Gallery Geelong Club History

[Hello Kitty]

"It is believed that the co-founder of Australia football, Thomas Wentworth Wills, recommended the formation of the Geelong Football Club in July 1859 making it the second oldest continuously existing club at an elite level of any code in the world, the Melbourne Football Club credited as the oldest, formed earlier the same year. Wills was also involved in the formation of that club."
http://www.geelongcats.com.au/club/history/detailed-history

With such an old + rich history, tradition + a unique culture, there is much information about the first days of Australian Football + Geelong Cats.

This thread is to honour, remember, discuss + enjoy the history of Geelong Cats, from 1859 to the current season.

 

[Hello Kitty]

Tom Wills' childhood home for two years.

Lexington Homestead (1,400 acres - 566 hectares)
274 Moyston-Great Western Road
Moyston Vic 3377

Moyston is (220km W of Melbourne). The run was taken up by Horatio Wills in 1839-40; in c1851 he built the large brick homestead with its encircling verandas and grand views to the Grampians. When gold was found in 1852, the station hands left to seek their fortunes and Horatio had to sell after only two years in the new house. He was later killed by Aborigines; his son Tom, who survived the attack, was a famous cricketer and went on to 'invent' Australian Rules Football.

Lexington Homestead is currently for sale - EOI
To see more pix of the Wills' homestead:
https://www.realestate.com.au/property-livestock-vic-moyston-7930394

"The garden sprawls over 2 acres of land and is positioned to highlight the main Homestead, landscape vista and outbuildings. Whilst the garden was designed over 20 years ago it is constantly maintained to adapt to the ever changing climate conditions. The garden offers the history of original planting, complemented by a new contemporary style."

"The English styled gardens surround the homestead with breathtaking views of the Grampians and provide the perfect backdrop for your intimate gathering or lavish affair.

Within the homestead the grand ballroom and formal dining room offer seating for up to 14."

Tom Wills

"After growing up at Lexington and befriending the indigenous children and learning their language, at 14 Wills was sent to England to attend Rugby School, where he became captain of its cricket team, and played an early version of rugby football.

An athletic all-rounder with devastating bowling analyses, he was regarded as one of the finest young cricketers in England.
Returning to Victoria in 1856, Wills achieved Australia-wide stardom as a cricketer, captaining the Victorian team to repeated victories in intercolonial matches. He played for many clubs, most prominently the Melbourne Cricket Club, for which he served as honorary secretary.

In 1858 he called for the formation of a 'foot-ball club' with a 'code of laws' to keep cricketers fit during the off-season. After founding the Melbourne Football Club the following year, Wills and three other members codified the first laws of Australian rules football. He and his cousin H. C. A. Harrison spearheaded the sport as players and administrators.

In 1861, at the height of his fame, Wills joined his father on that fateful expedition. Wills survived and returned to Victoria in 1864. He continued to play football and cricket, and, in 1866-67, coached and captained an Aboriginal cricket team-the first Australian XIto tour England. In a career marked by controversy, Wills straddled the divide between amateur and professional cricketers, and was frequently accused of bending rules to the point of cheating.

Psychological trauma was worsened by his alcoholism. Now destitute, Wills was admitted to the Melbourne Hospital in 1880, suffering from delirium tremens, but shortly afterwards escaped and returned to his home in Heidelberg, where he committed suicide.

In modern times he is characterised as an archetype of the tragic sports hero, and as a symbol of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians."
http://www.myopengarden.com.au/openGarden.jsp?id=1395


"Vendor Peter Crauford said the land was settled in the early 1840s by Horatio Wills, father of Tom, one of the founders of Australian rules football.

“He came here as a small child and stayed until he went to England to be educated at Rugby School,” Peter said."
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/pr...a/news-story/02697e0ced38d82ef0d3ee4b75c5c08c

 

[Hello Kitty]

"The VFA was the pre-eminent football competition between 1877 and the formation of the league in 1897. Geelong won seven VFA premierships, including six in a seven year period between 1878 and 1884.

Prior to 1903 the team finishing on top was named as premiers. Geelong's VFA premierships came in 1878, 1879, 1880, 1882, 1883, 1884 and 1886. The club was also runner up in 1881, 1887, 1888 and 1895."
http://www.geelongcats.com.au/club/history/premierships/vfa

 

[Hello Kitty]

"A sketch from an early Geelong v Melbourne match."

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au...b/news-story/1192c829c397288582809e13880228a5

 

[Hello Kitty]

"Tom Wills, cricketer, 19 July 1858:

Now that cricket has been put aside for some few months to come, and cricketers have assumed some-what of the chrysalis nature (for a time only ’tis true), but at length will again burst forth in all their varied hues, rather than allow this state of torpor to creep over them, and stifle their new supple limbs, why can they not, I say, form a foot-ball club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws
A new game
Australian Rules football evolved in Melbourne in the mid-19th century. Both Gaelic football and an Aboriginal game (commonly referred to as ‘marngrook’) have been cited as inspiration, but the game really emerged from the football played in English public (that is, private) schools. Transported to the parklands of Melbourne, the game was shaped by the vast open spaces and the men who played it.

In England, the rules of football differed from one school to the next and when playing outside of their school, teams had to agree on which rules to follow. At Cambridge University in 1848, a common set of rules was established that drew from five schools – Harrow, Eton, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury.

In colonial Melbourne, the same issues arose. Football games were chaotic and often lengthy negotiations over rules were required before play could begin. It became apparent that some formal rules were necessary.

Setting the rules
In May 1859, Thomas Wentworth Wills, a renowned cricketer and the greatest proponent of the new game, was one of seven members of the Melbourne Cricket Club who established a set of rules.

Several of the group had studied at Cambridge so they likely had experience of playing a hybrid form of football. They were willing to compromise and, as a result, the game that emerged was not bound by tradition. In many ways, the new sport reflected the aspirations of colonial Melbourne where class mattered less than skill, pluck and endeavour.

The rules included:

• handling of the ball at any time
• that the player with the ball could only run as far as was needed to kick the ball;
• that a player who caught (marked) the ball cleanly from a kick could take a free kick
• that throwing the ball was banned
• that an opponent could not be held if he did not have possession of the ball

In the following decade, several amendments were made so that:

• players could run with the ball if they bounced it or touched it on the ground every five or six yards
• the ball had to be kicked through the goal, rather than carried through as it was in rugby
• players were penalised if they held the ball when tackled."

Winter in Australia : Football in the Richmond Paddock, Illustrated Melbourne Post, 27 July 1866. State Library of Victoria

http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/Australian-Rules-football

 

[Hello Kitty]

"It was in the pages of the Geelong Advertiser on July 16, 1859, that a modest advertisement called for the first meeting to form a Geelong football club.

“Football — Admirers of the above game are requested to attend a meeting to be held at the Victoria Hotel, at half-past seven, on Monday evening, 18th July,” it read.

An ad calling to form the Geelong Football Club was published in the Geelong Advertiser on July 16, 1859.

It was signed by secretary A.M. Mason, squeezed between an ad for a bazaar to raise funds for a Gheringhap St presbyterian church that December and a notice for the half-yearly ordinary general meeting of shareholders of the Geelong Gas Company.

Little more than three lines that would eternally link two of the city’s most prominent entities.

From that meeting one Monday night on the corner of Moorabool and Malop streets, the fortunes of that football club have been lived out and recorded through the pages of the Advertiser for more than 150 years.

Notable eras include the days of complete domination, when the team of the 1870s changed the way the game was played and established arguably the most successful era the game has ever seen, and the lows of two world wars.

Then came the premiership era and the heroes that live on from the early 1950s and early ‘60s, and after that, the flamboyance and heartbreak of the early ‘90s, and the powerful force of the team of recent times.

It is a club that has produced some of the game’s all-time greats. Some of the most influential figures both on and off the field.

People who changed the game, shaped the game, made the game the true national football code it is today."

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au...b/news-story/1192c829c397288582809e13880228a5

 

[Spearman]

those old drawings make it look like today's game with scrums around the ball

 

[Hello Kitty]

those old drawings make it look like today's game with scrums around the ball

They do! After all, Aussie Rules was loosely based on Rugy Union

 

[you pick one]

That's what it was when I first went there.

 

[you pick one]

Now walk a mile in my shoes.

 

[Deep]

Now walk a mile in my shoes.

Prehistoric

 

[Hello Kitty]

That's what it was when I first went there.

In 1951? I thought you were a Spring Chicken?

Love the old stands, such a shame it was demolished, the SCG is one of my favourite grounds because of the Heritage Listed Members Stand + the Ladies Stand.

How beautiful does KP + the surrounding area look in this pic?
1937

1926

Love this one too

Old Corio Oval, Geelong's home ground from 1897 until 1941, when it was used for WWII.

"In 1876 the extension of the Geelong Railway to Winchelsea, chopped the North-East corner of the 24 hectare park and crowds today often still hear a whistle from passing trains.

From 1903 Kardinia Park hosted a Zoo which closed at an unknown date."

#22 Alec Taylor or Wally Sharland

 

[Hello Kitty]

Now walk a mile in my shoes.

I was right there beside you, YPO - some very difficult times, sadly. I blame the tight shorts, cut off blood flow to their brains. Plus those hair styles were vile!

Enjoyed the comments from Sam Newman. Always enjoy Doug Wade when he speaks.

One thing I miss about that era were the muddy games lol That footage of Robert Neal, covered in mud + virtually unrecognisable as a Geelong player.

Larry Donohue

 

[you pick one]

In 1951? I thought you were a Spring Chicken?

Love the old stands, such a shame it was demolished, the SCG is one of my favourite grounds because of the Heritage Listed Members Stand + the Ladies Stand.

How beautiful does KP + the surrounding area look in this pic?
1937

1926

Love this one too

Old Corio Oval, Geelong's home ground from 1897 until 1941, when it was used for WWII.

"In 1876 the extension of the Geelong Railway to Winchelsea, chopped the North-East corner of the 24 hectare park and crowds today often still hear a whistle from passing trains.

From 1903 Kardinia Park hosted a Zoo which closed at an unknown date."

#22 Alec Taylor or Wally Sharland

More 1954 was my introduction to the mighty Cats

 

[Hello Kitty]

More 1954 was my introduction to the mighty Cats

Mine was 1967 - we're of a similar vintage, in the Baby Boomer category

 

[Marcus DuQuesne]

Now walk a mile in my shoes.

Never seen that Excellent. Scrubbers with the wrong attitude stands out...Most of them followed Goggin to Geelong West. Where not surprisingly they had success.

 

[The rabbi]

A conversation between a friend and myself,


Rabbi, whilst in Northern Ireland this summer we discovered that one of Katie's forebears was the president of the GFC 1877-84. : )" Geez Rikk, that's going back to the foundation year of the VFA. !877 was when the VFA was founded and Geelong was one of the foundation clubs. You could not tell me his name by any chance?

My goodness. Well, I can't vouch for the accuracy, but here's what the item said: "James Noble JP born c1822 Co Amargh. Arr Geelong 1841 in “Ferguson”; brothers William and John arr 1848 in “Sir Edward Parry”; George in 1849 and Charles in 1856. Settled on property at Mt. Duneed he called “Charlemont” after “Earl of Charlemont” wrecked on Barwon Heads near Geelong and after town of Charlemont in Co Amargh. Ship’s bell still owned by family [note: I think we’ve seen this]. Son, Robert Washington Noble born 18 March 1860 at Connewarre, Geelong, educated at Geelong CEGS. President Geelong Australian Rules Football Club, 1877-84 including 1879 when Geelong were League champions. Member Barwon Shire Council." What do you think?

Can anyone help with this information? Does the club have an official historian?

 

[FredLeDeux]

A conversation between a friend and myself,


Rabbi, whilst in Northern Ireland this summer we discovered that one of Katie's forebears was the president of the GFC 1877-84. : )" Geez Rikk, that's going back to the foundation year of the VFA. !877 was when the VFA was founded and Geelong was one of the foundation clubs. You could not tell me his name by any chance?

My goodness. Well, I can't vouch for the accuracy, but here's what the item said: "James Noble JP born c1822 Co Amargh. Arr Geelong 1841 in “Ferguson”; brothers William and John arr 1848 in “Sir Edward Parry”; George in 1849 and Charles in 1856. Settled on property at Mt. Duneed he called “Charlemont” after “Earl of Charlemont” wrecked on Barwon Heads near Geelong and after town of Charlemont in Co Amargh. Ship’s bell still owned by family [note: I think we’ve seen this]. Son, Robert Washington Noble born 18 March 1860 at Connewarre, Geelong, educated at Geelong CEGS. President Geelong Australian Rules Football Club, 1877-84 including 1879 when Geelong were League champions. Member Barwon Shire Council." What do you think?

Can anyone help with this information? Does the club have an official historian?

1. On those dates he would have been President at 17.
2. He's not listed here
https://www.geelongcats.com.au/club/history/honour-roll

Perhaps he was a player in those years, aged 17-24 (maybe related to Bruce Lindner)..

 

[The rabbi]

1. On those dates he would have been President at 17.
2. He's not listed here
https://www.geelongcats.com.au/club/history/honour-roll

Perhaps he was a player in those years, aged 17-24 (maybe related to Bruce Lindner)..

The only info that I have found Fred, was a reference to a Noble who played in Geelong's first (or early) premiership in the old VFA. The date would suggest that he was the Noble mentioned above. But there was no reference to being in any administrative capacity. I cannot recall where I found that link on-line.