The AFL has not shut the book on a decade-long campaign by former commissioner and Geelong president Colin Carter to revise the game’s history in a way that would deliver the Cats an extra seven premierships and promote Carlton to the top of the flag table outright.
In his book Football’s Forgotten Years, launched on Tuesday, Carter argues strongly for the incorporation into the records of 27 years of the VFA before the establishment of the breakaway VFL in 1897, saying the competition then was popular, its clubs familiar and the game recognisable as the forerunner of today’s AFL.
“Some will not welcome these changes”: Colin Carter.Credit:Tash Sorensen
“For the past 100 years, since the mid-1920s, the AFL has celebrated 1897 as its starting year,” Carter said when launching the book in an MCC library packed with footy dignitaries, including AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder. “That date is wrong. New research makes it very clear that our VFL founders, the VFL clubs and football media regarded 1870 as the first year.”
Carter admits that the impetus for his mission was the “discovery” of Geelong’s ghost premierships when he was president. But he fortifies it with a wealth of painstakingly unearthed evidence and the unequivocal support of revered historian Geoffrey Blainey, another Geelong man as it happens and an attendee at the launch.
“In our conversation, he didn’t mess around,” Carter said. “He told me that the AFL records are wrong as a result of a dispute between rival football officials.”
Launching the book, AFL chief executive Gil McLachlan said that the AFL had already gone as far as updating player records in the new season’s media guide. “Whether the competition records change is a discussion to be had,” he said, “but I acknowledge the contribution of the players, the clubs and administrators of the day on the development of our game.
“I am not here today to confirm Colin’s thesis … but nor am I here to dispute his conclusion. That’s for our historians, our clubs, to examine closely and no doubt expand the debate, and I am sure on the back of his work our AFL Commission will have a wider discussion.”
Carter said the 1897 schism obscured Australian rules’ international pioneer status. “Importantly, the AFL has a significant claim to be the oldest football competition in the world, and that is no small matter,” he said.
By the 1870s, the VFA was drawing crowds of 15,000, then unknown anywhere else. In 1886, South Melbourne and Geelong played off for the championship at the Lakeside Oval before a crowd of 34,000. Melbourne’s population then was less than 400,000.
Carter said changes in the way the game was played between the VFA and AFL eras were irrelevant because the game has always changed. Geelong CEO Steve Hocking, who experimented freely with changes during his time as AFL footy manager, was an attendee.
Early days of the VFL.
“Every premiership from 1870 to 1896 was won by a team that is still in the AFL today,” Carter said. Geelong won seven, including six in a seven-year stretch. Carlton won six, South Melbourne five and Essendon four, all in row.
But poor old St Kilda, though part of the competition by all its name since day dot, would not add to its single flag. This was scarcely music to the ears of Saints president Andrew Bassatt, who was there.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan.Credit:Alastair Brett
Carter said he has met strong opposition to his crusade. “I’ve been accused of trying to rewrite history, or just to Geelong’s premiership tally,” he said. “History was rewritten, but not by me.
“It’s time to reclaim the historical narrative of the game’s founding. The records are wrong and it’s time to put things right.
“The premiership list will change, club and player records will be expanded, the competition’s first 300-game player will change, and some will not welcome these changes.
“But … a true history of the game is far more important.”
