Football’s Forgotten Years

Archie Mac | 9:11am BST 08 October 2023

Published: 2022
Pages: 192
Author: Carter, Colin
Publisher: Slattery Books
Rating: 3.5 stars

I should mention straight off the bat (the one and only cricket reference) that this is Australian Rules Football and not ‘Soccer’ or Rugby League, or Rugby Union, or Gridiron. The subject is about a proposal to right the wrongs and include a number of forgotten seasons in football’s history.

Most football fans know that the VFL (Victorian Football League) competition began in 1897 when eight clubs broke away from the then VFA (Victorian Football Association). To modern supporters, anything that happened before 1897 is not part of our current competitions’ history. All Flags won before this date by the original eight clubs do not count in the official tally of premierships, nor do the games played or goals kicked, count in player’s statistics.

Author, Colin Carter asserts that the VFL history should date back to 1870. He notes that from this year there was unanimous agreement as to which club had won the premiership. This was no easy feat, for example Melbourne played 11 matches without defeat (4 draws) and the second placed Albert-Park, was also undefeated in their eight matches (5 draws). To modern eyes there do not appear to be enough teams – the 1870 season for example only had five teams and one of those – Hobson’s Bay Railway lost the only three games they played.

Carter makes the point that future generations may not think the current *AFL (Australian Football League), system is fair, with the 18 clubs not playing each other twice. A clear advantage if you play the bottom teams twice as compared to playing the top sides on multiple occasions. Still, all contemporary supporters will agree with the team crowned as the premier, despite the clear anomaly in the draw.

Carter’s research indicates that the VFL up to the 1920s, considered 1870 as the first year of the competition, before suddenly removing those years and only acknowledging games from 1897 onwards. Unfortunately, the VFA also chose to ignore those years. Carter and other historians believe the VFL chose to ignore those early seasons due to their ongoing feud with the VFA. The VFA had not folded as expected in 1897 when they lost eight out of 13 clubs to the newly formed VFL. In fact, by the 1920s the VFA had recovered sufficiently to attract large crowds to their matches.  Their playing strength may be gauged by the ability of the winner of the VFA to defeat the winner of the VFL in an end of season charity match in 1924.

After reading this book, you would envisage that every fan would agree that the AFL should accept the seasons from 1870 to 1896 as part of our competitions’ history. Carter’s suggestion that the seasons should be broken up into three distinct time periods has merit. The three categories would be:

• Foundation Era (1870 – 1896)
• VFL Era (1897 – 1986)
• National Era (1987 – 2022).

Another point raised by the author is the paucity of effort being made by the AFL to research and preserve the history of both the VFA and the VFL. Almost all of the research into the early years of Aussie Rules Football has been carried out by fans of the game.

Football’s Forgotten Years – is for all fans of the AFL game as well as those who enjoy their sports history.

*the VFL changed its name to the AFL in 1990, to better reflect the national competition.