The 2024 AFL Grand Final is undoubtedly a massive one; bringing the large but more casual TV audiences of Brisbane and Sydney along for the ride could make it the most-watched flag decider in footy history.
Though it’ll certainly have a bigger audience than the last time these clubs, in previous guises, faced off in the Grand Final. Because TV didn’t exist yet.
While relocations and mergers mean the Swans and Lions aren’t exactly the same clubs which helped found the VFL, we shouldn’t ignore their shared histories which date back well over a century.
South Melbourne and Fitzroy helped create the Victorian Football League, after all, and it’s 125 years since they – then known as the Bloods and Maroons – faced off in the second-ever Grand Final.
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It’s safe to say footy was a little bit different in 1899.
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AT LEAST YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO SLEEP OUTSIDE THE MCG FOR TICKETS
By a distance, the 1899 VFL Grand Final featured the smallest crowd in the game’s history – and the equal-smallest margin, with Fitzroy’s 3.9 (27) beating South Melbourne’s 3.8 (26).
But horrific weather, and a unique venue, were behind the meagre attendance of 4823.
Brutal rain and wind made conditions difficult for players and spectators alike, with all six goals for the day kicked with the wind at the player’s back.
“It rained for eleven hours before the game,” the Courage Book of VFL Finals explained, with South Melbourne calling for the game to be postponed but Fitzroy happy to play.
Writing for The Age, ‘Follower’ said: “The assembling of about 4000 spectators in the unfavorable circumstances indicated clearly that, if the weather had kept fine, the attendance would have been enormous.
“As it was, those present evinced keen interest in the game, every notable bit of good play being heartily cheered. Amongst the onlookers were a number of enthusiasts from Geelong, who came up by special train.
“McShane had the ground in splendid order until the rain came, and even after the steady
downpour, extending over many hours, it played very, much better than could have been expected, reflecting great credit on the experienced and skil-ful curator. Both sides were strongly represented, but Fitzroy were without the assistance of their clever little forward player, Kiernan, whose place was taken by the veteran Cleary.
“Seldom has such a fine game of football been played under such disadvantages, and after a mag-nificent battle, the interest in which never flagged for a moment, Fitzroy, winning by a single point, left the ground, as they did at the termination of their match with Essendon last year, winners of the coveted premiership.
“Although the strong southerly breeze moderated towards the close of the afternoon, it had always a marked effect on the play, 6 goals 13 behinds being scored at the north end and only 4 behinds at the south end during the afternoon.”
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The choice of venue itself, St Kilda’s Junction Oval, was an early sign that finances would prove a vital factor in where the league’s Grand Final is played in the future.
The MCG, with a capacity at the time of almost 60,000, was not used until 1902 and crowds at the modern home of Grand Finals would not reach over 50,000 until 1908.
There were calls for the game to be played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground – in between modern-day Jolimont Road and the train lines leading into Flinders Street Station, and for a long period the host of VFA finals – but that would’ve cost the VFL more money.
The EMCG wanted to take 33 per cent of the gate, while Junction Oval accepted just 10 per cent; not that this mattered as much anyway when poor weather severely limited the crowd.
“In decid-ing on the ground for the final match the league authorities were guided solely by monetary con-siderations, and, in disregarding the claims of a central ground like East Melbourne in favour of a suburban reserve, the public convenience was, undoubtedly, sacrificed for the sake of a few pounds,” ‘Old Boy’ wrote in The Argus.
SOUTH PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE EVEN BEEN THERE
The modern AFL is already looking towards expanding the finals system, likely when the league expands, but since day dot it has been experimenting with different formats.
In the VFL’s first season of 1897 there was no Grand Final, with the top four instead playing a three-week round-robin, with things getting even more confusing for the next three years with the introduction of ‘sectionals’.
After all eight teams played 14 games for a double round-robin, the league was split into two groups of four, with 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th all playing each other again, and 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th doing the same.
This obviously imbalanced system – which gave the minor premier a tougher set of opponents – meant winless St Kilda featured in the 1899 post-season, losing its three games by a combined 329 points.
This also allowed South Melbourne, who finished sixth with a 5-9 record, to upset second-placed Geelong by three points and fourth-placed Essendon by 15 points and qualify for the second-ever VFL Grand Final. (Playing at the same time as South vs Essendon, Geelong did its best to build percentage in the circumstances of a Bloods loss, beating St Kilda 162 to 1.)
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But that wasn’t even the most controversial element, because this was back in the days of the Challenge Rule.
This allowed the minor premier to ask for a rematch with the team that won the Grand Final, even if that team didn’t make what would’ve otherwise been the Grand Final. For example in 1900, Fitzroy was minor premier but didn’t make it out of the sectionals, instead watching Melbourne beat Essendon in the post-season finale, before losing to Melbourne a week later in the Grand Final.
This is one reason credited for the name of the ‘Preliminary Finals’, because the result was preliminary depending on who won it; if the minor premier won, that game was the Grand Final, but if the minor premier lost, it was not.
Indeed in some circumstances a team benefited by resting players and thus losing the ‘Preliminary Final’ so it was at full-strength for its guaranteed Grand Final. (Ross Lyon would’ve had a field day.)
Some conspiracy theorists even suggested teams colluded so that the minor premier would lose the ‘Preliminary Final’ to ensure another large gate for the Grand Final.
“That Fitzroy deserved their victory is apparent, but what a farce it would have been had the Maroons been beaten for the premiership by South Melbourne,” ‘Old Boy’ wrote.
“From a gate money point of view (it) may be all right, but, as a test of strength in a series of games, it is of no value whatever.”
AT LEAST THE GAME ITSELF WAS CLOSE
We must first note the biggest name in the game – who eventually found fame across the summer, rather than the winter.
Warwick Armstrong was just 20 years old when the eventual captain of the Australian cricket team, known as ‘The Big Ship’ due to his large 191cm frame, ran out in the back pocket for the Bloods.
Armstrong went on to play 50 Tests for Australia as an all-rounder, debuting in 1902 and leading the nation to a 5-0 whitewash over the touring English in the summer of 1920-21.
Armstrong’s Bloods had their chances to win the game, but we can only imagine the breakdown from the experts from On The Mahogany Stools of the late blunders by his teammate Harry Lampe.
“South’s failure to score more than one point against the wind plus several bad misses with it in the third quarter did not help them and they went down in a heart-stopping finish by one point,” the Courage Book of VFL Finals said.
“Billy McSpeerin of Fitzroy scored what proved to be the winning goal fifteen minutes into the last quarter. This left South still with time to get up but Lampe kicked badly for a behind and then just before the bell kicked even more poorly and completely failed to score.
“Fitzroy, however, on the day and on the year’s performances were a better side and they would probably have been unlucky to lose as two ‘posters’ were included in their score.”
The bravely named umpire Henry ‘Ivo’ Crapp, now a Hall of Famer, was praised for his efforts by ‘Follower’ – with the deliberate out-of-bounds rule proving critical to the result.
“South Melbourne, having a lead of 1 goal, set to work to maintain it by deliberately kicking out of bounds at every opportunity. After passing over two or three such offences, Crapp endeavoured to check them by penalisation,” he wrote.
“The umpire’s task, as may be imagined, was no sinecure; but Crapp was equal to the occasion, regulating the play im-partially and well, though, as usual on such an occasion, the supporters of first one side and then the other were able to point out ‘glaring mis-takes,’ although they were only looking at the game ‘with one eye’.”
1899 VFL GRAND FINAL
Match summary via The Courage Book of VFL Finals
FITZROY 0.1 2.4 2.6 3.9 (27)
South Melbourne 2.3 2.3 3.7 3.8 (26)
Best
Fitzroy: Hickey, Clark, Deas, Jenkins, McEwan, Drohan, Robinson, Sloan
South: Howson, Trimm, Davidson, Garbutt, Lampe, Pleass
Goals
Fitzroy: McSpeerin, M.Grace, Fontaine
South: Lampe 2, Colgan
Line-ups
Fitzroy
B: McEwen, G.Moriarty, Jenkins
HB: Deas, Hickey, Sloan (c)
C: Drohan, Clarke, Robinson
HF: Decrimes, Fontaine, W.Dalton
F: McDougall, J.Grace, Cleary
R: M.Grace, Potter, McSpeerin
*C.Kiernan selected “but failed to turn up”
South Melbourne
B: F.O’Hara, Adamson (c), Armstrong
HB: Trimm, Goding, Davidson
C: J.O’Hara, Windley, Herb Howson
HF: James, Lampe, Jeanerett
F: Fraser, Colgan, Henley
R: Pleass, Garbutt, Bryce
Attendance: 4823 at Junction Oval
Umpire: Crapp
Source Agencies
