125 years ago Fitzroy beat South Melbourne by a point in the 1899 VFL grand final in front of a crowd of 4823 at Junction Oval ….. and a precedent that Lions fans will be hoping is a good omen.
It’s the only time that the two combatants set for the 2024 grand final on Saturday have met in a premiership decider, albeit in a previous identity.
It was the third season of a then eight-team competition which had broken away from the old Victorian Football Association, comprising Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne and St.Kilda.
After a 14-match home-and-away series Fitzroy, with an 11-3 win/loss record, sat on top of the ladder. South were sixth at 5-9.
It was a season in which teams comprised 18 players, down from 20 previously. There were no reserves, but a player who left the field for any reason could return.
After all eight teams split into pools for a further three matches to decide the two teams that would meet in the grand final. Fitzroy, grouped with Collingwood, Carlton and Melbourne, were unbeaten in Pool A. And, South, pooled with Geelong, Essendon and St.Kilda, surprised everyone when they went unbeaten in Pool B.
So on Saturday 16 September Fitzroy, the 1898 premiers, met South Melbourne.
It would be nice to say it was the Lions against the Swans .. but it wasn’t. Fitzroy were known as the Maroons from 1883-1937, and the Gorillas from 1938-56 before adopting the Lions as their nickname in 1957.
Junction Oval, or St.Kilda Cricket Ground as it was officially known, had hosted the first football match with historical senior premiership status in the then VFA 1870, and was home to St.Kilda when they entered the competition in1874.
It hosted the first two VFL grand finals in 1898-89 before it moved to Essendon’s East Melbourne headquarters in 1900 and South Melbourne’s Lake Oval in 1901 before a deal was struck to play it at the MCG from 1902.
The 1899 grand final was not a straight out ‘winner takes all’ game. Fitzroy, as minor premiers, would have had the right of challenge if South had prevailed, but it wasn’t necessary due to a soccer goal from Fitzroy’s Bill McSpeerin.
Fitzroy suffered a blow when Bert Sharpe, centre half forward in the 1898 premiership side, was a late withdrawal following the death of his father the day before the game, prompting Fitzroy players to wear black arm bands.
Playing in the ruck for South Melbourne was Warwick Armstrong, later to captain the Australian cricket team. Known as the ‘Big Ship’, he played 50 Test matches and was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000. He played only 16 VFL games with South,
The grand final was played in heavy rain, and prior to the game South had proposed deferring the game for a week. But Fitzroy preferred to play, so play they did from the advertised start time of 3pm.
A strong win from the south favoured South in the first quarter and they kicked the first two goals through Harry Lampe. Fitzroy’s only score was a poster from Mick Grace.
In the second quarter Grace and Fred Fontaine goaled to see Fitzroy up by a point at halftime, but with scoring into the wind next to impossible, Charlie Colgan’s goal for South saw them seven points clear at the last change.
In the end it all came down to a goal from Fitzroy rover Bill McSpeerin 15 minutes into the final.
Fitzroy 0-1 2-4 2-6 3-9 (27)
South Melb 2-3 2-3 3-7 3-8 (26)
The Fitzroy team was:-
B: Hugh McEwan, Geoff Moriarty, Ern Jenkins
HB: Jack Deas, Pat Hickey, Alec Sloan (c )
C: Eddie Drohan, Harry Clarke, Kelly Robinson
HF: Pat Descrimes, Fred Fontaine, Bill Dalton
F: Alf McDougall, Jim Grace, Bill Cleary
R: Mick Grace, Bill Potter, Bill McSpeerin
Seven members of the premiership side had played in the very first Fitzroy VFL side in 1897 – brothers Jim and Mick Grace, Ern Jenkins, Descrimes, Hickey, McSpeerin, Moriarty.
And 11 members of the 1898 premiership had made it two on the trot – captain Sloan, Clarke, Bill Dalton, Descrimes, Drohan, Fontaine, the Grace brothers, McDougall, McSpeerin and Robinson.
At the end of the season The Argus newspaper selected a team comprising the best players in the competition. It included McSpeerin and Fitzroy teammates Pat Hickey, Eddie Drohan, with Hickey named “champion player” of the season.
