Melbourne City

Introduction

As the story goes; At the end of 1911 the Preston football club could no longer field a competitive team in the competition and was "merged" with nearby Northcote. The VFA then announced that a new team called "Melbourne City" would enter the competition in 1912 to fill the gap. This new team, was apparently created from scratch in just a few months, and represented, well....nobody.. just a creation of a few entrepreneurs out for money.

The team was massacred by Footscray in it's first game, and marred by infighting and poor crowds continued for two seasons and never won a game. Finally after much encouragement from the Press, the VFA finally said goodbye to Melbourne City and welcomed a new team, Hawthorn (whom they should have selected all-along). Hawthorn excelled and by 1925 joined the VFL.

Terry Keenan follows this familiar line in his scathing indictment of the idea . Keenan pulls no punches in his conclusion:

So how did it happen?

In reality Melbourne City was a revival of the previous West Melbourne Football club. Many of the figures were involved in the successful West Melbourne club (1892-1907).

The big questions are:

• How do we know 'Melbourne City' was a West Melbourne Revival?
• Why was it's bid preferred to other available options at the end of 1911?
• What do we know about the formation of the Melbourne City?
• Why did the team fail on the field?
• Was the idea always doomed to fail?

Lets start with the story of the West Melbourne Clubs and their journey to become Melbourne City

West Melbourne to Melbourne City

A quick history of West Melbourne clubs

West Melbourne sits in the centre of the city of Melbourne; bordered by Victoria street to the north, Victoria Market to the East and Latrobe Street to the South. Flagstaff Gardens is just inside the district. Also inside were the Spencer Street Railways yards and the docks, a number of pubs sat along Spencer street frequented by the railway and dock workers. It was an industrial suburb including slums that extended into North Melbourne.

West Melbourne - Victoria. Department of Crown Lands and Survey 1910

The first main West Melbourne football club was founded in 1874, and by 1877, it was the premier junior level club in the VFA. At this time it played in Blue knickerbockers, blue striped Jersey, with a blue cap with a red Maltese cross.

From 1878-1880, West Melbourne competed in the VFA as a senior club, playing out of Royal Park.

At the end of April 1881, just as the season was about to start, newspapers reported the end of the West Melbourne Club. According to the Australian,

Frank Conway went to Carlton, while
Sam Thewlis, Dave Rannard and later Leo Cussen went to Melbourne.

The 1880s saw a range of Junior clubs rise, fall and merge and disappear.

• West Melbourne United 1881-1882
• West Melbourne Stanley 1882
• West Melbourne Union 1883
• West Melbourne Excelsior 1884- 1890
• West Melbourne Juniors 1885 -1886
• West Melbourne Alma 1887-1890

During the 1880's. Senior Football began to be played on enclosed grounds, Melbourne began playing regularly on the MCG, Essendon stopped playing its home games at the Flemington Hill Ground and from 1882 began playing on the inner city East Melbourne Ground, where they would play until its closure in 1924. Having an enclosed ground soon became an important requirement for a senior team, and the lack of an appropriate ground would be a constant part of the West Melbourne story.

West Melbourne players wanted to rejoin the senior competition in 1886, but the great difficulty was in arranging a ground. They petitioned to get a part of Flagstaff gardens set aside2 . What was needed was a better option. This meeting and the lack of a local ground would be remembered.

The 1880's also saw the City of Melbourne begin to drain the swamp to the west of Spencer Street Station (Southern Cross Station). Petitions were again quickly raised to set aside some of this space as a sporting ground3 .

Eventually, in 1887, a section of this land was set aside as a sporting venue and named the 'West Melbourne Recreation Reserve'. A Recreation Reserve for West Melbourne. 4 Money was raised for the fencing of the ground but it was never fenced. (Nearly 50 years later, the money was eventually spent on a new wall for the Arden Street ground in 19405

If only some of that land could be used for a ground. They could have named it 'Docklands' after the docks that were being built there. It would have been 'Marvelous'.

The financial crisis in the early 1890's had dire effects on football clubs. Many young men emigrated to other states, especially Western Australia, looking for work on the goldfields. The banking collapse in Melbourne saw many clubs loose their funds, and finally many potential players could no longer take the risk of being injured and away from work.

1891 saw no references to football clubs operating in West Melbourne.

In 1892, a new "West Melbourne" club emerged.

In 1893 West Melbourne Juniors were premiers of the Third Rate Junior football association.6

In 1894, West Melbourne joined the Victorian Junior Football Association, the premier junior football competition in Melbourne in the 1890's, where it eventually won the premiership in 1898. The following year, West Melbourne joined the VFA, as part of the rebuilding of the Association after the 1897 exodus. In 1899, the VFA expanded from six to eight teams, with Prahran and West Melbourne joining the competition.

During the 1890's West Melbourne played out of the West Melbourne Recreation Reserve but when they became a senior club in 1899, they shared the North Melbourne Recreation Ground with the North Melbourne Football club.

In the VFA, West Melbourne wore Red and White stripes.

Sniders N Abrahams 1906 VFA West Melbourne A Ryan - Source: Otway Jack's Football Cards

Sniders N Abrahams 1906 VFA West Melbourne C Rourke - Source: Otway Jack's Football Cards

1909 Sniders N Abrahams D West Melbourne L Armstrong Otway Jack (thecollectingbug)

1909 Sniders N Abrahams D West Melbourne A Gregory Sportmem

1909 Sniders N Abrahams D West Melbourne P Williamson Otway Jack (thecollectingbug)

After little success in their first few years in the competition, they made the finals in 1904 and won the Premiership in 1906.

West Melbourne VFA Results

Punch 4 Oct 1906 P17 West Melbourne

1907-1908 - The East Melbourne Ground and the end of the club

In 1907 the club moved it's home ground from the Melbourne Recreation Reserve to the East Melbourne Cricket ground and shared the ground with Essendon (VFL). This was a big move as they only signed a short term lease. Luckily there were few other major sporting teams that might need a ground.

Pascoe And Pennings Sporting Traditions V26n1 2009 P73 - Year Unknown

At the VFL meeting on 27-March the West Melbourne issue was raised:

Opinions varied on the potential danger, many considered it minor. The chair noted that West Melbourne was the only Association team without their own home ground, implying that this was not a growing issue. (Argus 28-Mar-1907 p4 )

Interestingly in 1908 the VFL banned VFA games at their venues including finals, so it was taken a bit more seriously than public expressed.

Markwell, writing in the Australian in 1910 wrote, "By a kind of side wind, West Melbourne, since defunct, were able to secure the use of East Melbourne ground for a season; but the league spared no pains to hunt them off the ground and out of football the following year."7

Soon after that 1907 VFL meeting, the ground issue came up again. Essendon (VFL) threatened to deprive the VFA of the East Melbourne ground over the granting of a permit to Mick Madden, ex Essendon (VFL) team to the Essendon (VFA) team. According to the Mr Evans, the VFA Secretary, it was done more softly and that he was summoned by a sub committee of the East Melbourne Cricket Club and was asked "whether it was possible to prevent the permit being granted to Madden. In a discussion which followed it had been pointed out that if Madden played with the association club there was a possibility of steps being taken through the league to object to association clubs playing on the East Melbourne Ground. This had not been put as a threat."8

Punch 20-Jun-1907 p15 Williamstown v West Melbourne at East Melbourne

The club did well at the new ground and ended up as runners up for the season, beaten by Williamstown in the final. Also attendance at the ground had been good. With a 7,000 attendance against Richmond in June and 24,000 at the Final against Williamstown

On the 4th of October 1907, shortly after the end of the VFL season, the University Football Club, which had just won the Metropolitan Junior Football Association premiership, was admitted to the VFL as the 9th team in that competition. At this point it was unclear what ground University would be using, but they proposed securing the East Melbourne Ground 9 ...... Which is odd considering both Essendon (L) and West Melbourne were already using the ground. The Age reported the relevant League meeting, which also noted that the VFL intended to add a 10th club:

Eventually it was unanimously decided that the University club should be admitted to the
League. It was then affirmed that the clubs in the League should be ten, leaving, the matter of the admission of another club to be discussed at another meeting."

Melbourne University refused to allow the University club to play in a professional competition on their ground. University therefore needed a ground. That was solved but finding them the East Melbourne Ground. It is unclear when West Melbourne discovered this, but now West Melbourne were without a ground, and without a ground, they were out of the competition.

One week after the Announcement of University's entry, the Herald was the first to report that the North Melbourne and West Melbourne clubs had decided to amalgamate with the object of seeking admission to the League (The Herald 12-Oct-1907 p6) Brighton Football club (MJFA), who would eventually join the VFA 1908 also announced that they were applying for the 10th spot.10

The Ballarat Association also sent an application to join as a combined team, but this was barely considered, due to the distance.11

Two weeks week after the Announcement, the Association clubs met to discuss the situation. The question was asked as to which clubs intended to apply to the League.

The meeting went on to condemn those applying to the League considering the events of 10 years before, when "The eight League clubs had thrown the others over so as to control the football gate".

The Argus ended its coverage of the meeting noting that "the Williamstown club is also applying for admission to the League". Though this appears not to have been true.12

On October 18th the VFL formally admitted Richmond as its 10th team.13

T.J. Evans, secretary of the VFA spoke on the issue at a VJFA smoke night for the VJFA premiers "Footscray Juniors" on 21-Oct. "He had no hesitation in saying that the action of the League in admitting the University team to their ranks was a direct blow at the Association, because the team named was not admitted until an assurance was received that the Richmond club was prepared to desert the Association and make the tenth team in the League." (The Age 21-Oct-1907 p8).

On November 22nd the VFA, on a 10 to 1 vote, formally excluded West Melbourne and Essendon. The Association also admitted Brighton (MJFA) and Northcote (VJFA) into their ranks to replace the missing teams. This would still leave it as a nine team competition in 1909.14 The uplifting of Northcote also made it difficult for existing club Preston to recruit new players.

On February 21 a special meeting of the VFL heard a letter read from the amalgamated North and West clubs, renewing their application for admission to the league ranks.

In support of the application, Messrs. J.H. Gardiner and F.G. Reid attended and explained that the association were forming the City Football Club, which was likely to be successful should the North and West clubs no longer exist, with the object of securing the North Melbourne Recreation ground. (The Argus 22-Feb-1908, p.16)15

The delegates gave a sympathetic hearing but did not want to commit to an 11 team competition with a bye for one team each week.

It is interesting to note that the West Melbourne Bowls club, operating out of Flagstaff gardens, founded in 1866, changed its name to the "City Bowls Club" in Sep-Oct 1907, at the start of their 1907/08 season. 16

The renaming may be coincidental, or it might have helped the football clubs in coming up with a name that they could unify around. By 1912 there was also a Melbourne City Quoits team operating out of West Melbourne.

The unity of the two football clubs did not last and North Melbourne independently applied to re-join the Association.

In March 1908 North Melbourne applied for readmittance to the Association but "only under its present name". The motion was lost but the door was left open for the club to reapply. (The Age 26-May-1908 p8) A second application run by a new committee was accepted a on April 18th, just before the season started. The meeting noted that the new club represented both the expelled clubs.

"The colours of the new North Melbourne Club will be blue and white halves, with a red sash. This will be a combination of the old North Melbourne Colours (blue and white) and of the West Melbourne colours (Red and White), as the two old clubs are really being amalgamated."17

When the first round of Permits came out on the 23rd of April it was clear that the amalgamation was in name only ,as 11 West Melbourne players received permits to other clubs

• Essendon (L): Les Minto (Delayed), Bert Ryan, Lou Armstrong
• Prahran: F. "Bongo" Rankin, Edward "Copper" Rourke , W.Gullin
• Essendon (A): H.G. Windsor
• Footscray: Jim Neylan
• Port Melbourne : E. Percy "Bull" Williamson. H. Clarke, A. Johnson

Adding to that initial list a number of other West Melbourne players from 1907 played or received permits for other clubs during 1908.

• Fitzroy: George Holden
• Melbourne: George McCart
• Richmond: Vin Hannaford
• StKilda: Bill Madden
• Brighton: Gilbert, Percy Johnson, Arthur Laxton, Walter Pumphrey
• North Melbourne: H.Wrout
• Yarraville (VJFA): J.Egan
• Subiaco (WA): C.McCann

Not one of the 1907 West Melbourne senior players played a senior game for North Melbourne in 1908.

West Melbourne (although already disbanded) reformed to play against Essendon in a practice match before the start of the 1908 season, "in the hope of getting a few pounds out of the gate to pay off all their liabilities". West Melbourne club Secretary Frank Reid had moved to Essendon (L) as hon. sec. and it was his influence that arranged the game.

Essendon won the"willing" contest 8.9 to 4.1518

Unlike other clubs who had their own grounds, West Melbourne did not have a junior club to keep the fie burning for a later comeback, April 1908 saw most senior players and the club secretary go to different clubs. West Melbourne was effectively dissolved.

1908-1911 Keeping the fires burning

1908

At the end of 1908, West Melbourne tried again for re-admittance to the VFA. Nearly 500 people attended a rally to reapply for membership.

A key name at that meeting appears to have been George William Trevaskis .

Weekly Times 19-Nov-1927 p81 GW Trevaskis

Trevaskis had a long association with the West Melbourne club. He was club Treasurer from 189619 -c1903 and was Vice president of the club in 1906. He was also at times treasurer of the West Melbourne Cricket and Cycling clubs, and of the central Draughts club. He had a deep interest in draughts and competed played for many years. Later in life he was also on the board of the North Melbourne Football club when his son, Tim, was one of the leading players. Tim Trevaskis played 93 games for North Melbourne 1921-1929 and 11 for Coburg in 1930. He was team captain in 1929

A hairdresser and tobacconist at 327 King Street (1896), and later 273 King street He was fined in 1900 for running a gaming house at 275 King Street. He was prosecuted again in 1907 for running a betting scheme for the benefit of the local Cricket club. This time, the secretary of the Cricket Club and his co-defendant was the club President.20

George Trevaskis’s name appears many times during this era.

The Age 23-Sep-1908 p8 Late Sporting News

The delegation met days later with the VFA and requested the City of Melbourne Club's admittance to the Association. "The speakers represented that the new club was really a revival of the disbanded West Melbourne club, and that it would play either at the North Melbourne ground or on the West Melbourne reserve.", the Association agreed to consider the matter at their next meeting in a month's time. - The Argus 24-Sep-1908 p9

At the next VFA meeting a number of names were read out in support of the clubs admission

The VFA considered the proposal, firstly they decided they did not want to expand to 11 clubs to create a place and secondly, they decided that they did not want to amalgamate any clubs to create a place. The idea of merging Northcote and Preston was mooted but since Northcote had only joined that year they decided that it was an unfair position to force on Northcote. The next two years would change the Committees position on that particular issue.

The new club was instructed to arrange a conference with North Melbourne to see if there could be some consolidation of their two forces under the "City of Melbourne" banner.
The Argus 3-Nov-1908 p7

It was not unusual at the time to see publicans and food suppliers and local business owners associated with football clubs. Many officials involved also had business reasons. For example, famous VFL President Ken Luke, had a jewellery and trophy business. Thomas Sherrin was on the board at Collingwood for many years. Many clubs were supported by local pub owners, and rarely out of pure charity.

Mirror (Perth) 18-Mar-1910 p16 Eugenie Duggan

Eugenie Duggan was famous actress in Australia at the time and husband of William Anderson
Duggan had been elected patron of the Redfern Australian Rules club in Sydney in 1908 22

Miss Duggen was a patron of the West Melbourne club in 1903.23 but it is unclear how much interest she actually had for the game, as she is also recorded working with the Newtown rugby union club to create a club banner.24

William Anderson was a theatrical entrepreneur with an interest in sport, especially Horse Racing. In 1908 he opened the King's Theatre in Melbourne. In 1906 he opened a Luna park style location known as "wonderland City" in Sydney and during the late 1900's staged a number of popular plays. He filmed his play the Squatters Daughter in 1910. By 1911, Wonderland City had closed and virtually ruined Anderson financially. 25

In 1908 Anderson represented wealth and their backing showed that the club had strong financial backing. But how would North Melbourne react to the name change?

A lively meeting of the North Melbourne football club occurred on December 7th 1908 at the Temperance Hall where the idea was discussed to rename the club to "The Melbourne Football Association Club" and amalgamation with the West Melbourne club.

The chair, Mr G.M. Prendergast MLA (Club President) spoke against the proposal on sentimental grounds but acknowledged that if the club was to prosper, must have an enlarged scope. Another speaker, Mr Trevaskis introduced Mr A.A. Farthing who said he would help the club if the name was changed. In the end the motion to change the name of the club was lost by 37 votes to 18.27

This discussion, that "if the club was to prosper, must have an enlarged scope." is key to explaining the name change to Melbourne, or "Melbourne City". Much like the much later name change from Footscray to the "Western Bulldogs" it was meant to bring more people into the club.

The benefactor mentioned was Alfred Alexander Farthing. Farthing had taught at various state schools for 11 years; winnings from cycling enabled him to become publican, specializing in buying run-down hotels, building up trade and selling. He purchased Metropole Hotel 1905, at other times he owned the Duke of Rothsay, Austral and Port Phillip Hotels.

Herald 7-Jul-1915 p6 AA Farthing

He was certainly on his was up, and well connected in the city. He was a public voice against the temperance movement. He was president of the United Hotelkeepers Association of Vic. 1910. Vice President Richmond Football Club 1910 28 and Chair of the Football Reform Committee 1911 with the aim of one controlling body and open payment to players29

Farthing was Member for East Melbourne 1911-1927. He lost his seat in 12 due to illegal campaign practices, but was back a few months later.

1909 and 1910

With 1908 gone, West Melbourne reformed a junior club. In 1909, West Melbourne 9.9 def Footscray 2.14 to win the Presbyterian Junior Football Association but it is not clear that this is the same club.

In 1910, The West Melbourne Junior club were runners up in the second grade junior competition and celebrated at the Guild Hall on the 21st of September. Mr G.W Trevaskis sketched the history of the club and made a presentation to Mrs S.J. Hughes, their lady patroness.

Sarah Jane Hughes was licensee of the Carron Hotel in Spencer Street - She had moved there in 1909 before departing in April 1913.

In 1909 she had petitioned for a special permission to open late as the hotel was used by sailors from Victoria dock. As with many hoteliers, She has a number of prosecutions for licensing violations over her many years as a licensee at various hotels around Melbourne.30

At the end of October, West Melbourne tried again, A meeting was held on Tuesday evening at the Carron Hotel, West Melbourne, for the purpose of forming a football club under the name of Melbourne City, and joining the ranks of the Victorian Association. Mr G.W. Trevaskis occupied the chair, and about 50 persons were present. It was decided that a deputation wait on the cricket clubs and obtain a playing ground, and afterwards wait on the Association to secure admission to its ranks. - The Age 5-Oct-1910 p10

At the next VFA meeting the discussion centered on the future of the Preston club.

With a reprieve given to Preston, there was no discussion recorded regarding the possible admission of "Melbourne City".

1911

In 1911 the West Melbourne junior players gained experience in the VFJA, now just one step down from the VFA, but this was at a cost. In April 1911 the Herald newspaper advertised that the "West Melbourne District is now amalgamated with the North Melbourne Juniors" in the VJFA.32

In July the Age reported that North Melbourne was the only undefeated team in the VJFA but noted that they had not been a 'happy family' earlier in the season.

Preston did not win any games in it's 1910 season and ended the 1911 season with only one win from 18 games. The VFA had had enough. Next year there would be a Northcote/Preston 'merger' but who would fill this 12th team?

Markwell in the Australian proposed the most obvious solution:

So, for the four years following their exit from the VFA, elements of the West Melbourne Club had persisted as a club, and in trying to re-join the VFA under the "Melbourne City" banner. But they had no home ground suitable for senior football, and their players were part of North Melbourne's junior team.

Could West Melbourne still rejoin the VFA? This is the next big question.

Why was Melbourne City preferred to other available options at the end of 1911?

What existing teams could be raised from the Junior ranks?

In 1911 most senior teams did not have 'official' junior teams, but had a connection to a team in one of the two junior competitions.

Of the two Junior competitions, the Metropolitan Association was strictly amateur, but had strong links with the VFL. From that competition Collegians made the final, but their amateur status would make it hard for them to be part of the VFA. Caulfield, Hawthorn and Oakleigh were the remaining options, but they made up the bottom three places in the competition and Oakleigh had a tiny population of 2,164 people, even smaller than Preston. Hawthorn won 3 of 18 games in 1911.

In 1910, Hawthorn also won 3 of 18 games and again shared the bottom three positions with Oakleigh and Caulfield.33

Hawthorn's population of 24,407 made it the largest district not represented by a VFL or VFA club.

Fitzroy Juniors – Fitzroy (admitted in 1913)

Metropolitan Premiership 1911

Metropolitan Association Ladder 191134

Victorian Junior Association Ladder35

In the Victorian Junior Football Association again most clubs had a direct connection to a senior club. The exceptions being Preston (the ex Senior club), Yarraville and Werribee. Werribee was on Melbourne's fringe and did not even appear on most maps of Melbourne at the time. Yarraville had a strong football team, but wedged between Footscray and Williamstown, showed little room for expanding its supporter base.

VJFA Premiership 1911

So the club with the best potential in either competition was Hawthorn (as suggested by Markwell above). The next most likely teams were Yarraville and Oakleigh, (both of these clubs eventually joined the VFA in the 1920’s when North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Footscray defected to the VFL.)

Candidate 1 - Hawthorn

It is not clear that Hawthorn wanted to move to the VFA, but considering their acceptance two years later, it is a fair assumption that they did.

Hawthorn faced a number of hurdles, It was not yet successful, and it was located outside the important inner part of Melbourne where transport links were easiest and travel shortest.
The furthest VFL ground from the city centre was the Junction Oval in St Kilda, only two of the 10 VFA grounds were within that circle (Port Melbourne and North Melbourne). The new Hawthorn ground would be outside that circle. This meant that VFA supporters always had further to travel for away games, reducing potential travellers and therefore reducing possible revenue.

Sands & McDougall Map c1910 - League Grounds (Blue), Association Grounds (Pink), Hawthorn (Red)

Being in the city centre was a common theme when describing Melbourne City's eventual inclusion. 36

Hawthorn would be a safe bet. It had a local paper and a wide source of local players who might play for their own district.

Candidate 2 - Melbourne City

Melbourne City had two things in its favour, firstly, it was a legitimate team from the inner part of the City, so it was well located. Not only that, but it potentially had an existing supporter base who would return to the games.

Arguments that the Melbourne City was doomed to fail because the centre of the city could never support a football team, usually omit the fact that West Melbourne, a city based team, won the VFA premiership in 1906 and went out after reaching the Grand final in 1907, only four years previously.

Secondly, any person looking for un-represented districts for football teams would have noticed a very key fact when they looked at the Victorian yearbook. The most populous part of Melbourne was "Melbourne City" with 103,345 inhabitants. It was currently represented by the Melbourne Football club, (more of an institution than a club representing the district) and the Carlton and North Melbourne clubs, who each represented parts of the district.

Also many workers lived in other parts of Melbourne, but worked in the city, many of these might have an affiliation with the city, or be available for training after work. If a club could build itself to represent "Melbourne City" then it had growth potential, .. if it could pull it off.

Vic YrBook 1910-11 p570 Population Of Greater Melbourne

The Pink sections of this Sands & McDougall Map c1910 show the boundaries of "Melbourne City" It is larger than most people expect.

Melbourne City's bid had major flaws, it had a tiny player base to start with. In other situations, local clubs merged together to generate a player pool to play senior football. The formation of Collingwood, Hawthorn, and later Sandringham are obvious example of this.

It does not appear that Melbourne City attempted to gather support from any other club to bolster their strength.

Secondly , the Melbourne City identity was not strong. West Melbourne had a supporter base, but could that base be transferred to a team representing all of Melbourne City.

Thirdly the issue as the capital behind the bid. Hawthorn could rely on juniors and ongoing local support. Melbourne City would need substantial ongoing funding to be competitive on the field, until support grew.

Money in Football was an explosive issue, as in March 1911 the Association allowed open professionalism for the first time. This immediately increased the cost of players and would made founding a new club from scratch even more difficult,

The VFL and VFA were discussing ways to limit player payments, including looking at a districting scheme, forcing players to play for the relevant district team. This would end high player payments, but until that happened, players could move to any club that paid them more.37

In early 1911 a number of clubs published what they had been paying in 1910 to force the issue. North Melbourne announced that it had paid £580 to its players in 191038
£447 at Essendon (A)39
Up to £30 per week at Footscray..(18 rounds x £30 = £540)40

In the VFL Richmond paid £650 in 191041
£984 at Carlton42

These disclosures would have been no shock to those at the clubs, and should have alerted those looking to found a new club on the money they would need to be competitive.

An Age article from March 1912 included amounts for 6 clubs for the 1911 season, Carlton £949, South Melbourne £715, Richmond £697, Prahran £445, Footscray £391 and Port Melbourne £307.43

As part of the discussions around player payment, if both the VFA and VFL had rejected player payments, it was clear there was a high risk that clubs from both organisations would have split off and formed their own professional organisation.44

Finally, Melbourne City faced the issue of time. Hawthorn had an existing team that had played together, they could add a few new players, but maintain cohesion on field. Melbourne City would have to find a playing group and mould them into a team quickly, this put a lot of pressure on the coach.

In retrospect the Melbourne City bid was very risky and would rely heavily on being able to afford a competitive team, at a time when suddenly all clubs could bid for players and the cost for players would be rising.

The Mood of the Association

There were many recent instances of clubs taking years to become competitive in a new competition but after the years of poor performance and low crowds from Preston, the Association was not looking long term for a team to grow slowly. They wanted a competitive team as quickly as possible. But recent examples showed that for many clubs, entry took time, and in many cases, their second year in the competition was their worst performing year.

• StKilda (1897-1902), won 2 of their first 93 games in their first six years in the VFL, 6 wooden spoons. They were winless in 4 of the 6 seasons
• Subiaco (1901-1908) won 13 of 121 their first games in their first 8 years in the WAFL, 7 wooden spoons. Winless in 2 of 8 seasons
• Brunswick (1897-1899) won 6 of their first 56 games in their first 3 years in the VFA, winning 2 wooden spoons and going winless in their 2nd season.
• West Melbourne (1899-1901) won 8 of their first 53 games in their first 3 years in the VFA, winning two wooden spoons, win only one win in each of their 2nd and 3rd seasons
• Preston (1903-1905) won 7 of it first 54 games in its first three seasons, with six of the 7 wins in the first season and only one win in the next two seasons. With 2 wooden spoons.

The Association was also on the rise. Crowds were increasing and many ex League players now played in Association ranks. The quality of Association play had risen. There was little margin between the best players in either competition, but a stronger depth of talent in the League.45

A number of factors showed the VFA pushing forward at the expense of the VFL.

On the 5th of August 1911 Brunswick played Footscray on the MCG in front of 23,000 supporters. The League did not play that week due to the football Carnival in Adelaide. The following Monday, the papers we full of reports on the speed and quality of Association play as well as the lack of unnecessary roughness that marred League games.46 47 48

In September Essendon teams won both the VFL and VFA premierships and there were many calls for the two teams to play off, which the VFL was unable to allow as they had set up the Australian National Football Council in 1906, which excluded the VFA, which forbid members playing non-member teams, such as the VFA.

South Australia had been breaking that rule by playing representative matches against the VFA. These were very evenly contested with recent results being 1 all in 1909, 1910 and 1911. South Australia defeated the VFL team in 1911 to win the Football Carnival. Having the VFA win while the VFL lost was poor public relations for the VFL. The VFL pressured South Australia to stop playing games against the VFA, and the 1911 games were the last until the VFA joined the ANFC in 1949.

It is unclear what the individual reasoning for the selection of Melbourne City as the final option to fill the roster for 1912. It is not clear if the VFA weighed up the options, or whether, by asking for readmission for so long, the Melbourne City bid was just next in line.

In March 1912 when speaking at the Brighton Football Club Annual meeting Association Secretary Evans noted that "The City club would be a great revenue producer for the Association"49

Melbourne City

Up and Running

We can piece together the story from around October 1911.
The Herald 18-Jan-1912 p6 reported that:
"Some three months ago a meeting of those interested in the formation of a football club to take the place of the defunct West Melbourne Football Club, was held to elect a committee to make representations to the Victorian Football Association for admittance into that Association. "

Yet again, the newspaper report made it clear that Melbourne City was a new incarnation of West Melbourne.

The elected representatives were Alexander Rogers M.L.A. (current President of the Port Melbourne Football Club) and potential President of the new club, Edward Cooper Treadwell (Member of the Melbourne City Council and publisher of the Sporting Judge newspaper) and finally Dr Matthias "Monty" Perl (A widely known and respected city physician and a well known leader in the Jewish Community)

Table Talk 7-Jul-1904 p13 Dr M.M. Perl

The three attended the November 22, 1911 Victorian Football Association meeting, where their application to join the association was considered. It was reported the next day that the representation was "so strong that the members of the executive were impressed, and it is probable that the new club will be admitted." - The Argus 23-Nov-1911 p550

Negotiations regarding a ground appear to have taken time and initial reports indicate that the club may have played out of the Friendly Societies ground (later site of Olympic Park)
A rearrangement of teams comprising the Victorian Football Association, for which steps are now being taken, promises to considerably strengthen the position of the Association. A new team to be known as the Melbourne City is spoken of and an amalgamation of Northcote and Preston teams to keep the number of clubs equal. A central base of operations is what the Association badly needs. Negotiations had been pending to have the new Melbourne City team located at East Melbourne with the idea that that. club play its matches every alternate Saturday with Essendon, but now it is very probable that the Friendly Societies' ground will be secured for the now club. With this ground as a centre for semi final and final matches some of the big gates would come the way of the Association. - Independent (Footscray) 25-Nov-1911, p. 251

But after several deputations had waited on the East Melbourne Cricket Club Executive, arrangements were made for the use of the ground for season 1912-13.52 . Regular access to a major League ground was coup. The new club would be back at their old home.

Alf. Boyd, was recruited in January as trainer. The ex Carlton trainer later also trained North Melbourne, but he was best known as a boxing coach53

In February 1912 the group called a meeting for "the purpose of setting up the recently formed City Football Club" at the Hughes Carron Hotel in Spencer Street on 19 February. The same hotel used as the teams base in 1910. According to Terry Keenan, the Sporting Judge (owned by Mr Treadwell) reported that "The level of support at the meeting was encouraging as several hundred tickets for a concert and bioscope to be held in the Guild Hall in Collins Street on Wednesday 28 February were immediately taken up".

The "first annual meeting" was held at St Patrick's Hall in Bourke Street on 5 March.
On the platform before a crowded hall were three men, Alexander Rogers (the ex Port Melbourne Secretary), John Aikman (VFA President 1908-1928, and member of the Melbourne City Council) and Alfred Farthing who was the moneyman named in the 1908 bid, now a Member of Parliament.

Mr Rogers said that the committee had already met 14 times, had 60 pounds in funds, with pledges for another 40 pounds.

President: Alexander Rogers M.L.A.
Vice Presidents:
Cr E.C. Treadwell,
Cr J. Marks,
Cr E.A. Pleasents,
Dr M.M. Perl,
Mr R.J.Edwards,
Mr T.Woods
Hon. Treasurer: G.Trevaskis
Hon.Sec. Mr A Kingdom
Committee
A.J. Fiske, W.Edwards, J.Murphy, G.Coop, T.Madden, E.Hilton, J.Hogan, J.Lambert, M.Hanley and R.Wright

There were strong historical links, the 1899 West Melbourne Football Club Committee in their first year in the VFA had included

All six of the club Vice Presidents had links to previous West Melbourne Committees. 54 55 56 I only have access to committee lists for 1899, 1903 and 1907 so I assume that the links are even deeper than these three seasons provide.

J.Marks, E.A. Pleasents, G.Trevakis - 1899, 1903, 1907
T.Madden.- 1899
J.Hogan - 1903
J.Lambert - 1907

Looking in a bit more detail at the 1912 committee:

Edward Armstrong Pleasents was ex president of the West Melbourne Bowling Club based in Flagstaff Gardens.

R.J. Edwards was the current President of the "City" Bowling Club. He had been a club patron of the West Melbourne Football club in 1902 and had donated and supplied prizes for the club as far back as 1896, at which time an E.Edwards was club captain. He appears to have been president of the Grocers association in the previous decade.57 58 59

Jacob Marks was a city jeweller, a prominent Freemason and would be promoted to Council Alderman at the end of 1912, but was in a car accident in England in 1913 and died young in 1914. 60

Dr Mathias "Monty" Peal was a physician educated in Scotch College and Melbourne University. He would act as a captain in WW1. He was a well known leader in the Jewish community and widely known in Melbourne. He land long connections with philanthropic societies and clubs and societies where he gave his medical services in an honorary capacity.61

Andrew Curren was the proprietor of the Lonsdale Club Hotel at 205 Lonsdale Street.

Alexander Rogers, a Port Melbourne butcher and an active member of the Labor Party
J.Hogan is possibly Jim Hogan, a prominent unionist with the Storeman and Packers Union and Waterside Workers Union. 62 A "J.Hogan", possibly the same person, was associated with the West Melbourne club, and was thanked for his efforts at the 1903 Annual Meeting.63

Arthur Kingdom, was also in the liquor industry, his wife Esther being the proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel in William Street and he was also President of the West Melbourne Cricket club in 1913.64

The papers at the time consistently called Melbourne City a "new" club, or "fledgling club", there was virtually no mention of the relationship to the old West Melbourne club.

Technically it was a new club, and unless you followed the newspapers closely, you may have missed the connection.

In mid march the fixtures for 1912 were published. Melbourne City had a good draw. In the first 4 weeks of the draw they played teams that did not make the finals the previous season, and all games against Brighton and Northcote (the bottom two teams from 1911 excluding Preston) were to be played at East Melbourne. Both Port Melbourne games were scheduled at Port Melbourne., and both Essendon games at Essendon.65

The club also started to look for a qualified captain/coach. Newspaper advertisements went out.

Herald 23-Mar-1912 p2

A practice match was played at the old Brunswick Cricket ground on Good Friday and Melbourne City 12.22 def Heidelberg 1.5 (The Age 22-Apr-1912 p5). This is the only game the club would win this year.

Players

Martin Pash - Port Melbourne 1911

Martin Pash was the first player publicly linked to the new club. Pash would have been around 29 at the time He played seven games for South Melbourne in 1906 before moving to Port Melbourne in 1907 where he played until 1911 playing 77 senior games and kicking 67 games for the club. He had represented the VFA against South Australia in 1908. This was the experienced type of senior player that the club needed to recruit. Pash was recruited from Port Melbourne Juniors so was possibly past his best.

When the permits came in at the end of April and the start of May, the core of the team was finally known.

George "Mallee" Johnson had just captained North Melbourne to the 1911 premiership. He was coming on as the new club captain/coach. He was 32. He played with Richmond in the VFA (1901-1904), then Carlton in the VFA (1905-1909) before moving to North Melbourne (1910-1911). He had left Carlton with six others in response to the sacking of then Carlton coach Jack Worrell. His experience and leadership were impressive, but these were in the middle of well oiled football machines, would he have the personality to meld together a team of misfits.

Unfortunately had had a bicycle accident and was injured at the start of the season.

George 'Mallee' Johnson

Les Beck, aged 25 was another ex-Carlton recruit. He had played 60 games for Carlton (1906-1909). He was another who had left Carlton as part of the walkout in support of Jack Worrell. He would have been close to Mallee Johnson. He had played for Port Melbourne in 1910 but had not played in 1911.

Les Beck

Bob Briggs was around 28 years old. He had played for Williamstown (1907-1908), Fitzroy (1909-1910) and St.Kilda (1911) for 33 League games and 54 goals, as well as 23 Association games with 64 goals.

Bob Briggs - Williamstown

Wal Grant, aged 29 had played 2 games for Carlton in 1906 before moving to Essendon Association (1906-1911 where he played 47 games over 5 years. He would later move to Williamston (1913-1915) where he played another 35 games.

J.Grant EssA 1911

26 year old Frank Turner had played with Richmond (1907), Prahran (1908), Essendon Association 1909, St.Kilda in 1910 and Northcote in 1911. He had played 30 senior games over that 5 year span.

These six players, each with around 50 senior games or more would be a key part of the new line-up.

Other players recruited at the start of the season include:
A.J. Daniels, who was a regular with Northcote (1909-1910). He would go on to play for Prahran (1914) and returned to Northcote (1915-1918) and eventually played at least 77 VFA games.

19 year old Claude Crowl, who had played three games for StKilda in 1911 while there was a player strike. He would sadly die on 25-April 1915 at Gallipoli.

20 year old George O'Connor had played three games at Richmond (1910-1911) and another two games at St.Kilda in 1911.

22 year old Arch Robinson played one game for Richmond in 1911, he would go on to play another one game at Port Melbourne in 1913 before playing one game for Hawthorn in 1914, before quickly transferring to Northcote where he played one game. He played 8 games for Melbourne city and another four senior games, each at a different club. He enlisted in the AIF in August 1914 and was wounded twice in action during the first World War.

23 year old Joe Kiker had played one game for Richmond in 1909. He played for Blackburn (1910-1911) before joining Melbourne City. He played a few games for Hawthorn in 1914. He was captain of the Mitcham team in 1919.

Harry H. Monaghan received a VFL permit from Ballarat and VFA permit from Port Melbourne. This fits with the 1910 Ports player moving to Ballarat in 1911. A "Harry Monaghan moved to Werribee in July 1909 and was the ex Yarraville captain". This experience fits as, Harry Monaghan would be elected Melbourne City vice captain and later club captain in June 1912.

Len Phillips, from Healesville was described by his local paper as "the smallest man playing football" . (but was 5ft 7 according to Wikipedia). He became the teams regular rover and one the clubs most consistent players. He was in the VFA representative team in 1912. He went on to play for StKilda (1914), Brighton (1914), West Perth (1915-1917), Essendon (1918), Footscray (1919) and Hawthorn (1922) though he played few games at these clubs and played 30 of his 48 Association games while with Melbourne City.

Sport 2-Aug-1912 - Melbourne City Phillips

Initial recruitment was fair, expecting the current environment where direct player payment had just been legalized and all teams were now openly looking for talent.

West Melbourne originally wore red and white hoops, but in their final 1907 season converted to stripes, very similar to the Melbourne City Claret and white colours. The 1912 Capstan cigarette card did not match the final playing guernsey style that rover Len Phillips is shown wearing in the final picture.

C1906 Valentines Association Series West Melbourne source:Mossgreen

1912 1913 Melbourne City FC Wills Club Colours N Flags Source:Sportmem

Sport 2-Aug-1912 Melbourne City Phillips

The team now had a committee, a captain, a trainer, senior players and a cadre of new players

The team needed time to learn how to work together as a unit. They did not have time and would go in far less a combination than other teams. Their goal for the year could only to have been to win a few games against the weaker sides and build slowly as the coffers of the club increased.

Season 1912

The team were not ready for the first round and they were soundly beaten by Footscray who walloped Melbourne City by 113 points.

The Australian noted sympathy, "As was to be expected, the new club's maiden effort was disastrous. It could not fail to be otherwise".

Melbourne City made six changes in the team and a fairly stable team played the next eight rounds.

After round two, against Williamstown, the Weekly times writer noted that "it is safe enough to foretell that when the men shake into their places, and understand each other, they will be an acquisition to Association Football 66 .

But all was not well and the players and club Secretary were soon in dispute.

E.Edwards is potentially the E.Edwards who was West Melbourne club captain in 1898 when R.J.Edwards was on the committee.

Harry Monaghan was elected captain to replace 'Mallee Johnson'. Morgan Murphy was elected hon.secretary in place of Arthur Kingdom. Murphy was assistant secretary of the Liquor Trades Union, and Acting Secretary at the time. He was an experienced organiser, Morgan become Hon.Secretary of Prahran Football Club in 191467 and became a long serving official at the club68

M.J. Murphy Ass Sec Liquor Trades Union - Labor Call 23-Apr-1914 p19

The club tried to fix the situation and a dinner was held on June 5th.
"The Melbourne City players and trainers, numbering about 34, were entertained at a dinner held on Wednesday night at the invitation of the president, Mr Alex Rogers, M.L.A., Mr A.J. Fiske, R.J.Edwards, E.Elton, and Dr Peel. The toast of the Melbourne City Club was proposed." - Herald - Fri 7-Jun-1912 p2

This was not enough as the Herald also reported that "The whole of the players of the Melbourne City Club are to hold a meeting on Monday night, the object being to consider the present position of the club" - Herald - Fri 7-Jun-1912 p2. This would be at the end of Round 8. - Herald - Fri 7-Jun-1912 p2

This appears to have been a feud over player payment as the following week (after round 8), the Herald reported "On Tuesday night, when the weeks expenses were being paid out, it was announced that any player who was dissatisfied might if he feel disposed to do so, throw in his uniform. Only one did so." - Herald 14-Jun-1912 p.2

But rather than the one reported resignation, the infighting meant that around 8 to 10 regular players stopped playing after round 8. Looking at the team lists, many of the most experienced players left the club including captain 'Mallee' Johnson, Les Beck, James Grant and Frank Turner.

A section of the team lists for affected players shows the effect of the change more clearly.

1912 Split

'Copper' Rourke who has played for West Melbourne, Prahran and Northcote, was appointed coach of the Melbourne City club. To help them out of the situation, but he played only three games – Herald 21-Jun-1912 p.2

Sniders N Abrahams 1906 VFA West Melbourne C Rourke - Source: Otway Jack's Football Cards

This rift left around 9 players from the start of the season to form the core of the playing group for the remainder of season (Rounds 13,15,17,18 have incomplete lists). This was not enough. From rounds 9 to 18, Melbourne City lost by an average of 73.5 points (over 12 goals) per game.

1912 Regulars

On July 20, Essendon massacred the struggling City team. The scores were 112 to 5 at three quarter time and ended with Essendon 25.22 (172) running over City 4.7 (31), with Dave McNamara being fed the ball by his team mates, kicking 18 goals in the game, two more than the then record of 16 goals kicked by Jack Hutchinson of Footscray against North Melbourne in 1908. McNamara had also gone on a goal spree against Preston in 1911 where he kicked 14 goals in a game. Against Melbourne City he had 38 attempts at goal, the result could have been much worse.

Kerang New Times 6 Aug 1912 P6 McNamara Kicks 18

The infighting in the middle of the season was a large cause for a high number of players to be used. I count 53, but it is difficult to be accurate. This is similar to some of the biggest player lists ever used, Especially with Melbourne City having only 16 players on the field. Other examples of big playing lists include St.Kilda (VFL) who used 56 players in 1898 and Sandringham used 65 in the war affected 1941 season when many players enlisted and replacements were hard to find.

For Melbourne City, number of players were tried especially in the first few weeks of the season and then at least one or two new players every game.

1912 on-Regular Players

The infighting, lack of preparation and a poor recruiting environment resulted in a terrible on field effort. During 1912, the team did not win a game, in fact they led at quarter time only twice for the season, and never led at half time. They lost 7 games by more that 10 goals.

1912 Results

In fact the season was so bad, it is worth looking at some of the all time worst season's to see where they fit in. The table below gives some of the worst seasons that clubs have endured based on their percentage (Points For/Points Against). "WS" indicates Wooden Spoon. The results here are fairly arbitrary, as it often depends on the ruthlessness of the other teams in the competition.

Worst

Some 19th Century results where only goals were counted are also worth including.

Worst1800s

For the VFA overall 1912 was actually a terrific season, well contested and big crowds to many games. Dave McNamara's Essendon (A) won the premiership. The Semi-Final between North Melbourne and Brunswick had to be played three times! the first two attempts amazingly ended in draws, North Melbourne won the third attempt.

Season 1913

When the clubs finances were made public in February, they had receipts of £445 15/11 and expenses of £375 13/2 giving a credit balance of just over 70 pounds. The club was in credit, but the numbers were bad.

Income included

Expenses included
Player payment £188 (212 players/trainers)
Medallions £20
Smoke night £1070

Prahran, the second bottom team in 1912 had receipts of £589 ,with players and trainers' expenses of 427 pounds.71
Third bottom team Northcote had a total expenditure of £510 , with no breakdown available.72

Melbourne City must have been a concern for the VFA at the start of 1913 season. The 1912 balance sheets showed that the new club had much less money than its rivals. Added to this, the money available for player payments was significantly less than other teams at the bottom of the table. With a dubious income stream, and players able to play for any team they liked, the club would have to focus on recruiting juniors, and even then, having no strong junior club to recruit from.

The Annual meeting of the Club was held at St Patricks Hall
President Jacob Marks
Vice Presidents Cr E.C. Treadwell, Cr. J. Cockbill, Cr. J. Sculthorpe, Mr T.Woods, Mr. D.Hayes, E.A.Pleasence and W.A. Higgins
Committee: J.Hogan, C.Honeybone, E.Hughes, JF. McNamara, F.J. Opitz, R.Wright, A.Chevallo, W.Edwards, T.McVeigh, M.Hanley
Delegates Mr J.Murphy and G.W.Trevaskis
Hon.Secretary J.Murphy
Treasurer G.W.Trevaskis
73 74

Councillor Jack Cockbill had a fertiliser works in West Melbourne, but was better known in South Melbourne where he was a councillor. In 1912 he was a candidate for a seat on the Melbourne City Council. His son was known for his connection to rowing, and had played three games for South Melbourne in 1899.

Players

Of the 1912 players from the end of the season, experienced player Martin Pash retired, Claude Cowl did not play and Harry Wilson received a permit to Footscray. There was no player poaching from other clubs. 1912 player, F.Gregory's permit to Williamstown was refused in May but he did not play for Melbourne City again.

The club hired a new captain/coach in Jimmy Smith, a 36 year old veteran who had played with West Melbourne from 1894-1898 (1 premiership), before joining St.Kilda where he played 130 games and was coach in 1909 before coaching at Brighton in 1912. A veteran local who had experience building weaker teams seems a good fit for the club.

Jimmy Smith

Smith was linked to the Carlton Brewery tug of war team and that may be the reason that four Melbourne Brewery players were recruited (Byrne, Greenhill, Bignall and O'Conner).
Of the other new players, nearly all were juniors. Given a few years, the rebuild strategy could work, but the new recruits were not enough to quickly fix an uncompetitive team.

Smith was well known and respected at the time, and he was one of the lead voices in the call for Football Players Council ('Union'), in reaction to the League and Association's plans drawing up of the district football scheme 1914 to ensure lower player payments75

The season again started well with Melbourne City again winning it's practice match, Melbourne City 10.6 def Caulfield 5.676

Melbourne City fielded a more stable team in 1913 than they had in 1912. Unfortunately they were unable to find juniors who could close the gap between Melbourne City and the other teams in the competition. Also Joe Kiker, one of the leading players suffered from rheumatism and was only able to play a few games at the start of the season.

1913 Players

Early reports from 1913 again suggested hope:

In June, news reports placed Melbourne City at a new low. The 31st of May 1913 was a day of terrible weather, and West Melbourne were at Brighton Beach Oval. The game was even at quarter time Brighton 2.3 (15) v West Melbourne 2.2 (14) but in the second scrambling quarter Brighton kicked another 3 goals and 9 points to nothing at all for West Melbourne. With little hope of winning and cramps affecting many including Len Phillips, the players, against the wishes of the club, decided not to return to the field for the second half of the game.

This had happened only once before, when Brunswick did so in 1899 at the Western Oval, that time, the Footscray independent called it a "sensible decision as players, umpires and spectators were tired of trapsing about in the mud and rain.".

The Age 2 Jun 1913 P.14 Brighton V Melbourne City

Herald 6-Jun-1913 p.3

This was not the final nail for West Melbourne, In fact two weeks later the club led at 3/4 time against Port Melbourne by 7 points at the final bell. Their best ever result.

On either side of another large loss to North Melbourne, the club led at half time against Northcote, and again against Prahran. In both cases their opponants easily kicked away in the second half.

Australasian 10 May 1913 P61 Melbourne City v Prahran

Australasian 10 May 1913 P61 Melbourne City v Prahran

Australasian 10 May 1913 P62 Melbourne City v Prahran

Australasian 10-May-1913 p.62 Melbourne City v Prahran

Things were bad on field at Melbourne City, but it seems the social side kept going with social evenings.

In their final two games, tenth placed Melbourne City faced off against 8th placed Port Melbourne (lost by 76), followed at home against Northcote, placed ninth (lost by 66).

It was clear that without substantial reinforcements, Melbourne City would be in the same winless position te following year.

1913

As the season progressed, calls were loud and unrelenting for Melbourne City to go, and for Hawthorn to come in.

Footscray were Premiers in 1913, beating North Melbourne by one point in the final in front of 20,000 fans at the East Melbourne Ground.

The End

After the close of the 1913 season the VFA annual General Meeting was held at Young and Jacksons Hotel, their regular meeting place since 1877, to discuss the two key issues at hand; a) The future of Melbourne City, and b) The introduction of District Football.

Mr M.Murphy explained that his club had no funds, did not get as many people attending games as they expected and that there was not sufficient population in the locality to carry on the club. And that the club was holding a special meeting to decide its future.

Mr Trevaskis also spoke, noting - "If the Melbourne City Club continued for another ten years the position would be the same, and they were no nearer now than they were twenty seven years ago."78

These are odd words for a club formed two years ago, but make perfect sense if we look back to the meeting in West Melbourne in 1886 (27 years ago) when a group of West Melbourne players looked to rejoin the Senior VFA competition but were stymied for lack of a ground.

I believe that Mr Trevaskis was arguing that the West Melbourne/Melbourne City supporters did not feel that the East Melbourne Cricket Ground was their home, as it was not local. The ground did not represent their ‘tribe’ and that until they had a local ground, they would not succeed.

At the end of the meeting the VFA decided to allow Melbourne City the dignity of having their meeting to decide their very obvious future, rather than vote them out at the meeting itself. But that was it. Melbourne City was gone.

The Argus 4-Dec-1913 p.12

In 1914 the VFL and VFA introduced a district football scheme, such as Adelaide already had where a player had to play for the club assigned to the district that they lived in. This would reduce player salaries (as players could not change clubs very easily) and ensure a more event competition.

The city based Melbourne City was not a good fit for this district scheme, but Hawthorn would be very well suited. The poor performance, lack of ability to change the situation meant that Melbourne City's goodbye was obvious. The loud calls for it to be replaced by Hawthorn were echoed by the VFA themselves.

Aftermath

In the VFA, Hawthorn entered the competition, on top of their regular MJFA team, they added an experienced leader, Alf Gough, from two time premiership captain from Essendon Town as captain coach, and around eight other players with senior experience, including Kiker and Clarke from Melbourne City. 79 Hawthorn won 3 of their 18 games in 1914. Joe Kiker was vice-captain.

Hawthorn's entry was very different than Melbourne City as a new district scheme was now in place, requiring players to play for the team allocated to their district. Melbourne City would have had a very different experience to recruitment, if this had been in place in 1912-1913.
Hawthorn were wooden spooners in 1915, winning only one game. War closed the competition. When Hawthorn returned, they placed 6th in 1919, 8th in 1920 and 6th in 1921. They made the finals for the first time in 1923. They were 6th in 1924, the final year before they joined the VFL.

The VFA would go on trying different ways to play games in the city centre and unsuccessfully experimented with games at Olympic Park during the 1930’s.

The VFL also suffered failure in 1914 as the University Club, finished its second year in a row winless, and only one win in the year before that. University, a strictly amateur club, was just unable to compete against clubs paying their players. University clubs eventually ended up as leading clubs in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.

As for West Melbourne,
A new local team emerged in 1918. "West Melbourne" competed in the "Melbourne Junior Football Association", including teams from North Fitzroy, Coburg, North Melbourne, Moreland, South Yarra, Middle Park and West Brunswick.80 81

In 1919 the VFL started a new 2nd tier competition called the Victorian Junior League. Over the next few years this would evolve into the VFL Seconds competition. In 1919, Essendon, still playing out of their home at the EMCG nominated "West Melbourne Juniors" as its junior team.82 . Frank Reid, the old West Melbourne Club Secretary was still club secretary at Essendon which may explain the link.

West Melbourne lasted in the Junior League for two years before Essendon decided to field it's junior team under its own name. Again leaving West Melbourne without a competition.

The club continued to be successful in Junior football83
Northern Suburban Football Association 1922-1925 -1 Premiership
Metropolitan Junior Football Association 1926-1928 - 3 Premierships

An article at the time indicated that "Owing to not having the facilities of an enclosed ground,'the club is denied the right, of joining senior junior associations."84

In 1929 West Melbourne were refused entry to the VFL sub-districts competition because they did not have a suitable ground.85 Instead, they joined the VFA Sub Districts Association 86 .

West Melbourne 1930

In 1934 F.T. Johnstone, the Hon.Secretary of the West Melbourne Football club wrote a letter to the editor of the Age. His letter focused on the club's struggle to secure an enclosed playing area. He recalled the attempts to secure the West Melbourne reserve, and have it fenced in the 1900s and the clubs continued desire to have land to play on. He lamented that from 1918 his club had been forced to play on an open park, but noted that they had won seven more premierships during the 1918-1934 period.

West Melbourne 1935

The 1937 Annual report had the club playing in the VFA Sub District Association, with the team winning the premiership having won 9 premierships in the last 11 years.87

The 1938 Annual meeting of the club noted the unfair rental of 25 pound for the nine games at their new home at the enclosed area in Park Street and their intention to join the Victorian Sub-District League that season.88

The Age 28-Aug-1939 p6 Bruce Gregory West Melbourne

F.Johnsone, West Melbourne Club Secretary - 89

West Melbourne 1941

West Melbourne participated in the Sub District League in 1942 but did not participate in the 1943 season.

It appears that was the end of the West Melbourne club. 1946-47 North Melbourne unsuccessfully attempted to reform the sub district team.90 91

Another revival of a West Melbourne club appeared in 1950 when "West Melbourne" appeared in the "Sunday Social Association".92 The competition changed its name and became the "Sunday Amateur Football Association" in 1951. 93 94

Why did the team fail and was the idea always doomed to fail

In the end, everything went wrong for Melbourne City. From lack of preparation, Internal Fighting, loss of players, and a lack of capital made the club uncompetitive on the field, and unable to bring in a following which then again exacerbated their lack of funds, and competitiveness.

The name change to Melbourne City might have been a good idea to bring in new followers, but who is going to watch a team lose every week when they could go to a more competitive game around the corner. Melbourne City needed a stronger initial start than a suburban team might have needed because of its location. Was it doomed to fail because it could not compete for fans against centrally based VFL clubs. I think not, as West Melbourne had already been a successful team only a few years before.

To see how badly Melbourne City did to bring back spectators we can use gate receipts. During this period, the VFA took 10% of the gate from each club, and this was published in the VFA annual reports. From a quick look at the 1911-1913 era, we can see that Melbourne City's gate was at least three times smaller than it's nearest rival. Not only did Melbourne City not bring in new fans, but the existing West Melbourne supporters failed to appear.

VFA Annual Report 1911 Gate Levy

VFA Annual Report 1912 Gate Levy

VFA Annual Report 1913 Gate Levy

Even the timing was against Melbourne City's success, as open professionalism suddenly pushed up cost of players, just as they were starting out.

Finally in this era, the power was with the clubs and not the VFA. The VFA were not in a position to step in and assist the new club, through marketing, or though other mechanisms to ensure that the new team would be competitive. The introduction of new teams into the AFL in recent years included many concessions from other clubs. In 1912 and 1913, Melbourne City were on their own.

Final Comments

When I started writing this article, I believed that many authors had unfairly condemned the VFA's 1912 decision go with Melbourne City. The VFA were very strong at the time and a successful inner city club would have put them in a far better bargaining position for a potential reunification, much more than another regional team would have, especially considering West Melbourne's previous success.

I thought that the risk was worth it to the VFA and that view should be presented in an article. But as I researched the article it became clear that the financial requirements for a successful team were well known, and the Melbourne City bid did not have enough backing to ever make it work.

Melbourne City failed, not because it was an inner-city club, but because:

• There was no home ground in West Melbourne that could support a junior team as well as a senior team.
• There was no effort to widen the clubs support by incorporating/ working with other local teams.
• The new club just did not have enough money to field a senior club, especially in an era where there was open player payments and no district system.
• The team Melbourne City recruited was not strong enough to win more than one or two games, and would therefore not bring in big crowds. The defection of key players early in the first season had a huge impact.

Both Melbourne City and the VFA understood the money that would be needed to field a competitive team before the project even started. It was decided on pure hope.

-- END ARTICLE --