Understanding Australian Rules Football

As Australia's pre-eminent historian, Geoffrey Blainey wrote, Australian rules football is "a game of our own".

Australian football is club based -- that is the locus of a fan's passion, especially in Victoria, the game's spiritual home. Although State of Origin football originated in Aussie rules and is popular outside of Victoria, Victorians aren't interested in it. This post will give a very brief outline of the game's history in Victoria then concentrate on the identity of  the teams that made up the Victorian Football League (VFL) before it took in, under duress, teams from interstate and became the Australian Football League (AFL)

The first officially recorded game  of Australian Rules Football was played in 1858, although some form of the game had been played in the 1840s in Melbourne. Tom Wills, an Australian who had experience with football at Rugby School in England, led the way for regular games and codification of the rules. For the early days of the game, two excellent histories exist, one by Geoffrey Blainey "A Game of Our Own: The Origins of Australian Football" (Black Inc, 2010) and the other by Greg de Moore "Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall" (Allen and Unwin, 2008). The books reflect the backgrounds of the authors.

Prof. Blainey is a professional historian with a flair for a memorable turn of phrase. He coined the phrase "the tyranny of distance".  This book,  sad to say, is not his best; not because it is unscholarly, but because it tends to be a bit dry for the average reader. As history, however, it is excellent, putting to rest many of the myths that surround the game's origins. Aussie rules, for example, is not derived from Gaelic football and it is unlikely to be related to Aboriginal games collectively known as marngrook.

Dr de Moore's biography of Tom Wills, founding father of Aussie rules, is a gripping tale of a man who did more than any other to codify and popularise the game. In the end,  Tom Wills could not come to terms with his fading powers and took his own life. This book can be recommended without equivocation to anyone interested in the early days of Aussie rules. Dr de Moore is a Sydney psychiatrist with a research interest in male suicide.

The first thing to establish about Australian Rules Football is that it is a product of Melbourne's inner suburbs. The VFL came into being when eight teams broke away from the Victorian Football Association (VFA) to form the VFL in 1897 -- Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne. The VFL became the AFL in 1990. It has been conclusively proved recently that the Victorian teams did not want interstate teams in the competition and only allowed their entry to gain their entry fees, as the VFL was nearly bankrupt. Teams to gain entry, over time,  were the Adelaide Crows, Port Adelaide, the West Coast Eagles, the Brisbane Bears, the Gold Coast Suns, and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Cynics attribute the expansion of the AFL to non traditional territories to be more to do with marketing than passion, but so far the expansion teams have done reasonably well.  Which is to say, better than could have been hoped.

Each AFL team has an ethos or a 'meaning' associated with it. Football is like a religion in Melbourne (see  previous post on football codes entitled "Ecology of Australian Football"). You are more likely to change your religion than your football team. Victoria is still the heart of the AFL, with ten teams.

Carlton are known as the Blues. The Blues have won 16 premierships, equal top with Essendon. Carlton claims to have have more club members on the BRW Rich List than any other club. If Carlton doesn't have the best players, the club will buy them. Breaching the salary cap won the club a premiership but cost it draft picks which put it back a decade, a sorry legacy only now being overcome. The Blues last flag was in 1995, an unusually long premiership drought. They now have the best AFL coach available for the next three seasons, Mick Malthouse, said to be on over $1 million a year.  Although some would disagree, it's not strictly correct to call Carlton silvertails because Carlton is not old money. The "famous old dark Navy Blues" can never be counted out.

Carlton is loathed by other football followers, Collingwood is merely detested, Collingwood are known known as the Magpies (from their black and white strip), frequently shortened to the Pies. Collingwood is the only club to have won four flags in a row. Dark rumors circulate that John Wren's money played a hand in this feat. Collingwood  is said to be the most powerful sporting club in Australia. The Woodsmen are proudly working class and the slogan "kill for Collingwood" is only a slight exaggeration. If your partner barracks for Carlton or Melbourne it is known as a mixed marriage.

Essendon are known as the Bombers. Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood are the three powerhouse clubs of the AFL. When games were played at the suburban grounds, Essendon were headquartered at Windy Hill. Their long serving coach Kevin Sheedy once tied down the flag at Windy Hill, presumably so the opposition couldn't gauge the wind. Essendon, also known as the Dons, are equal with Carlton in flags won, but they have also suffered a premiership drought in recent years. The Dons are lower middle class, a bit like Carlton with an attitude and less money.

Fitzroy are extinct. In theory they merged with the Brisbane Bears but the only result was that the Bears became the Lions. Fitzroy supporters were said to do more damage to their own club than their opponents. Fitzroy was Melbourne's first suburb, it has always been small in area and population.

Geelong is a regional city about 80 kms from Melbourne. Known as the Cats, Geelong have had a good run in recent years, picking up several premierships. Geelong gets deranged about football, even more so than Melbounre. There is nothing even remotely fair about the seating allocation for visiting clubs at their stadium and that's the way Geelong people like it. Heroes at Geelong include Graham "Polly" Farmer, the man who reinvented handball and won them a flag, and Gary Abblett, a forward of freakish talent who never quite achieved greatness. Geelong was once called a "handbag team" but they have toughened up.

Melbourne are definitely silvertails, an upper middle class team who once dominated the VFL. Seemingly, they are now in a hole from which they may never emerge. They had champions like master coach Norm Smith and champion Ron Barassi but lost them both. Their recent champion was Jim Stynes, an Irishman who did much to revive the club and who died young. Melbourne is "too proud to merge."  Extinction would be deserved  and would probably ensue without  Melbourne's history as the AFL's founding club.

St Kilda probably deserves the wooden spoon as the least successful club in the AFL.  The Saints have won only one flag in their whole history in the VFL and AFL. St Kilda is said to be a fragmented club, which hinders its on field endeavors. Many of its players have been male models, or so it is said. St Kilda covers a traditionally Jewish area -- pre WWII Jewish immigrants typically barrack for Carlton, post war Jewish immigrants barrack for St Kilda. Despite its lack of success, St Kilda has a strong following in Melbourne's southern suburbs. Recently, its main on field problem has been inconsistency. One week the Saints will play a blinder, the next they will will fall over.

South Melbourne relocated to Sydney in 1982. The Sydney Swans, as they are now known, as in theory not a new team. The Swans won the 2012 Premiership. They have won respect for their hard, uncompromising brand of football. The Swans, after some hard early years, have done well on the field.  Full forward Warrick Capper's short shorts and Dr Geoffrey Edelsten's antics attracted attention early on. They still have loyalists in Melbourne who remember them as "the Bloods".

The Western Bulldogs, formerly known as Footscray, joined the AFL in 1925. They have only ever won one flag, equal to St Kilda. Footscray is in the western suburbs of Melbourne, a depressed area. Footscray is now "spot the Aussie" territory. The club under David Smorgon, whose family had extensive business interested in the area, has reached out to the immigrant communities. David Smorgon deserves a knighthood for what he has done for the Western Bulldogs. When his presidency winds up next year, he will have been in office for almost 17 years. The VFL wanted to merge the Bulldogs with Fitzroy. Even if they haven't prospered, they have survived, mainly because under leading lawyer Peter Gordon and David Smorgon they have had competent managers, unlike the parade of publicans and bone headed ex players who blighted the club's previous administrations. Being a Bulldogs supporter requires a special kind of stamina. The Bulldogs have never been very good for very long, they are an unfashionable team from an unfashionable area. Even their greatest son, Mr Football, Ted Whitten was known as "kick it to me Ted" by his teammates because he told rookie players if they didn't kick the ball to him he would make sure they didn't get a game next week.

Hawthorn joined the VFL along with North Melbourne and Footscray in 1925. They are probably the greatest club of the modern era. Hawthorn the suburb is an upper middle class area that doesn't deserve Hawthorn the football club.  If the people of Hawthorn don't seem to be excited when Hawthorn is in a Grand Final, it's because they are not. Hawthorn have won ten premierships, all since the 1960s. Great players include champion full forward "the Captain" Jason Dunstall, "Lethal" Leigh Matthews who also coached the Lions to three flags, Michael Tuck, the all time AFL games record holder, and Robert "Dipper" Dipierdomenico, one of the most successful Australians of Italian origin ever to play AFL football. Hawthorn were first known as the Mayblooms and were about as effective as their nickname would suggest. Now they are now known for their tough unsociable brand of football.

North Melbourne also joined the VFL in 1925. For years, North were the cellar dwellers of the VFL. Then in 1973, the Kangaroos hired the great Ron Barassi as a coach and recruited several champion players and won a string premierships. The Kangaroos are also unofficially known as the Shinboners, from the local abbatoirs where a number of their players made their living. Alan Aylett, the president in North's glory years, is said to have gone to the local bank manager with a proposition to buy champion players and repay the loan with earnings from their premierships. North Melbourne is not a big suburb, it is still semi industrial and even given its otherwise desirable location near the city, it is not a great place to live. Life has always been hard for North, even when they have had on their roster players like "The King", Wayne Carey at centre-half forward, regarded be many as the greatest player of all time. The Kangaroos are commonly regarded as having the smallest supporter base of any Melbourne club. They won Premierships in 1975 and 1977, plus two more in 1996 and 1999, but life has always been tough at Arden Street.

TO BE CONTINUED IN MY POST 'AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL OUT OF MELBOURNE'