Opinions, Profiles and Deductions
by Ian Granland
(The first five pages are a brief over view of football in Sydney from the first game in 1877 until about 1963. Many of the issues need to be developed and supporting data can be obtained from the information which then follows)
Football in NSW has had its ups and downs since it was first played in Sydney in 1877. Although there is a suggestion of (Australian) football being played at Sydney University in 1864, I am yet to find any evidence of it. I have however read that rugby was played at the university in the same year and I have concluded that this is the game which has been confused with our code.
It must be mentioned here that in those days, there was little difference between rugby and Victorian Football; They both: played on a rectangular field, faced each other in groups when playing and started their respective games by kicking off from the centre (as does rugby does now), with both played in two halves. It was in the latter 30 years of the nineteenth century that Victorian Football underwent such dramatic change.
Melbourne’s population exceeded Sydney’s in the eighteen eighties by about 50,000. Most of Sydney’s population was centred in the CBD, east to Paddington, west to Pyrmont, south to around Redfern and north to the very lower part of the North Shore.
It is difficult for the contemporary population to imagine what life was like for people in those days in Sydney; There was no television, radio or telephone. Those employed worked for … hours per week with the average weekly wage $…
Supermarkets were non existent. Cars were only a thought in some people’s mind whilst transport was by means of tram, steam train, walking or by horse or horse.
Conveniences in an average home were very much restricted. The well off might have had piped water. Sewerage was not as sophisticated as later and the electric light was a novelty.
When Australian football evolved in Sydney sport was just a past time. There certainly wasn’t the myriad of sports or past times then as there are today.
Newspapers as the only medium for communication were quick to capitalise on a new sport and one which could possibly cause some concern to the incumbent rugby football.
Some writers spoke of the new code in glowing terms, unconscientiously then sowing the seed in supporters and officials of the rugby code of jealously and ill-will to a rival game of football, such ill-will still exists even today in some quarters.
The introduction of soccer to the colony of NSW imposed no such feeling and in fact was encouraged by rugby officials. Yet the Victorian game of football had the opposite effect.
The catalyst for the game’s introduction into Sydney was from the Secretary of the Carlton FC, Mr T.P. Power. It was his initial intention to invite a team from New South Wales and South Australia to play Carlton in Melbourne ‘on his new ground’. South Australia showed a favourable response however when the letter was tabled at the 1877 Annual General Meeting of the Southern Rugby Football Union held in May, it received the following response:
“That this meeting regreats that I cannot entertain the proposal made in Mr Power’s letter of the 16 April, for an intercolonial football match between this colony and Victoria, inasmuch as the rules under which the game is played in the two colonies are so diametrically different that any attempt to play a match in either of the modes proposed by Mr Power would be unsatisfactory, and the result would be no test of the strength of either colony in the game”.
In the same week, the Waratah Club (a leading club in the rugby competition) complained in their annual report about the likliehood of injury, particularly through scrimmaging to players if the rules are not altered.
The rugby establishment, most particularly the leading club, the Wallaroos would not countenance any change to the rules and were particularly unrelenting in their comments about a particular proponent of the changes at the seventh annual meeting, also in March. Mr R.A. Arnold, the club secretary and educated at the Rugby School in England was also a leading figure in the SRFU and was one who would not encourage any change which could be seen as a colonial influence to the rules of his game.
The introduction of the game was forced by a number expatriots playing rugby in Sydney, most particularly those playing for the Waratah (Rugby) Club which was in it’s fourth season.
They said they were dissatisfied with the rules of rugby and wanted change. The president of the University club at the time commented on the fact that rugby “appeared to emphasise on brute strength rather than a skill factor”. It did appear at that stage that the university club supported a similar want for change.
The Carlton club eventually visited Sydney by boat, the Barrabcol in June 1877 for two matches. The first, on Saturday, 23 June was played under rugby rules on the Albert Cricket Ground. Waratah 2 goals beat Carlton nil. The crowd of 3000, paying an admission fee, was considered very good considering that even the rugby game at that time was not very popular with the public.
The Albert Cricket Ground was located in an area bounded by Elizabeth, Kettle, Morehead and Phillip Streets Redfern, opposite Redfern Oval where the present Police Citizens Youth Club and public housing flats now stand.
It was the premier sports ground in Sydney between 1871-77 hosting inter-colonial cricket games including W.G. Grace's side in 1873-4 and Lillywhite's team in 1876-77. Additionally it was the only ground where a gate could be charged however and the (private) owners - players and supporters of the Albert Cricket Club, charged their tennants 20% of the gate. [Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket].
The ground had a large grandstand and pavilion which included a verandah with three sides. It was primarily used as a cricket ground and crowds as large as 13,000 attended major matches and was during its use considered to be one of the best grounds in the country.
The game was marred by a number of scrimages. The Artillery band was present the afternoon and gave a selection of music. Also in attendance was the Governor of NSW and his wife, Lady Robinson. The match commenced at 2.40pm and the Waratah team was led by F. Bulter. It was noted that the Carlton players ‘appeared bigger and stronger than their opponents’.
Some concern was aired publically that the Waratah Club represented only a portion of the colonies best footballers and was not a true representation of the talent. The major reason being that the SRFU did not support the game and in fact fixtured another match at Paramatta in competition with the Carlton game.
When the SRFU (Southern Rugby Football Union) would not change their game to play the Victorian version of football or even consider a change of rules, the Waratah Club voted alone to change their code.
A small minority of clubs also changed codes and some new ones begun, however from 1877 to 1894 there was never more than five senior clubs.
I note though that many of the officials of the various clubs were also the players, which gives evidence to one of two scenarios: 1, that the clubs were considered ‘players clubs’ and that it was the responsibility of the players to conduct them, or 2, and the one I favour, that officials were light on and players had no choice but to double as officials. (what changes are there to todays football?)
There is little suggestion of many junior clubs playing the game, although I have read where over 400 junior teams played in the early 1890s yet I am at a loss to know where these teams eminated or played so I do not believe the numbers were anywhere near that figure.
St Ignatius (Riverview) and St Josephs College students (who were, I venture to say, were considerably older than their contemporaries of today, plus the fact they were permitted to play 20 on field players as against the normal opposition’s 18) were encouraged into playing the game, mostly in a social vein by their religious teachers, some of whom it is possible either came from Victoria or were Irish.
St Ignatius played one season in the senior grade in the Flanagan Cup whilst St Josephs College played in the junior grade for that year.
There is no doubt that the game was very strongly supported in the Newcastle area in the late nineteen century. I suggest that gold miners, finding themselves out of work in Victoria when gold petered out and in the era and before the depression of the early 1890s, moved to the Hunter Valley to gain employment in the coal mines. If there was that support then, why did it die when the game petered out in Sydney? For the want of not sounding contradictory, ‘was it ever that strong in Newcastle’?
Evidence reveals that over the past 100 years, the game in Newcastle has been a very ad hoc affair. Sometimes on and sometimes off. Diehards of the game in Newcastle will say that the game has always had a presence there, however my research proves that to be incorrect. In the 1980s a former Newcastle FL player wrote a thesis on the evolution of the game in Newcastle, which, I might say from my observations and research, is very much wide of the mark.
In Sydney there was the 1893 final where spite, hatred, personal considerations and poor management of the Association dealt the game a harsh blow when players, administrators and supporters failed to support the code in subsequent seasons. I think however the depression of the early 1890s had something to do with this with the movement of players out of Sydney which would have assisted in the demise of the sport, which really was in a delicate situation.
There was some degree of re-generation but none strong enough to replace the apparent enthusiasm and popularity of the game it had in previous and initial years.
This was a period when all colonies were in the midst of an economic depression and there was little work. The game was never ‘that’ big in Sydney, although it gained reasonable space in the newspapers of the day simply because there was little other sports to report on unlike today. The newspapers of the day however can give the contemporary reader a false impression of the strength of the code.
The Resurgence
A lot of hard work and travel went into re-introducing the game in 1903. From the reports I have read, Harry Hedger was the person most prominent in ‘making it happen’. In fact he has been given very little recognition for his action in re-igniting the game in Sydney although he was elected the league’s first life member in 1905.
He visited Melbourne where he attended meetings of the VFL and solicited a game between Fitzroy and Collingwood to the SCG. He attended the formation meetings of most clubs in early 1903 and assumed a vice presidents and the treasurers role in the league itself. Harry had a job as a xxx and could make his way round the country (Melbourne) with little obstruction.
The first president was Sir John See, Premier of NSW. According to newspaper reports, he appeared to play no active part in the day to day operation of the game and was merely a titular head.
The game continued to grow in the public eye, although the participation rate, when the number of teams are considered in the respective competitions, reduced alarmingly. Because not many games were played on enclosed grounds, the league failed to reap any financial benefits of gate takings as did the rugby code of the time. Also I venture to suggest that the novelty of the game had worn off; there was little or no momentum to keep the interest there.
The NSWFL relied very heavily on gate receipts from interstate matches: NSW V opponents and matches between VFL clubs played in Sydney. Evidence has it that most visiting clubs left most or all gate receipts to the league. Grounds became a problem around 1909-10. An attempt to overcome this and re-establish the game, with the help of Sir Hugh Denison (formerly Dixon), a Western Australian who was considered the father of football in that state and subsequently a newspaper proprietor in Sydney, (in fact Managing Director of the Sydney Sun), a bold move was made to secure the league’s own ground.
In 1911 the Australian Football Ground at Alexandria was opened. It was located on 12½ acres which was previously the site of the (old) Rosebery Racecoure on the north west corner of Botany and Gardiners Roads, Alexandria.
Membership of the ground was one guinea and over two hundred members joined. Redfern cricket club, impressed with the ground, arranged for a lease of the ground for cricket games.
Later this purchase was criticised because it was done so at the expense of the apparent continuation of the lease of Ersineville Oval, a near city enclosed ground. The ground at ‘Nth Botany’ (Mascot/Alexandria) was a long way from the city in those days notwithstanding the fact that it an electric tram line ran from the city on the adjacent Botany Road. (Maybe the criticism was villified following the start of the first world war).
In 1914 the game in Sydney suffered a mortal setback when the first world war was declared.
A national all states carnival was held in Sydney in 1914 and when all sides convened at the Australian Football Ground, the ground owned by the league, for athletic contests prior to the carnival on August 4, the acutal declaration of war was made.
The carnival itself was held at the SCG but because of war, never attracted the attendances needed to augment the game in Sydney or the canival itself. The country was in a state of uneasiness, not knowing what effects war would bring and the total gate receipted grossed only seven hundred and sixy pounds for the xxx day carnival.
On the other hand and just as important in the game’s decline, young men (of football playing age) of the day rushed to sign up for the army. My research shows that Australian Football at that time was at it’s peak in the state’s capital; The league had a fulltime secretary and it’s own ground.