Australian rules football schism (1938–1949)
The Australian rules football schism was a period of division in the rules and governance of Australian rules football, primarily in the sport's traditional heartland of Melbourne, and to lesser extents in North West Tasmania and parts of regional Victoria. The schism existed primarily between Melbourne's pre-eminent league, the Victorian Football League, and its secondary league, the Victorian Football Association. In the context of VFA history, this period is often referred to as the throw-pass era.
The schism began in 1938, when the VFA introduced several rule changes, including legalising throwing of the football in general play. The changes helped to speed up the game, and promoted more run-and-carry play in an era which had previously been dominated by a long kicking style. Additionally, the VFA ended its player transfer agreement with the VFL, and aggressively recruited star players from the VFL. These changes gave the VFA for the first time in many years an on-field product which could compete with the VFL for public interest, and it made the 1940s one of the most successful periods in the VFA's history. By the mid-1940s, the VFA had copyrighted its rules, and was considered to be playing its own distinct code of Australian rules football.
The VFA's actions created a division in the administrative structure of the sport in Victoria. Throughout the 1940s, the VFL and VFA worked towards ending the schism, as they both believed that a single controlling body playing under a uniform set of rules was in the best interests of football as a whole. Over several years, the VFL and VFA unsuccessfully negotiated options, including for the two competitions to be amalgamated into one. The schism ended after the 1949 season, when the VFA accepted the national standard rules, in exchange for receiving its own seat on the Australian National Football Council, which ultimately gave it a voice in the administration of the game at the national level. Although the throw-pass itself did not survive beyond the schism, other innovations from the throw-pass era helped to shape the national rules of the game.
Background
Australian rules football had been played in Victoria since 1858, and was initially administered in an ad hoc manner by the active clubs, who agreed upon rules and administrative matters through informal meetings of club secretaries. In 1877, the Victorian Football Association was established to provide formal and binding administration of the game in Victoria. By 1888, the VFA had brought a formal structure to its on-field competition, including the system under which the premiership was decided, and thus the VFA was serving as both the game's administrative body and as its top senior competition in Victoria.In October 1896, eight of the VFA's thirteen clubs seceded and established the Victorian Football League. The VFL comprised the strongest clubs in Melbourne, in large part because its clubs were based in the more densely populated inner suburbs where potential gate takings were higher, while the VFA's clubs were generally based further from the city centre; thus the VFL became the pre-eminent football competition and administrative body in Victoria. The strongest VFA clubs regularly sought admission to the more lucrative VFL, and four clubs gained admission over the following decades, on each occasion quelling a brief resurgence in the VFA's popularity. As a matter of comparison of the two competitions' strengths, the average home-and-away crowds in the 1937 season were around 14,300 in the VFL and 2,400 in the VFA. Both the VFL and VFA played all matches on Saturday afternoons at the time, so the two were in direct competition with each other for spectators. It was widely acknowledged that the VFL was the higher standard competition, and even the VFA executive was prepared to acknowledge that only a handful of VFA players had the ability to succeed as senior VFL players.
The responsibility for administration of the game at the national level fell at this time to the Australian National Football Council. Formed in 1906, the ANFC comprised one delegate from each state, and later added one from Canberra and one representing amateur football nationwide. The ANFC was the custodian of the official laws of the game, which all of its affiliated competitions were required to use. The council's purpose was to provide a united control structure for the sport, and to help promote the interests of the game as a whole; as part of this, it took levies from the southern states and distributed grants to the northern states to help them develop the game in rugby territory. Victoria was represented on the ANFC by the VFL. The VFA was not part of the ANFC; but, it had a formal relationship with the VFL governed by an agreement signed between them in 1931, and the terms of that agreement indirectly brought the VFA under the ANFC's influence.
Establishment of the throw-pass code
The mid-1930s had been a period of declining popularity for football in Victoria. Both the VFA and VFL were enduring financial problems, to the point where some of the weaker VFL teams were being kept afloat only by the dividends they received from finals gates. The VFA decided that it would make a series of rule changes to make the game more spectacular to try to reverse this trend. The first set of recommendations was made by its appointed rules committee in early October 1937, and the final decision on which rules to include was made at a meeting of club delegates in February 1938.The rule changes which were made were:
- Throwing the ball – the VFA legalised throwing as a means of disposal in general play, provided the throw was with two hands and both hands were kept below shoulder height. The primary intention of the rule was to provide a faster and less skillful means of disposing of the football than kicking or handpassing, to make it easier for players to clear the ball from scrimmages – which tended to slow down the game during the 1930s. A secondary benefit of the rule was that flick-passing – a handpassing style in which the ball is propelled with an open hand instead of the traditional closed fist – had increased in usage during the 1930s, but it blurred the line between handpassing and throwing such that it was difficult for umpires to police consistently; by legalising throwing the ball, this source of inconsistency was removed. It was a bold change, since throwing the ball had been illegal throughout the history of Australian rules football, dating back to the Melbourne Rules of 1859; although the idea itself was not new, and had been proposed in various forums including the ANFC without being accepted since as early as 1911. This form of disposal became known as a throw-pass – a term which in many sports would appear tautological, but reflected its distinction from the other styles of handpass. Strictly speaking, the throw was not a new form of disposal; rather, the definition of a handpass was expanded to include throwing.
- Holding the ball – amendments were made to the existing holding the ball rule. Under 1930s ANFC rules, a player would be penalised for holding the ball if he was tackled while in possession, unless he immediately kicked, handpassed or dropped the ball. In practice, players would usually drop the ball upon being tackled, which meant that a scrimmage could easily form around the ball and the tackled player; it also meant that a player could drop the ball, try to earn a holding-the-man free kick if the tackler did not let him go, then quickly pick the ball up again if the tackler did let him go. This was difficult for umpires to police consistently, and it was the major cause of scrimmages which had both slowed down the game and had contributed to a rise in rough play during the 1930s. The Association amended the rule by eliminating the provision for the player to drop the ball: he would now have to kick, handpass or throw the ball, but would be penalised if he dropped it, meaning that the ball would be cleared away from the spot of the tackle, making it more difficult for a scrimmage to form around it. It is noted that the ANFC had previously tried to introduce this same rule in 1930 and had found it unsuccessful at reducing scrimmages; but the VFA believed that combining this rule with the ability to throw the ball – a much easier form of disposal than a traditional handpass – would be more successful at achieving this aim.
- Boundary throw-in – the boundary throw-in was reintroduced to the game. Under the new rules, the boundary umpire would throw the ball back into play to a neutral ruck contest after the ball went out of bounds, unless: the field umpire deemed that the ball had been forced out deliberately; or, if the ball went out of bounds from a kick-in after a behind without another player touching it – in which cases a free kick would be awarded. Players contesting boundary throw-ins were made to initially stand apart from each other and were not permitted to interfere with each other. Re-introducing the boundary throw-in was a return to a set of rules which had prevailed prior to 1925. Since 1925, ANFC rules had dictated that a free kick be awarded against the last team to play the ball before it went out of bounds under any circumstances; the VFL had voted in favour of the change, but it had quickly come to be unpopular among players and spectators, and Victoria had since unsuccessfully agitated for it to be repealed. Since the ANFC rules never gained wide popularity in Victoria, many were glad to see a return to the old rules. The change opened the wings and flanks up to more play: under the ANFC rules, play had in general been much more direct down the centre of the field to avoid the risk of turning over possession by putting the ball out of bounds, but the return of the boundary throw-in lowered the risk of playing down the boundary lines. It also simplified the umpire's job, as he no longer needed to determine which player was the last to play the ball before it went out of bounds, which was often difficult if the ball was being contested at the time.
- Free kicks paid for fouls committed after a disposal – the VFA introduced the rule which today is known as a downfield free kick, although that name was not in contemporary use. Under the rule, if a player was fouled after disposing of the ball, a free kick would be awarded to the nearest teammate at the spot where the ball landed, instead of to the fouled player at the spot of the foul.
- Transfer of free kicks from injured players – a provision was introduced for a free kick to be taken by a teammate if the player who was originally to take the free kick was injured and unable to take it. Under national rules, a ball-up would be called under these circumstances.
- Fifteen yard penalty: The VFA introduced a fifteen-yard penalty for offences by the man on the mark. Specifically, when a player was awarded a mark or a free kick, if his opponent cribbed over the mark or wasted time by refusing to return the ball directly to him, the umpire could move the spot of the mark ten to fifteen yards closer to goal, and could apply multiple such penalties until the opponent complied. Cribbing over the mark, sometimes by as far as five to ten yards, was a much disliked but commonplace feature of the game by 1938, but there was no on-field penalty available to the umpire to manage it; time-wasting was a reportable offence, but reports were seldom enforced; so, the VFA introduced the rule to give the umpire the means to more directly control what had become an unattractive feature of the game.