1909 VFL Grand Final, South Melbourne vs Carlton Footage

[RogersResults]

The match in the "Marvellous Melbourne - Queen City of the South" (1910), thanks to this thread and work of various posters is now identified in the National Film and Sound Archive catalogue:

Title No: 9525
Title: MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE : QUEEN CITY OF THE SOUTH, 1910
Production Date: 1910
Produced as: Documentary
Category: Silent film
Media: Film
Summary: The oldest surviving complete documentary film on Melbourne. Produced by Charles Cozens Spencer and shot by Ernest Higgins, it is a compilation of footage from a series of documentary films that they made about aspects of everyday life in Melbourne. It premiered at Wirth's Olympia on 22nd of November, 1910. It includes a panorama of Melbourne from the Eastern Hill fire station; footage of Melbourne's major thoroughfares, some taken from a moving cable tram: St Kilda Road, Swanston Street, Collins Street, Little Collins Street, and Elizabeth Street. Major buildings shown include the Town Hall, Treasury, Federal Parliament House, Post Office, State Museum and Art Gallery. Scenes of the Royal Agricultural Show at the Flemington Showgrounds; Australian Football match at Victoria Park on 6.8.1910 (Collingwood v Fitzroy); boating on the Yarra River at Studley Park; Dight's Falls at Abbotsford; Flinders Street Station, Princes Bridge; and shipping on the Yarra and at Station Pier are also included.
Country of Origin: Australia

Unfortunately the "Girl of Triple X Ranch" showing on the same bill as "Marvellous Melbourne" is no longer extant.

 

[Satchel]

It's interesting knowing that everyone in the video is dead. Everyone.

wonder how many died in WW1

 

[RogersResults]

wonder how many died in WW1

Doug Gillespie, fullback for Carlton in the 1909 Grand Final had a twin brother, Dave who died of wounds received in WWI after being repatriated to Australia.

 

[RUNVS]

It's interesting knowing that everyone in the video is dead. Everyone.

Its morbid but i had the same thought when watching the video.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Carlton's playing coach in the 1909 GF, Fred 'Pompey' Elliott, assumed coaching duties mid-season after the players revolted against Jack Worrall's strict discipline. A dual premiership player and the first man to play 200 VFL games, Elliott enlisted with the army in 1916. However he began to drink heavily and experience hallucinations, and after attempting to cut his own throat, was confined to the Kew Asylum where he lived for many years until his death in 1960.

Edit: I gained the impression from the snippet on this page, which says Fred spent "decades" in the asylum, that he had died there.

http://www.footyalmanac.com.au/one-hundred-years-ago-grand-final-23rd-september-1911/

Apparently that was not the case and he was discharged at some point, although another article states "it’s not known how long he remained institutionalized".

http://www.carltonfc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/4311/newsid/118584/default.aspx

 

[RUNVS]

Sounds like he had a fun life.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Sounds like he had a fun life.

South's ruckman in the 1909 GF, Vic Belcher, was until last Saturday the sole South Melbourne/Sydney dual premiership player. His brother, Alan, was a top ruckman at Essendon, and featured in the 'Champions of Essendon' promotion of a few years ago. Alan played in the winning 1912 team against Vic and represented Victoria before a badly broken toe forced him into retirement while captain in 1919. After a series of personal tragedies befell him, he was declared insane and committed to the same hospital as 'Pompey', where he died just two years after leading the Bombers in battle.

 

[aflcliche]

Doug Gillespie, fullback for Carlton in the 1909 Grand Final had a twin brother, Dave who died of wounds received in WWI after being repatriated to Australia.

It's eerie to think that many of those people experienced WW1, the great depression and WW2. They obviously had no idea what was to come.

 

[SM]

South's ruckman in the 1909 GF, Vic Belcher, was until last Saturday the sole South Melbourne/Sydney dual premiership player. His brother, Alan, was a top ruckman at Essendon, and featured in the 'Champions of Essendon' promotion of a few years ago. Alan played in the winning 1912 team against Vic and represented Victoria before a badly broken toe forced him into retirement while captain in 1919. After a series of personal tragedies befell him, he was declared insane and committed to the same hospital as 'Pompey', where he died just two years after leading the Bombers in battle.

Amazing. I think Bruce mentioned something about this, but amazing to think how lucky LRT, ROK, Goodes and Bolton are.

 

[SUNSHINE22]

Amazing piece of history. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Brilliant thread, absolutely love this stuff. Kudos to Hard_to_Beat, Rogers Results, fabulousphil and all the others who have contributed their knowledge.

Unfortunately the "Girl of Triple X Ranch" showing on the same bill as "Marvellous Melbourne" is no longer extant.

I'm assuming that film is very different to the one I'm picturing.

 

[Cursed Cat]

thankyou to Floetry101 for sharing that incredible footage; fascinating stuff.

also, Roger Results, superb contributions as always in a generally absorbing read.
best BF thread I have had the privilege of reading in some time

edit : there was some oscar worthy staging in that game ! 7m08s is the only overhead mark I saw, would have been late in the match I reckon, a Leo Barry effort (erm, sort of).

typical Melbourne weather, looked bright and sunny early, pissing down in the 2nd half (after the team photos were taken).

thanks to 'C. Spencer, Sydney' for filming, not a bad coverage !

 

[Cursed Cat]

The best on ground in the 1951 and 1952 Grand Finals received the 'Bert Franks' award donated by his widow.

Almost forgot to ask RR : who received the 'Bert Franks' awards in '51/'52 ?

 

[DivideandMultiply]

Eddie Betts would kill for those shorts.

Walker would make both the front and back page with one of those hats.

EDIT:

faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark if only I had read further down the page....

Andrew Walker would be very interested in seeing so many hats.

 

[finders]

Those old clips of Melbourne are fasinating.Its a pity more havent survived.

 

[Jimthegreat]

Swan's won by two points..................delicious.

We were robbed...lol!

 

[RUNVS]

We were robbed...lol!

Carlton were a bunch of pretenders back then

 

[roosRool]

Great thread, what a treat.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the trees inside the grandstand. Also the idiots jumping in front of the camera at the end. Some things never change!

 

[Lord Nicholson]

Carlton were a bunch of pretenders back then

Hmm, not quite, having won the last three premierships in a row...

 

[RUNVS]

Hmm, not quite, having won the last three premierships in a row...

Only because they cheated

 

[Lord Nicholson]

Only because they cheated

Indeed! Their coach was a no-good prick who only cavorted with shameless, rotten, underhanded football clubs.

Err... I mean... um... oh.

EDIT: Missed RTB's post. Forgot that CFC sacked Worrall that year. They were trigger-happy even back then.

 

[melbournemartin]

Great video! Thank you very much for sharing.

 

[RogersResults]

Brilliant thread, absolutely love this stuff. Kudos to Hard_to_Beat, Rogers Results, fabulousphil and all the others who have contributed their knowledge.



I'm assuming that film is very different to the one I'm picturing.

I think that's a safe assumption it was. It was a '1 reel' western (approx 12 mins.) featuring and directed by 'Bronco' Billy Anderson - the first star of the 'western' film genre. He appeared in his last film in 1965 and died aged 90 in 1971. (Now we are really off the thread!)

 

[RogersResults]

Almost forgot to ask RR : who received the 'Bert Franks' awards in '51/'52 ?

Buy the book - Classic Cats (One was a first-year player.)

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

Thats a great upload, really interesting to watch.

I had a look at the wiki entry for the 1909 season (and others of the time) out of interest. It was such a simple, provincial game with so many funny little quirks!

Shows how scewed Ess, Coll and Carltons premiership counts are too.