HomePage

Melbourne City played in the VFA in 1912-1913 and never won a game. So why did the VFA take a chance on this club, what were the other options, and why did they fail so badly?

Athol Webb played in three VFL Grand Finals with Melbourne, at the height of the club’s Golden Era; and was a prominent and popular sporting figure of the 1950’s. It wasn’t just Athol’s break-neck speed and his ability to convert opportunities; but his willingness to sacrifice his own game, for the sake of the team, that made him such an important player with the Demons.

Percy Leason (23 February 1889 – 11 September 1959 was a cartoonist an painter who rose to prominence in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He was most widely known for cartoons and illustrations that appeared in many magazines including Punch and later Table Talk.

The pity of yesteryear is that it is often lost in the glitz and razzmatazz of modernity. It would be wonderful if there were films to assist in showing the high marking skills of players like Alex Duncan in those earlier days of VFL football. Word pictures can never really do such players justice; however this story tries to shine a light on one of the best overhead marks in the history of the game.

This is the story of the first VFA v VFL game in twenty-nine years. The VFL won the match, a charity game, comfortably. Nevertheless, the contest was full of meaning to all involved.

For many footballers, their years in the Victorian Football League (VFL) were only one part of their careers. For some, the need to find employment outside the game meant they relocated to regional centres and became part of local football scenes.

This engaging article by Roger Spaull highlights the career of North Melbourne ruckman Laurie Shipp, and the three years (1954-56) Shipp spent with the Yallourn Football Club.

Reginald William Ernest Wilmot, wrote under the pseudonym ‘Old Boy’ in the Australian and the Argus for over 30 years from the early 1900s through to the late 1930s. He was a keen sportsman. He had played for Essendon in the premiership years of the early 1890’s, and was later a strong supporter of school and amateur sports. He was secretary of the Melbourne Athenaeum 1909 to 1949. In 1922 the the death of Charles ‘Tracker’ Forbes led him to pen an obituary under his own name, a rare occurrence.

1927 VFL grand final - Collingwood - Richmond. Torrential rain and freezing winds before and during the match. Lowest scoring VFL game in the 20th or 21st century.

Portable Grandstands and a snapshot of crowd life in the 1920's

Dan Minogue begins today his own story of his distinguished career. And a human, gripping story this great football personality has to tell! It is brimming with all the incident, thrills, humor and pathos which he has encountered during a quarter of a century as crack player and successful captain and coach. Turning back Time, Dan takes readers behind the scenes with him; into club rooms and on to playing fields as he lives again his hours of triumph —and disappointment.

Re-told by an eye-witness, this, the second of a series of stories of stirring football dramas enacted on League grounds, describes how, in 1924, Footscray, Association premiers, paralysed Essendon, League premiers, in a memorable contest for the championship of Victoria.

Packed with hilarious incidents, it stand as the most comical football “match” that ever convulsed a crowd. Such was that burlesque, Victoria v. Queensland, at the Hobart Carnival in 1924.

Jack Worrall, (Fitzroy player, Carlton/Essendon Coach), Test Cricketer and journalist, looks back at forty years of football. The original articles from 1923-24 appear over a number of weeks. (Formatting and sub-headings have been added to make to article easier to read.)