Hello footy fans!

I have been researching nineteenth century footy in Victoria for 8 years. In that time I have trawled through most of the daily and weekly newspapers of the time as well as journals, football guides, etc. I have done a lot of genealogical work on players’ names as well. I hope I can help with genealogical queries, match stats, end of season records, information about great players, goal kicking feats, etc. You may want to know who the first indigenous senior football player was or details about big matches like the following between South Melbourne and Carlton in 1890.

Here’s an example of the research I’ve produced!“One of the most famous games in the nineteenth century was the so-called “coffin match” between premiership contenders Carlton and South Melbourne, which was played on the MCG on August 2. A record 32,595 people (of which 25,549 paid to get in) was officially confirmed as the greatest number of people ever to attend a sporting contest. This bettered the 27,000 that attended a soccer match between Aston Villa and Preston North End in England in January 1888. Both sides were evenly matched and the Age listed the height, weight and age of the players. South’s average age was 23.1 while Carlton’s was 23.5. South’s average height was 5′ 8.5″ (174cm) and Carlton’s was 5′ 8″ (172.8cm). It was called the coffin match because before the game started some Carlton supporters walked around the ground in a mock funeral procession as pallbearers of a coffin painted in red and white. A group of “mourners” followed behind the coffin bearing blue and white flags. This performance caused a great deal merriment amongst the barrackers on a memorable day.
 
In what was virtually a grand final both sides entertained the massive crowd with a superb display of football on a heavy ground. South began with the breeze and constantly attacked, but these efforts only brought behinds and in one of its rare attacks during the term “Gib” Currie kicked a goal for the Blues. Carlton thus went to the first break leading by a solitary goal to six behinds. Carlton expected to go with it with the wind in the second quarter but was surprised by the initiative of South’s little men like Harry Purdy and Archie McMurray. The southerners got well on top and Arthur Brown put the red and white on parity before Jim Graham got away with pushing his opponent in the back in a marking contest. He didn’t make a mistake and South was in the lead, which they held at half-time. Neither side scored a goal in the third term but it was far and away the best quarter of the match as Wally McKechnie and Currie put in some magnificent ruck play for the Blues, while South defended superbly through the work of “Sonny” Elms and company. At the start of the final term Carlton’s “Bloomer” Salt scored a great goal from an angle to lock the scores at two-all and in a pulsating fight for supremacy “Charge and countercharge, rally and reply were seen in rapid succession” (Austn, 9/8/90). Neither side could goal, but with a few minutes remaining McMurray took a mark about 80 yards out. He “…carefully placed the ball, and as he went back to apparently take his kick, Burns sauntered from the centre towards the goal. McMurray ran to the ball, picked it up, and passed to Burns, who, from about 70 yards out, kicked a great place-kick winning goal.” (Austn, 3/11/1923) It was a kick that brought the house down and was one of the most memorable goals of the century. Peter had proved to be “The Great” once again, and as The Australasian reported “… this is by no means the first and only occasion by which the same player has, by magnificent kicking, decided a doubtful game in favour of his associates.” (Austn 9/8). As brave as Carlton was there could be no doubt that South Melbourne had been the better side and as it was still undefeated, a third successive premiership was very much on the cards.”