The 1925 season opened with high hopes but ended in some local controversy.
In February, J.H. Tootell fired off his customary letter to the local press, pressing the merits of the Australian game over rugby league.
This game, which is purely Australian, made such a great hit here last season that it is expected that a larger number of teams will participate in the game this coming season, and also that the season will open much earlier… It goes without saying that [Australian football] is more scientific than Rugby, as an Australian Rules player will always make a first-class Rugby player, whereas a real good Rugby player will very seldom make a first-class Australian Rules player.1
Tootell was at the centre of the first setback of the year though when his club, Duntroon, folded. While financially sound, it ‘reluctantly decided not to enter’ because of a ‘lack of outside interest and support; difficulty in getting experienced players; and loss of several leading players and committee lack of outside interest’. Its bank balance of two guineas was donated to Queanbeyan Hospital.2 Tootell must have seen the writing on the wall, as he had already taken up the position of secretary at Federals.3
The loss of Duntroon was quickly offset by Queanbeyan’s entry into the league. The club was formed at a meeting in early April, with local builder and contractor, W.H. Mason elected as the club’s first President. He had been a ‘one-time prominent player and now equally as prominent supporter of the game’, who had been ‘principally responsible for the large attendance at the meeting’. On the new club’s colours, while ‘Carlton, Collingwood and Fitzroy colours were much in evidence… it was decided to give the South Melbourne supporters the preference… The colours therefore will be white jerseys with a red sash…’4 Queanbeyan’s new jumpers arrived in time for their second match of the season.5
The other change of note was the Canberra club downsizing to the suburb of Blandfordia (renamed Forrest in 1928).6
The season therefore began on 2 May with four sides again competing. Home grounds were at Westridge (Federals),7 Acton Sportsground, Queanbeyan showgrounds and Manuka (often called Blandfordia).
*As for 1924, the design of Blandfordia jumper is unknown, although they wore yellow and black.
Blandfordia began poorly, losing to Federals by 84 points in front of 200 people at Westridge. The game was played ‘in anything but ideal weather, it being far too hot…’8 The loss set the tone for Blandfordia’s season, during which it won only one match, a 15-point win against Queanbeyan mid-season. It later forfeited matches against Federals and Acton before finishing a distant last. The club did not reappear in 1926.9
Federals dominated the regular season, losing only once to Queanbeyan by 3 points in the final game. It was, however, involved in some controversies along the way.
Umpire and journalist
A report appeared in the Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate on 18 June10 on the Acton-Federals match at Westridge the previous Saturday (around 250 people attended). Federals were undefeated after four rounds, while Acton had only lost one game.11 The article was highly critical of both sides, alleging that they:
entered into the game as if there was no ball on the ground and scrambly play was the order right throughout… Acton team was not long on the ground before they came to the conclusion that to play the ball was a winning game… with the result that they put up a very handy lead… In the final quarter, however, the Federals woke up to the fact that there was a football on the ground and kept their hands off Acton. This move caught Acton napping… they [Acton] also showed very bad judgment by putting a Rugby player in the ruck who knew the art of tripping and pushing so well that he cost them the game by giving penalties away.
The reporter – ‘J.H.T’ – then revealed that he had umpired the game – which would be his last.
The writer, who umpired the game, came in for all sorts of abuse from both the players and their supporters… as each team had the intention of roughing it, this match was a particularly hard one to umpire, but both teams found it hard to put the old game of ‘staging’ over me… But maybe this League can secure other umpires, which I strongly urge them to do, as the match in question is my last, the fee for umpiring it being the hardest earned £1/1/- during my life.
J.H. Tootell’s umpiring career had, in fact, begun only a few weeks before when he applied – to other clubs’ ‘surprise’ – at a league committee meeting.12 No doubt he considered himself well-qualified for the role, as a book he authored – Federal Capital Football Guide and Records – was on sale at every game for 1/-.13
Tootell was not only umpire, but also Federals secretary at the time of the problematic game and, not surprisingly, appears not to have lasted too much longer in this position.14 He did, however, continue contributing football reports to the local press.
Aussie rules footballers only in the sewer gang?
A second controversy involving Federals arose very soon after. A Mr J C Flynn wrote to the Labour Daily in Sydney alleging that:
Things at Canberra are a disgrace… My advice to anyone going there is to train up and become a top-notcher at Australian Rules Football. It is a well-known fact that footballers can get a job on the main sewer there at any time, while men (married) who want work badly cannot get on because they can’t play football… Married men have been put off sewer work to make room for footballers.15
This was a veiled reference to Jerry Dillon, President of the Federals club (and President of the League), whose day job was as a foreman on the construction of the main Canberra sewer.16
J.H. Tootell, never far from the limelight, responded to the Labor Daily immediately, angrily denying that:
any man had been put off to make room for a footballer… if Mr Flynn has failed to make himself an Australian Rules footballer, I advise him to learn to use a pick and shovel, and then he will get a job on the sewer here… only men with a strong arm and stout heart can hold one of these jobs…17
That wasn’t the end of the matter though, with an anonymous ‘Subscriber’ from Eastlake writing that:
There is no doubt that scores of men of a certain type have secured positions on the sewer because of their ability as footballers, whilst hundreds of good unionists… have been turned away, many of them with dependents. Men have been dismissed in an arbitrary manner… whilst so-called footballers are privileged to remain away from employment for as long as a week or ten days at a time.18
Another anonymous correspondent – ‘A Canberra Worker’ – further claimed that ‘Aussie Rules footballers… used to cease work at 5 in the afternoon for practice and their mates of the Rugby League had to work till knock-off time every day…’19
Queanbeyan on the rise – champions v premiers
Not surprisingly for a new club, Queanbeyan began the season slowly, having only six or seven Australian rules players,20 and winning only one game from its first five.21 However, by mid-season, the big losing margins of their early games were behind them, amply demonstrated when they lost to Federals in early July by only 15 points with only 15 players afield.22
The Queanbeyan Age and Observer reported that the club ‘has now several new first-class players, including some from Melbourne’.23 They duly won their final three games, including a three-point win over Federals in the penultimate round and a thumping 15-goal win over Acton in their last game.24 A semi-final against minor premiers, Federals, awaited them.
Curiously, no matchday reports from this semi-final have been found. A season summary in the 1 November 1925 edition of Canberra Illustrated: A Quarterly Magazine reports that Queanbeyan won by twelve points but:
The Federal Club protested this match on the grounds that their opponents played ineligible players. The protest was upheld, and the Federal team awarded the match.25
Queanbeyan Tigers historian, Ron ‘Chook’ Fowlie writes that:
Wal Mason admitted he had brought players from Melbourne including league stars Moss and Murphy, especially for the game.26
The Queanbeyan team announced the day before doesn’t mention ‘Moss or Murphy’, but perhaps that was part of the subterfuge.27
Curiously, the Queanbeyan Age and Observer and the Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate both appear to have largely ignored the remaining weeks of the local competition (apart from the representative team’s visit to Sydney).
Some weeks later though, on 4 September, in a prominent report about Queanbeyan’s match the next day against the visiting South Sydney side, the Age stated that the home team:
having climbed from the bottom of the list have proved themselves the ‘Champions’ of the Federal Territory Football Association… an even better team than defeated the Federals in the first semi-final a few Saturdays ago will be seen in action.28
Hidden away in the same edition of the paper was a fleeting reference to the grand final between Federals and Acton being played on the same day.29
The Age followed up on Tuesday, 8 September, with no fewer than three articles - an entire column of print - on the Queanbeyan-South Sydney game and associated receptions and activities. In front of the largest crowd seen at the Queanbeyan Showground, the home team lost by 10 points, after looking like winning the game midway through the last quarter.30
In a change of tune though, on Friday, 11 September, the Age printed a report from its ‘Molonglo correspondent’ – J.T. Tootell again – on the grand final at Acton sportsground. Federals comfortably won a wind-affected game by 24 points, taking home the Carnall and Owen Cups, as well as a pennant donated by P.F. Douglas (who would become league president in 1926).31
The Age’s ‘Pars and Jars’ column further acknowledged that:
The Federals are the proved champions of the Territory, others have to prove themselves yet. The Federals are issuing a challenge to the Queanbeyan club for the H.J. Richardson Cup, and they are sure to add this to their other trophies'.32
Richardson Cup
At the start of the season, H.J Richardson, proprietor of the Commercial Hotel in Queanbeyan, had presented a cup to the league.33 While the rules governing the Cup haven’t been located as yet,34 Richardson had donated a similar trophy to the local rugby league competition in 1924 and these rules are known. They specify, among other things, that the initial holder of the Cup shall be Queanbeyan, and that rugby league clubs within 150 miles of Queanbeyan may challenge it for the Cup.35
Most likely something quite similar applied to the Australian football version. And so, on 11 September, the ‘Premiers’, Federals, issued a challenge to the ‘Champions’, Queanbeyan, for the Cup, which was immediately accepted.
Things heated up again the day before the game, when the ‘Football Rumours’ column in the Age alleged:
‘Jimmy’ and ‘Mitch’ seem likely to be Acton players, possibly J Ryan and J.M Orr, while the ‘Sewer Paper Boy’ was almost certainly Jerry Dillon, Federals president and sewer foreman.
The following Friday, the Age claimed that:
the championship of the Federal Australian Rules Football Association was placed beyond all doubt on Saturday last, when Queanbeyan met and easily defeated a combined team comprised of selected players from each of the three clubs in the Federal Territory.
It seems that Federals pulled out of the match the day before because they couldn’t field a team ‘of sufficient strength’ and arrangements were quickly made for a combined side to play Queanbeyan.36
Whether they were the best local team or not, Queanbeyan certainly showed the most initiative of any club, backing up its match against South Sydney with a Spring trip to play Wagga on Sunday, 27 September. The match, moved from the Saturday to avoid a clash with the races and marred by a strong westerly wind, resulted in a win for the home team by 12 points. With both sides missing players, Queanbeyan started slowly but mounted a second half comeback to come within a goal with only minutes to go, before Wagga steadied.37
Representative football
A benefit match for Queanbeyan Hospital was played in late June between two sides chosen from among the four league teams. Unfortunately, it only drew a small crowd and gate takings were less than six pounds.38
A Canberra representative team, captained again by J Ryan, visited Sydney on 15 August to play a ‘combined second XVIII picked from the Sydney clubs’.39 Canberra lost by 8 points40 despite an overnight train journey that had them arriving in Sydney at 5am.41
At the civic reception after the game, Canberra’s manager, J.H. Orr, made a plea for more:
…teams from Sydney or Melbourne to come to Canberra so as to infuse more life into the game’… He hoped that when Parliament sat at Canberra, and the staffs were transferred, a big impetus would be given to the game.42
‘Open Column’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 5 February 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Duntroon News, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 26 March 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Federal Football Club’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 19 February 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 9 April 1925, p.1. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 5 May 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Queanbeyan Age: Local and General’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 24 March 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024. ‘Blandfordia’ was renamed ‘Forrest’ in 1928: Gibbney (1988), pp137-138; ‘The Suburbs’, Canberra Times, 16 December 1927, p.1. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
Westridge oval was located in what is now western Yarralumla, although its exact location in 1925 is unclear. A map in Gugler (1994) at p.248 shows a cricket pitch at what is now Hill Corner in Yarralumla, which could be the ground. While a 1937 map shows a recreation reserve roughly where Yarralumla Oval is today, this is likely to be a different oval to the one existing in 1925: ‘Canberra / compiled and drawn by Property and Survey Branch, Dept. of Interior, Canberra, 1937’, Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024. This is because the dimensions and character of Westridge appear to have changed substantially between 1925 and 1937, particularly with the closure of the work camps in the late 1920s.
'Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 7 May 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules Football’, Canberra Illustrated: A Quarterly Magazine, 1 November 1925, pp49-50. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024. This was the one and only edition of this magazine: Gibbney (1988), p.114. There are a number of inconsistencies between the Canberra Illustrated’s summary of the 1925 season, published on 1 November, and media articles written at the time games were played; for example, the Canberra Illustrated gives the score of the first round game between Acton and Queanbeyan as 12.15.87 to 1.2.8, whereas the Queanbeyan Age and Observer reports, on 5 May, that the score was 16.15.111 to 4.3.27. The Canberra Illustrated summary does not mention Queanbeyan’s 15 goal win over Acton in late July at all.
'Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 18 June 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 26 May 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 21 May 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 7 May 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
While the 10 September 1925 edition of the Federal Capital Directory in the Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate lists Tootell as Secretary, this appears to be out of date (Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024). On 11 September, A. Yandell, Hon Secretary, issued Federals’ challenge to Queanbeyan for the Richardson Cup - see advertisement in the main body of this post.
‘Must be footballers to get work’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 23 June 1925, p.4. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
Gibbney (1988), p.96.
‘Canberra Work: No Footballers’ preference’, Labor Daily, 24 June 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Football Pass’, Labor Daily, 26 June 1925, p.6. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Work and football at Canberra’, Labor Daily, 1 July 1925, p.6. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Visitors Entertained’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 8 September 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 21 May 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 7 July 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Queanbeyan Age: Local and General’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 3 July 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 23 July 1925, p.1. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024; ‘Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 28 July 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules Football’, Canberra Illustrated: A Quarterly Magazine, 1 November 1925, pp49-50. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
Fowlie (1989), p.11.
‘Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 31 July 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 4 September 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024. A similar claim is made in: ‘They Say’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 28 August 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘No title’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 4 September 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules: South Sydney’s Visit’, ‘The Game’, ‘Visitors Entertained’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 8 September 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 11 September 1925, p.2. ‘Football’, Canberra Community News, 11 May 1926, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Pars and jars’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 11 September 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Molonglo Settlement’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 2 April 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
And were still under discussion in mid-April: ‘Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 23 April 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Queanbeyan Rugby League Football Club, 1924’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 27 May 1924, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 25 September 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
'Australian Rules: Queanbeyan coming Sunday’, Daily Express (Wagga), 24 September 1925, p.4; ‘Football: Australian Rules’, Daily Advertiser (Wagga), 28 September 1925, p.3; ‘Football: Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 29 September 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules’, Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 11 August 1925, p.2. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 1925, p.8. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Australian Rules Football’, Queanbeyan-Canberra Advocate, 20 August 1925, p.2. ‘Canberra Footballers Visit Sydney’, Federal Capital Pioneer, 20 August 1925, p.3. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.
‘Mother State’s Help’, The Sun (Sydney), 15 August 1925, p.9; ‘Reception to Visiting Players’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 1925, p.8. Trove - National Library of Australia, retrieved 10 October 2024.