Why 1877? This was the year in which the Victorian Football Association (the VFA) was formed, an Association that preceded the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL) by 20 years.
By 1885, the VFA clubs included Carlton, Geelong, Essendon, South Melbourne, Melbourne, Fitzroy and St Kilda (with Collingwood joining in 1892) - the eight clubs that broke away to form the VFL - but also included Richmond and North Melbourne and University; 11 clubs that would eventually be part of the VFL. (University was a League club from 1908-14).
Interestingly, North Melbourne and Richmond (and the stalwart VFA club Port Melbourne) were not invited to join the breakaway league because they were "clubs with spectators having the worst reputation for behaviour and poor treatment of visiting supporters" (The Australian Game Of Football - Since 1858, page 57).
The essence of Carter's speech delivered before the Geelong-Hawthorn game on Saturday (reproduced below) was that the clubs that formed the VFA were essentially "OUR clubs" - the clubs that make up the AFL today, and to dismiss their time in the VFA is to dismiss the truth of their history - thus the "History Wars".
There is more to it than that: the VFA, in the formative years of the game acted like a modern day AFL Commission. Again Media Watch quotes from The Australian Game Of Football, the official publication produced by the AFL to celebrate the game's 150th birthday in 2008.
In that book, in the chapter named "A Grip on Victoria", Robin Grow, a historian with a clear grip on the development of football and the social history of Victoria in the 19th century wrote: "The VFA provided the structure to carry the game through to the next century, establishing processes for reviewing and modifying rules, the selection of umpires, transfer of players, regulation of on-field behaviour and dispute resolution, control and standards of grounds and a fixture that provided for an improved level of opportunity for the smaller, poorer clubs to play the bigger clubs.
"A major outcome of the VFA years was the management of the game beyond Melbourne.
"The establishment of the VFA, while low-key, resulted in major improvements to the game. On the field, teams were well-organised and the skills of the players provided a great spectacle.
"Scoring was increasing, high marks were thrilling the crowd, ground surfaces and facilities were improved with the advent of gate money, training and coaching methods were improving, and teams were developing tactics and strategies designed to capitalise on their strengths and minimise those of the opposition."
It is clear from Grow's forensic analysis of this time that to ignore these formative years is not only to ignore the total history of "our" clubs, but also the total history of the game's administration.
The Carter Speech
Tonight, I want to launch what might become football's version of the History Wars. I do this with absolute seriousness and it is a good time to do this in the week in which we celebrated our Hall of Fame and even inducted a champion who was playing 80 years ago.
I also know that I am mostly talking tonight to Geelong supporters. You will be pleased to know that challenging the official history of the AFL has huge upside - exciting upside - for us. The official history says that we have won 8 flags but we have really won 15. We are not only setting new records today with our wonderful team, we were setting records when football started and it is time to reclaim these prizes.
So let me talk briefly about football's history.
We have always been told that our football history started 114 years ago in 1897 when the Victorian Football League was formed.
We also know that all records - club records, player histories - and, and this is important, the bragging rights between our clubs are measured by the number of flags won since that year 1897. You've heard it all before - Essendon and Carlton have won 16 flags while Collingwood is closing fast at 15. Everyone else is down the list. Geelong has eight. And so on.
But there is a huge problem with this which has become hidden by time. Twenty important years of football history before the VFL was formed have been forgotten - and they should not be. It is especially important to us because in those years Geelong was the dominant team. We won seven flags. If we set the record straight, we can say that we have won 15 flags.
You might ask whether old history matters. Well it certainly does. Collingwood, for example, still talks about their 15 flags. But only two of those 15 flags have been won in the last 50 years and most were won nearly 100 years ago. These achievements are rightfully celebrated at Collingwood and so should ours.
I suspect that some of you are sitting there somewhat incredulous - I cannot be serious. But I am. So let me tell you that I have run this past Professor Geoffrey Blainey who is one of Australia's most eminent historians and also a keen student of football history and he wrote to me:
"I think you are making a vital point. Good luck. Our present Aussie Rules record book is wrong. It is based on an old feud between two sets of football officials. It is time to end the feud."
Let me summarise the facts which are quite straightforward.
In 1877, a football competition was started and it was called the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Twenty years later, in 1897, a large number of the teams broke away from the VFA to form the Victorian Football League (or VFL). But relationships between the VFL and VFA were poisonous for most of the next 100 years and it is easy to see why the founding clubs of the VFL were happy to start with a blank piece of paper. They started counting from 1897 and that became the practice ever since.
It is now time to reclaim the twenty forgotten years of football history between 1877 and 1897 - for many reasons.
The first reason is that the winners of every one of those twenty flags sound very familiar - Carlton, Geelong, Essendon, South Melbourne, Fitzroy and Collingwood. Other teams in that competition included Melbourne, Richmond, North Melbourne and St Kilda. In other words, the VFA was where our football competition was born. It is the history of our clubs.
The second reason is that the politics of yesteryear no longer matter. As Geoffrey Blainey said, our football records are based on old feuds between these two football competitions. But football history has travelled a full circle. The VFA is now part of the AFL. Past feuds are forgotten. We've had reconciliation. We can now embrace our early VFA history and fix the records without having to choose sides.
The third reason is to remind you that we didn't restart the clock when the VFL became the AFL or when new teams like the Eagles or Suns entered the competition - or even when Hawthorn joined the VFL in 1925. So there isn't any good reason why the clock must stay re-set to zero when the VFL was formed. Let's recognise that the competition between our clubs started well before the VFL was formed and that those years are part of our history.
Our fourth reason - and this is a point emphasised to me by Professor Blainey - some of the greatest of our footballers played in that era for our clubs but the AFL record books ignore them. Their achievements are many but if they didn't play in 1897 they don't exist. That is a great wrong and it should be put right.
A final reason is that if the AFL believes that football began in 1897 rather than in 1877, we lose our claim to be the oldest continuous competition in the world. We have some of the oldest football clubs in the world. Melbourne and Geelong were formed in 1859. Carlton wasn't far behind in 1864, North Melbourne in 1869, Essendon in 1871 and St Kilda in 1873. The official history suggests that our clubs weren't doing anything in the decades before 1897 - which is nonsense.
Even the most famous overseas clubs are new in comparison. Manchester United was formed in 1878, Arsenal in 1886, Glasgow Celtic in 1887, AC Milan and FC Barcelona in 1899 and Bayern Munich in 1900. The Dallas Cowboys were formed in 1960. The longevity of our competition is extraordinary and should be celebrated.
There can be no reasonable debate that this is our football history. All 20 flags in those forgotten years were won by teams that are part of our current experience. Carlton won the first in 1877. The great news for us is that Geelong was the dominant team in that era winning seven flags, South Melbourne won five, Essendon won four, Carlton won two while Collingwood and Fitzroy each won one flag.
Of course, reclaiming those lost 20 years of football history changes the bragging rights. Essendon is now the leader with 20 flags, and I have talked to the Essendon president and he likes it. Carlton moves to 18 - they won't like dropping behind Essendon but will like getting further ahead of Collingwood. Collingwood falls back behind these two clubs with 16 and I can't imagine what Eddie will say. Geelong is the big mover going from eight to 15 flags and is now breathing down Collingwood's neck. Melbourne can still claim 12 while Hawthorn and Richmond stay on 10. Fitzroy moves from eight to nine and so the Brisbane Lions will claim 12. The Swans move from five flags to nine and so on it goes.
Our club believes that this is our history and it is time to reclaim it. I am confident that the AFL Commission will see our point of view.
We will argue the historical evidence but we can add to that another piece of good news for the AFL commissioners. Football's 150th Anniversary can now be celebrated in 2027 rather than in 2047. The world's oldest competition will deserve a great party but if the 150th is in 2047, I calculate that AFL Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick will be nearly 100 years old and CEO Andrew Demetriou will be pushing 90. I spoke to Andrew about this during the week and pointed out to him that I'm not sure that they will make it. The new date - in 2027 - brings the party into their lifetime and I think that they will like that.
So football's History Wars are launched. And with that, I close by assuring you that we are working hard for our 16th flag - which will take us level with Collingwood. And in the words of my great predecessor, Frank Costa, we say: 'go you Cats'.
Geoff Slattery is the Managing Editor of AFL Media
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
