ^ a b Caroline Wilson (20 June 2014). "History of the AFL could be turned on its head". http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/history-of-the-afl-could-be-turned-on-its-head-20140620-zsglu.html. Melbourne, VIC. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |newspaper= (help)
  3. ^ "The South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup". The Australasian. Vol. VIII, no. 216. Melbourne, VIC. 21 May 1870. p. 652.
  4. ^ a b J. Hacker (honorary secretary of the Hobson's Bay Railway Football Club) (10 September 1870). "The "walk-over" and the Challenge Cup". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 232. Melbourne, VIC. p. 332.
  5. ^ a b c Fair Play (18 June 1870). "Football". The Australasian. Vol. VIII, no. 220. Melbourne, VIC. p. 779.
  6. ^ a b c Fair Play (13 August 1870). "Football chatter". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 228. Melbourne, VIC. p. 204.
  7. ^ C. Crooke (treasurer of Albert-park Football Club) (3 September 1870). "Albert-park v. Railway". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 231. Melbourne, VIC. p. 300.
  8. ^ Fair Play (15 October 1870). "Football – retrospect of the season". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 237. Melbourne, VIC. p. 492.
  9. ^ "The Challenge Cup". The Australasian. Vol. X, no. 270. Melbourne, VIC. 3 June 1871. p. 684.
  10. ^ Fair Play (4 June 1870). "Football". The Australasian. Vol. VIII, no. 218. Melbourne, VIC. p. 716.
  11. ^ a b Fair Play (11 June 1870). "Football". The Australasian. Vol. VIII, no. 219. Melbourne, VIC. p. 748.
  12. ^ Fair Play (25 June 1870). "Football". The Australasian. Vol. VIII, no. 221. Melbourne, VIC. p. 812.
  13. ^ "Football". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 224. Melbourne, VIC. 16 July 1870. p. 43.
  14. ^ "Football". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 225. Melbourne, VIC. 23 July 1870. p. 108.
  15. ^ Fair Play (30 July 1870). "Football". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 226. Melbourne, VIC. p. 140.
  16. ^ "Football". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 227. Melbourne, VIC. 6 August 1870. p. 173.
  17. ^ Fair Play (20 August 1870). "Football chatter". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 226. Melbourne, VIC. p. 236.
  18. ^ Fair Play (27 August 1870). "Football chatter". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 230. Melbourne, VIC. p. 267.
  19. ^ Fair Play (23 October 1870). "Football – retrospect of the season". The Australasian. Vol. IX, no. 238. Melbourne, VIC. p. 524.
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