A HISTORY OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB: PART FOUR

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A HISTORY OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB:

PART FOUR: HARD TIMES AND WAR CLOUDS by The Professor

The Commonwealth of Australia was born at the turn of the Century. The fledgling nation was still one of the remotest outposts of the British Empire and the British Monarch remained the head of the country. At least in this respect little was to change for the nation over the next one hundred years.

But in the early 1900's Australia was a nation in waiting. Little more than a decade of its existence was to pass by before it would be thrown into a bloody war that would shape its nationhood.

In the State of Victoria, the citizens remained keen on sports as the cricket, football and horse racing all draw large crowds and maintained strong interest among all levels of the population. The game of football advanced in leaps and bounds and even managed to survive its first bribery scandal involving the Carlton Football Club which had emerged as a power during the first decade of the new century.

But the Melbourne Football Club, which had won its initial premiership in 1900, was soon to fall on lean times. With the exception of seasons 1902 and 1915 (when the club achieved fourth placing) the club was disappointing. There were few honours to be attained this period apart from the efforts of A. V. Couttie in 1904 and H. Brereton in 1912 when they topped the V.F.L. goal kicking with 39 and 56 goals respectively. A downtrodden Melbourne was even forced to travel to Geelong by boat as a result of a rail strike in 1903.

While success on the field was proving to be elusive, the Melbourne Football Club was able to celebrate its Jubilee in 1908 in fine style. The first interstate carnival (including representation from New Zealand) was organised as part of the celebrations. Richmond and University were admitted to the VFL in that year.

The club slowly began to emerge from the doldrums in 1912 following the appointment of former captain W. C. McClelland as Chairman. Andrew Manzie (formerly of Richmond) was enlisted as club secretary and the importance of administration was highlighted by his hard work. When the University club disbanded at the end of 1914, Manzie was able to persuade several University players to cross over to Melbourne.

With the addition of players such as "Dookie" McKenzie in 1915 the team was able to extend eventual premiers Carlton in a semi final but the promise of this performance could not be improved upon.

The Great War had begun and Melbourne was not able to field a side again until 1919. At that time the club's great contribution towards the development of the game assisted it in gaining readmission to the VFL.

When the club returned to the fold in 1919, it welcomed a future great in Ivor Warne-Smith who made his debut for Melbourne during that year. Like the rest of the world, it was a time of rebuilding for the Melbourne

Football Club ...