First Successes, Last Hurrahs

Continuing the series of VFL / AFL 'decades in review'... In part 3, a 'golden era' of the VFL, where most teams had a realistic shot at the flag.
In the 30 seasons from 1950 to 1979, 10 of the 12 competing teams did indeed carry off a season with a flag. While the writing was on the wall at the end of this period for the two teams that missed out, South Melbourne and Fitzroy.


THE BREAKTHROUGHS BEGIN

The first full post-war decade brought the first real success of the 'new teams' introduced in 1925, with Footscray breaking through for their first Premiership in 1954. Even that successful year didn't amount to a successful decade, with a winning percentage of only 48.9%.

The fifties also was the era of dominance by Melbourne under the legendary Norm Smith, when they won 4 flags and could have bagged another 2 more (missing 1954 and 1958). And the Melbourne dominance didn't finish with the end of this decade, with more flags in the 60's.


THE SPLIT APPEARS

The 60's were possibly the most balanced and competitive decade of the VFL, with 7 different teams winning flags, and only 4 teams not having positive winning percentages. It could also be argued that it was the beginning of tough times for the 4 clubs that had the poorest winning percentages. Of those 4 two have moved / merged and the other 2 have had both additional AFL funding and changed their name as well.

This decade was (and still is) St.Kilda's best, with a flag and a 61.2% winning performance. Best by a long way (nearest was 50.4% in the 90's).

It was also the decade of breakthrough for Hawthorn, finally winning a flag and leaving only North Melbourne without a premiership.

The 60's also marked the start of Collingwood's 'Decades of Dissapointment', with no flags for the 60's, 70's and 80's.

With the advent of television and televised games (along with radio coverage) you could also mount an argument that the additional media coverage fuelled the divide amongst the clubs, with more focus on the successful teams pulling in more supporters and dollars etc. You could mount that case, but I will just call it a theory and leave it at that.


THE BEGINNING OF THE END

The 70's were the era of colour television, where teams accommodated the TV networks by changing jumper colours (e.g. Melbourne to a lighter blue), and even wearing coloured shorts (Richmond and Essendon both donned shorts that matched the sashes, Footscray went for red shorts too). The first real decade where the media influenced football.

In turn it was also the decade where football influenced popular culture as it was when the first Australian Football based feature films were made:  "The Great MacArthy" (1975) and "The Club" (movie: 1980, play 1977).

It also saw the last of the 1920's new boys break through and win a flag, with Barassi at the helm and Aylett working the 10-year rule to effect, North Melbourne picked up their first 2 flags. It was also the begininning of a dominating period by Hawthorn and Carlton as well, with 3 flags each and more in the 80's as well.

It also returned football back to a decade of dominance of some clubs, but this time with a twist. Clubs were now openly spending and securing the best talent, as well as developing players from within their zones, which continued into the next decade until the boom time turned to bust.

The spending was partly triggered by the introduction of the 10-year rule, but also by the increased flow of funds into clubs. No longer reliant on memberships and benefactors, this decade brought sponsorship to a new level. No longer were the fences on the outer draped with supporter made banners, but sponsor signs. Jumpers also first sported logos over the left breast
 - North Melbourne and Courage Breweries
 - Essendon and Don Smallgoods
 - Collingwood and Yakka
 - Richmond and Carlton and United Breweries
for example.

Notably, without sponsorship dollars was St. Kilda, Melbourne, Footscray, Fitzroy and South Melbourne. And for the latter, it was their last decade in Melbourne. The beginning of the end of the VFL had begun, without most people realising it.


And the next three decades would shake the foundations of the football world,
...as well as re-invigorate it into a new dimension.

Ask Your Grandfather

Continuing the series of VFL / AFL 'decades in review'... this time from the 20's through to the 40's... another period that the VFL and Australia was touched by war and troubles.

An era where legends were made, heroes were only read about and dreamed of. Where kids kicked rolled up newspapers around because they couldn't afford footballs, but loved the game intensely.


ROARING AGAIN

The 1920's was the final decade of footy before electronic media, radio, television etc. Players then were more mythical legends, with deeds only seen at live on match-days, or read in the papers, or discussed in workshops, pubs or schoolyards. It was the last days of the most pure form of team supporting... of being at your local ground as the only direct contact and involvement you could have with your team.

The 20's also saw the VFL push for the introduction of a new team and elimination of the bye. VFA clubs spent years lobbying the power-brokers at the League before finally settling on North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Footscray (with Prahran missing out). Those three teams were selected for inclusion to the VFL during the 1924 season. At the end of the '24 season, Footscray as VFA premiers, famously went on to win the title 'Champions of Victoria' after defeating the VFL Premiers, Essendon.

The three new clubs commenced VFL action in 1925, but owing to the existing VFL clubs not relinquishing suburban recruiting zones, they were hamstrung from the start (somethings never change). Essendon also recruited a few of the Footscray players that defeated them in the Champions of Victoria match (one of the purest examples of being a sore loser!).



DEPRESSION ERA FOOTBALL

The depression brought in hard and tough football, where playing with an injury was a must unless you wanted to lose your match payments. Also, as money was tight at clubs, the wealthy benefactors at the bigger clubs were able to help with player payments and recruitment through the decade, and this is reflected in the teams listed at the top at the finish of the decade.

In fact, this decade was so lopsided that it is the only one to produce a top 4 that won +60% of their games and have +120% for/against. (The only challenger is the 70's, although the for/against percents were lower).



WAR, LOSS AND RATIONING

The war years again brought a suspension in play, but only for Geelong who stood out of the 1942 and 43 seasons due to wartime travel restrictions. Geelong's players were temporarily transferred to other clubs to allow them to keep playing. Melbourne and Collingwood also struggled to field teams, relying on VFA players and Servicemen to complete their squads.

Matches were also played away from major grounds, as they were requisitioned for the war effort. US soldiers and Australian RAAF personnel were stationed at the MCG (in what the Americans called 'Camp Murphy').

St. Kilda also missed playing some games due to a quirky draw the VFL introduced to eliminate the bye mid-season (in 1943 after 11 rounds, the 11th team got tipped out for the remaining 5 matches).
The war and ration years also proved to be the worst period in Collingwood's history to date, with no flags and the the first time they had won less than 6 out of 10 games. Quite a contrast to the big spending decade before.

Taking It One Decade At A Time

As we draw into the start of the 2012 AFL season (Yep, I don't count pre-season games as real footy) its time to trawl through my VFL / AFL 'all games ever played list'.

Last year, I could console (post-Grand Final loss) the Wobbler fans on this blog post with a bit of an historical factoid... that they are currently the team with the best winning record in the full history of the competition. (and for you Gen Y'ers, than means they are the 'most winning-est' team).

So lets paraphrase an old football adage, lets review teams performances "one decade at a time".*
*yes, the first really is only a 3 year period, so not truly a decade... understood.



THE BREAKAWAY

The first three years of the VFL involved the VFA power teams, and for geographic balance*, St. Kilda play 14 game seasons, plus a convoluted finals series that is best left for you to research and try to understand (because I wont try).
Essendon topped out the 1890's as the best, though Fitzroy actually had more Premierships. The St. Kilda failed to win a game in 3 full seasons.
* Port Melbourne were a VFA power and touted for inclusion but were rejected (possibly on the grounds that their players and supporters were 'too rowdy') in favour of weaker St. Kilda.



A NEW CENTURY, A NEW ERA

The first full decade saw the competition expand with the introduction of Richmond and University joining in 1908, and the number of games per season grow to 18. Interestingly, the VFL leaders chose to include one more VFA team (Richmond), and University which was then playing in the Metropolitan Football League.

From the turn of the century, Carlton had the best of the decade with 3 premierships, but it was Collingwood that dominated, winning 2/3rds of their games and 2 flags. Fitzroy also picked up 2 premierships as well.

University's first two seasons were quite productive, winning 15 of their first 36 games. Not a bad result for a new team, and better than Richmond performed as well. St.Kilda started to win some games, but a 25% win rate over the 10 years made for tough times at the Junction Oval.



THE YEARS OF LOSS AND SADNESS

After the introduction of new teams in the previous decade, the call to arms saw the loss of many a young man from Australia. And during the war years also saw the temporary loss of Melbourne (1916-18), Geelong (1916), Essendon (1916-17), South Melbourne (1916) and St. Kilda (1916-17)  from the competition on "patriotic grounds".

Also in this decade, after 51 consecutive losses and a total of 126 games over 7 years, University left the VFL at the end of the 1914 season. This left the competition as 9 teams (and a weekly bye) at the end of the decade. A situation that would be rectified in the next decade, with 3 new teams being accepted into the league.

A nice spread of premierships too in the war years, with Collingwood securing 3, Carlton, Fitzroy and Essendon securing 2 each. South Melbourne had the best of the decade, winning almost 7/10 games, but only 1 flag. Also worth noting, three teams (South, Carlton and Collingwood) dominated, winning 2/3rds (or more) of there games for the decade... clearly more than any other team.



In the next blog post: the 20's, 30's and 40's.