1876 Victorian football season

Last updated

1876 Victorian football premiership season
Premiers Melbourne
(3rd premiership)
←  1875
1877 (VFA)  →

The 1876 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1876. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier metropolitan club was Melbourne, and the premier provincial club was Barwon.

Contents

This was the final season of decentralised administration of football in Victoria; the Victorian Football Association was formed the following year to provide a committee-based approach to the administration of the sport.

1876 premierships

Six metropolitan clubs participated in senior football during the 1876 season: Albert-park, Carlton, Carlton Imperial, East Melbourne, Melbourne and St Kilda. As had been the case for a few years, Carlton and Melbourne were considered the dominant clubs in the city, so the premier club was decided based entirely on the head-to-head record between the clubs; in their four meetings, Melbourne won two, Carlton won one, and one was drawn, so Melbourne was recognised as the premier club for the season. [1]

In the provincial competition, Barwon was the premier team, and was the winner of the Geelong, Ballarat and Wimmera District Challenge Cup. Barwon was presented with the cup after defeating Geelong 2–1 on 29 July. [2] [3]

Club senior records

The below table is the results for senior clubs during the 1876 season. The table shows the record across all matches, including senior, junior and intercolonial matches. The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Australasian newspaper. Other than announcing the top three place-getters, there was no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised.

1876 Metropolitan Clubs' Results
No.TEAMPWLDGFGA
1 Melbourne (P)1710253315
2 Carlton 2015235412
3 Albert-park 10622187
St Kilda 155551718
East Melbourne133461817
Carlton Imperial82601618
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, (P) = PremiersSource: [1]
1876 Provincial Clubs' Results
TEAMPWLDGFGA
Barwon (P)8620199
Geelong 113531616
Geelong Imperial512235
Bendigo422038
Ararat312038
Ballarat116231910
Maryborough94411610
Key: P = Played, W = Won, L = Lost, D = Drawn, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, (P) = PremiersSource: [3]

Other awards

Albert-park cum North Melbourne

In May, shortly before the start of the season, the North Melbourne Football Club was disbanded, and most senior players and many members of the club joined the Albert-park Football Club, which was itself in a weakened position due to the departure of many players. [4] There was no formal amalgamation between the two clubs, but Albert-park took on a strong North Melbourne character, fielding more former North Melbourne players than Albert-park players, and many fans openly cheered for North Melbourne rather than Albert-park [5] – and some in the media came to describe the club as Albert-park cum North Melbourne. The arrangement lasted only for one year, and the Hotham Football Club was re-established in North Melbourne in 1877. [6]

Disputed match between Carlton and Melbourne

The result of the final match for the season, a de facto premiership playoff match between Carlton and Melbourne held at the Madeline Street Reserve on 23 September was disputed between the two clubs, owing to a disagreement over whether the first half goal scored by Melbourne's Fred Baker was valid. Baker had taken a mark right on the goal line and quickly kicked the ball between the posts, despite protests by Carlton players that Baker had illegally pushed Carlton defender Harry Nudd out of the marking contest.

According to The Australasian reporter Peter Pindar, who reported the details of a conversation he had with field umpire Searcey after the game, Searcey agreed that Nudd had been illegally pushed and was about to annul the goal (which the goal umpire had already awarded) and award a free kick when the Carlton players began to protest. However, Searcy was offended by the language that the Carlton players had used toward him and instead left the ground immediately, without having resolved the issue of the goal. [7] There was a delay of fifteen minutes before a new umpire, Mr Bride, could be found, during which Carlton unsuccessfully protested the awarding of the goal. Each club scored one additional goal during the rest of the game, resulting in a 2–1 victory for Melbourne. [8]

Following the match, the Carlton Football Club maintained its position of disputing Baker's goal, and claimed the match as a 1–1 draw; with no formal means of resolving the dispute, both clubs maintained their positions to the point that the two clubs reported different results for the match in their annual reports. [9]

Depsite this discrepancy, the major newspapers all considered the match to be a Melbourne victory; as the four matches between Carlton and Melbourne saw Melbourne win twice (including in this match) and Carlton win once, with the other match being drawn, Melbourne was thus declared the premier club for the season. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Australian rules football</span> Aspect of history

Australian rules football began its evolution in Melbourne, Australia about 1858. The origins of Australian football before 1858 are still the subject of much debate, as there were a multitude of football games in Britain, Europe, Ireland and Australia whose rules influenced the early football games played in Melbourne.

1934 VFL season 38th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL)

The 1934 VFL season was the 38th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 5 May until 13 October, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

The 1981 VFL season was the 85th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 28 March until 26 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1877 VFA season</span>

The 1877 Victorian Football Association season was the first in which the Australian rules football competition in Victoria was run under a properly constituted administrative body. The Association was formed with the view to governing the sport via a collective body, made up of delegates representing the clubs. It was the second such body to have been formed; the South Australian National Football League having been formed just 17 days prior to the VFA.

The 1878 Victorian Football Association season was the second season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club, after it defeated Melbourne in a playoff match on 5 October. It was the club's first VFA premiership, and the first in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1878 to 1880. Geelong was unbeaten during the year.

The 1879 Victorian Football Association season was the third season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club. It was the club's second VFA premiership, and the second in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1878 to 1880; for the second consecutive season, Geelong was unbeaten during the year.

The 1880 Victorian Football Association season was the fourth season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club. It was the club's third VFA premiership, and the last in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1878 to 1880; Geelong lost two matches for the season, its first losses since 1877, having been unbeaten through the previous two years.

The 1881 Victorian Football Association season was the fifth season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the South Melbourne Football Club. It was the club's first VFA premiership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1882 VFA season</span>

The 1882 Victorian Football Association season was the sixth season of the Australian rules football competition. The premiership was won by the Geelong Football Club. It was the club's fourth VFA premiership in just five seasons, and was the first in a sequence of three consecutive premierships won from 1882 to 1884.

The Challenge Cup was the name of several football trophies contested in Melbourne, Australia, during the 1860s and 1870s under the Melbourne Football Club rules and the Victorian rules.

The 1907 VFL Grand Final, originally known as the 1907 VFL Final, was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and South Melbourne Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 21 September 1907. It was the 10th Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, and determined the premiers for the 1907 VFL season.

The 1875 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1875. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier metropolitan club was Carlton, and the premier provincial club was Geelong.

The 1874 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1874. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier was Carlton.

The 1873 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1873. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier club was Carlton.

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

Albert Park Football Club was a 19th-century Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. The club was one of main first-rate senior football clubs during the unaffiliated era of Victorian football.

The 1871 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1871. The season consisted of matches between football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The Carlton Football Club was the premier club for the season.

The 1872 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1872. The season consisted of matches between football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The Melbourne Football Club was the premier club for the season.

Barwon Football Club was a 19th-century Australian rules football club based in South Geelong, Victoria, and for a brief period during the mid-1870s, was provincial Victoria's strongest football club.

The Victorian Junior Football Association (VJFA) was an open age Australian rules football competition and administrative body. It was the first successful junior football competition in Melbourne, and was in existence from 1883 until 1932. For most of its history it was a competition of independent junior level clubs, before it eventually transitioned to become the second eighteens competition for the senior Victorian Football Association.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Peter Pindar (7 October 1876). "The Football Season of 1876 – Part 1". The Australasian. Vol. XXI, no. 549. Melbourne, VIC. p. 460.
  2. ↑ "Saturday's Sports – football". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. 31 July 1876. p. 6.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Peter Pindar (21 October 1876). "The Football Season of 1876 – Part 2". The Australasian. Vol. XXI, no. 551. Melbourne, VIC. p. 524.
  4. ↑ Tonball (26 May 1876). "Football". North Melbourne Advertiser. North Melbourne, VIC. p. 3.
  5. ↑ "Football: Melbourne v. Albert Park". Leader. Melbourne, VIC. 3 June 1876. p. 13.
  6. ↑ Nomad (9 July 1877). "Football Notes". Leader. Melbourne, VIC. p. 12.
  7. ↑ Peter Pindar (30 September 1876). "Football Gossip". The Australasian. Vol. XXI, no. 548. Melbourne, VIC. p. 428.
  8. ↑ "Saturday's sports – football". The Argus. Melbourne, VIC. p. 7.
  9. ↑ Peter Pindar (5 May 1877). "Football Gossip". The Australasian. Vol. XXII, no. 579. Melbourne, VIC. p. 556.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.