Grand Final History

Games at the Exhibition Oval, next to the Exhibition Buildings? The VFL was negotiating with Cricket Clubs to get a fair share of revenue for football on grounds controlled by Cricket Clubs and released the 1931 fixture with games at the Exhibition Oval and the Motordrome, opposite the MCG. Football clubs were threatened with eviction. It was going to get tense before an agreement was struck. Coll...

Collingwood are looking for their fourth premiership in a row but with three time premiership captain Syd Coventry appointed Captain Coach of Footscray how will the Magpies cope? Harry Collier finally gets to meet Charlie, it only took 59 years! Geelong supporters wonder if the You Yang mountains are cursed. 1930 was a tough time for many people but footy provided relief for many. And though the r...

The Rum Rebellion, the tragedy of Australia’s frontier wars and the birth of our own game, all of this will be explored as we look at the Henry Colden Antil Harrison, the Father of Football and the forgetting and remembering of his cousin, Tom Wills. Colden Harrison may not have been at the very birth of the game, unlike cousin and brother in law Tom, but his impact was pivotal in the growth and e...

Coventry kicks a ton, the Father of Football dies and the Victorian team rescue a stowaway and there is talk of the VFL killing the VFA, again! The VFL and the world were changing in 1929, not always for the better but one thing that could be counted on was the Collingwood Machine and their quest for a premiership hat trick. The Saints would make a late run for the finals and the premiership game...

Affiliation between the VFA and VFL was a hot topic in 1928. Could these two feuding organisations put their history behind them and cooperate for the good of football in Victoria. Many meetings, detailed proposals and a preview of an arrangement that was implemented many decades later.  An episode for those interested in the fractious relationship between the VFL and the VFA

Collingwood players threatening to go on strike over pay cuts, the VFA looking to affiliate with the VFL, a Brownlow winner off to the USA to teach American footballers to kick and meet Hollywood stars and Geelong’s grandstand burns down so the players get new boots. 1928 was a busy season as the economy started to look tougher clubs looked to save money. But how could the Magpies defend their pre...

One champion footballer killed in a car crash and Geelong nearly lose three premiership players in another accident on the Geelong Road. The popularity of cars is increasing and the road toll is growing. 1927 was not short of drama and incident. Collingwood dumped their captain before the season started with never ending rumours of bribery and corruption. At the National Football Championship a ta...

Ten years in one episode, the third decade of the VFL. From a time of war and global pandemic a six team competition grows to 12 clubs and the game is faster, with higher scores but not everybody is happy. The first radio broadcasts and growing number of newspapers feed a never ending hunger for news about footy. Gambling and bribery scandals target premiership teams. There is event discussion of...

Tragedy strikes on and off the field, bushfires burn the state and one VFL player dies due to a tetnus infection after breaking his arm in a game. 1926 had its challenges. There were also highlights, the game was faster, the scores were higher and a Grand Final was won with six wonderful minutes sealing the game. It was also the year where two men coached at one club but played for another in the...

The VFL becomes a 12 team competition, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Footscray leave the VFA. Threats of legal action, suspensions and accusations of dishonourable conduct. But then proposals for two new privately run teams, playing under lights on Saturday and Sunday decades before night football was established. And Grand Final players bashed after training by a gang of supporters from the other...

No Grand Final but plenty of scandal. Did the premiership team take a dive? Why did Fitzroy select the coach of Melbourne to play in their Semifinal? Is the Brownlow for the Fairest and Best or the Best and Fairest and why are the umpires casting the votes? And the league looks at a new ground as an alternative to the MCG. And will the VFL finally make a decision to admit a 10th team. All this and...

1923 sees the start of radio broadcasting but letting people know who won the Grand Final can also be done by shooting flares from an air-plane over a crowded Caulfield Cup crowd. Every team except Carlton would spend some time in the Four yet it would come down to the last round of the season to lock in the finalists. The Blues were not a happy club and players fighting with committee members aft...

Significant changes in 1922 as some of the VFL's biggest names end their careers while two Newspapers debut, providing even more coverage of football for a sports hungry public. The Sun News Pictorial and the Sporting Globe add their voice to the 26th season where Richmond will attempt their third premiership in three years, Essendon move to a new home at Windy Hill and the VFL grapple with new ru...

1921 in the Victorian Football League, it was a year that Essendon’s efforts to find a new home ground saw the temporary demise of North Melbourne and a slow train journey to Perth had the best players from Victoria and South Australia playing kick to kick on the wide open Nullarbor Plain. Roy Cazaly moved to South Melbourne and the cry of “Up there Cazaly” was born. During a vicious hail storm th...

Innovation was the theme in 1920 for the VFL: New jumpers proposed to avoid clashes, new rules to open the game and reduce congestion, proposals for ground rationalisation down to two grounds in Melbourne and scheduling Morning Games in the fixture. It was all happening over 100 years ago. Also, controversy in Grand Final week as one player is barred from playing due to a zoning restriction and an...

Borders closed between states, travel restricted, buildings closed, masks required when in public but the footy went on. Might seem familiar today but that was life in 1919 as the Spanish Flu arrived in Australia along with thousands of returning service men and women. All nine VFL teams were playing in 1919, but the Flu was taking its toll on players. Roy Cazaly was out for a few weeks and many p...

South Melbourne go through the 1918 home and away season with just one loss. The secret to their defeat by St Kilda did not emerge for 50 years, and what a secret it was! But how would the Southerners go in the finals? Five Grand Finals for just one premiership so far in the VFL raised some questions about South Melbourne’s ability to handle the pressure in big games. Essendon and St Kilda returne...

During a year of turmoil around the world and in Australia football provides a respite from war, tragedy and political division. But there are financial scandals that lead the resignation of the VFL president as clubs use money raised for Patriotic Funds to cover their own expenses. 1917 saw a six team competition and before the Grand Final one former player sent a lucky horseshoe made from a Germ...

Ten years in one episode! The leage expands and contracts, players become professional but gambling and bribery allegations cast a cloud. Collingwood tries doping in a semi final yet lose the game anyway. Violence rears its ugly head involving players, crowds, police and the courts. Coaches are sacked, comittees dumped and players go on strike. The game is captured on film and the first exhibition...

How do you run a league and a season of football when more than half the clubs refuse to play? 1916 was the year when a majority of VFL clubs said football was a distraction from the war effort and others argued that it provided a welcome relief and entertainment for the working man. And it would be an opportunity to raise money for the Patriotic Funds. It was a season like no other. Four clubs pl...

1915, The season starts the day before the Gallipoli landings, with only nine clubs now that University has departed. But many people are asking why footballers are being paid to play a game while soldiers are needed to defend the empire. There is a vote to shorten the season and a majority of clubs agree.  A charity game between VFA premiers North Melbourne and St Kilda is played, the purpose is...

Carlton undertake one of the most successful rebuilding efforts of any VFL/AFL team, making the Grand Final with 9 first year players.  Can they go all the way? And what happens when a player is reported for striking a spectator who punched him first, what ruling will the tribunal bring down? In a season that was marked by the start of the WWI the VFL had one of its most even seasons ever. But it...

Melbourne players threaten to go on strike, a deadly virus causes a club to change travel plans, players form thier first union and St Kilda makes a barnstorming entrance into the finals. With record crowds squeezed into the MCG, can St Kilda pull off one of the biggest upsets yet in the VFL's history. In other matters there is an outbreak of peace and goodwill between the VFL and VFA but it won't...

It was the year of the Olympics and the Titanic's maiden voyage. But in Melbourne the focus was on the footy. Players now had numbers on their jumpers and the Footy Record was on sale before the game. Could Essendon go back to back under super coach Jack Worrall? One club would mourn the loss of an iconic leader with a shock death before the season began. Another club would have the honour of bein...

The era of amateurism (or shamateurism) is over, the VFL changes to a professional league but not all clubs agree. And a potential amalgamation is explored with the VFA. Essendon employ the original super coach Jack Worrall to move them to the next level. Meanwhile St Kilda players go on strike and the club uses more than 60 players in a season. A record that will never be broken