MURPHY'S LORE: Won just for the record
Geelong and Collingwood in the thick of things in 1925's VFL Grand Final.
MELBOURNE CRICKET GROUND October 10, 1925:
"COLLINGWOOD have beaten Geelong twice in each of 16 seasons, and Geelong have defeated the Magpies twice in each of six. Geelong have never beaten Collingwood three times in a season but Collingwood have won three games in a year. It was 1902.
"The greatest number of goals ever kicked in a game between Geelong and Collingwood is 29. They were scored in 1921 at Collingwood. Cliff Rankin got eight and (Lloyd) Hagger one for Geelong, and Dick Lee and Coventry three each and Con McCarthy four for Collingwood.
"Of the 22 games won by Geelong against Collingwood only nine times have the Seagulls been victorious on metropolitan territory eight at Collingwood and one at East Melbourne.
"If Collingwood win today it will mean that they have gained the premiership of six seasons one less than the record held by Fitzroy with seven flags.
"If they be beaten they will be runners-up for the eighth time. No other team has won the second place more than five times, and that number stands to the credit of Carlton and Fitzroy.
"A victory today for Geelong will take the premiership to the seaside city for the first time in the history of the League, but if they are beaten they will be runners-up for the second time.
"The first occasion was in 1897. Whether Geelong win or are beaten it must be conceded that football has never been so great a part of the life of the townspeople of their fair city as it has been this season.
"Geelong's big chance is ahead of them now."
Now excuse me for my lassitude and my gratuitous replication of the contemporary warblings by "Chatterer" in The Football Record, but sometimes it's just best to let things be.
The build-up to that great clash of the Titans is warmly and matter-of-factly delivered the same as it was to the supporters of both camps of that day: October 10, 1925.
One day in September? The Seagulls?
Ha, different days back then, before they become known as the Cats, and The Football Record is a remarkable reflection of just how different.
This particular one doesn't tell you how Geelong pegged that first VFL grand final victory. How could it?
Or how Cliff Rankin booted a magnificent five goals, how Gordon Coventry was kept goalless, how the Seagulls got up by 10 precious points, 10.19.70 to 9.15.69. How 64,288 souls witnessed the spectacle.
But the footy record, one of 100 years of footy records recently put to print to celebrate a century of AFL/VFL history, tells us much more than just leather, liniment and Geelong's lese majeste towards those indomitable Carringbush clods (sorry, Maggies, I take that back).
It's a social document of its day and 1925 is a cracker. The treasures lie in the adverts as much as the informed comment and previews of its scribes.
Trojan, for instance, used to be a car. What? It was British-built, by Leyland, the people who would in later years bring you the sparkling P76, and offered 40 miles a gallon.
Dinkum Crackajack mouth organs, "there was never a better and there will never be a better", were "sold everywhere". None better applied to Melbourne Bitter Ale as well.
Capstan Cigarettes, the old familiar blend, introduced his big brother, Capstan Oval heavyweights, while the team line-ups were branded by Bosisto's Parrot Brand eucalyptus oil, the oldest and evidently most satisfactory liniment for footballers oh, and also nature's remedy for all ailments.
There was competition, though, from no less than that powerful amalgam Zam-Buk, absolutely unparalleled for rubbing away pain and stiffness and strained tendons, tired muscles, for healing cuts, bruises, burns, scalds, skin disease and seemingly anything except (although maybe) cancer.
That's not to forget Denyer's surgical supports, Wolfe's aromatic schiedam schnapps, Black and White whiskey, McEwans Hardware gardening gear, Ecks non-alcoholic but exhilarating beverages no gaseous substances, good for kiddies Barling pipes, Poliflor Lino wax, the redoubtable Heenzo cure for the common cold, Brind's gin, Maples' fur coats, Sherrin's cricket balls and wicketkeeping gloves, and the ever-reliable Laxeen remedy for biliousness, indigestion and constipation.
And grand final or not, how could anyone ignore what was going on at the Hoyt's Theatre De Luxe and the new Hoyt's Gaiety Theatre?
Douglas Fairbanks in Zorro, Tom Mix in Dick Turpin, Pola Negri in East of Suez ...
Umm, back to the footy record, and the fact it's an essential footballing accoutrement for all. The first came out in April, 1912. To mark the big ton, there's a monstrous 11-volume leather-bound boxed set all edited by the illustrious Geoff Slattery; 7000 pages all up.
Find out more from aflbooks.com.au
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SOURCE Geelong Advertiser
May 14th, 2012 |
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