1876 Victorian football season


The 1876 Victorian football season was an Australian rules football competition played during the winter of 1876. The season consisted of matches between metropolitan and provincial football clubs in the colony of Victoria. The premier metropolitan club was Melbourne, and the premier provincial club was Barwon.
This was the final season of decentralised administration of football in Victoria; the Victorian Football Association was formed the following year to provide a committee-based approach to the administration of the sport.

1876 premierships

Six metropolitan clubs participated in senior football during the 1876 season: Albert-park,, Carlton Imperial, East Melbourne, and. As had been the case for a few years, Carlton and Melbourne were considered the dominant clubs in the city, so the premier club was decided based entirely on the head-to-head record between the clubs; in their four meetings, Melbourne won two, Carlton won one, and one was drawn, so Melbourne was recognised as the premier club for the season.
In the provincial competition, Barwon was the premier team, and was the winner of the Geelong, Ballarat and Wimmera District Challenge Cup. Barwon was presented with the cup after defeating 2–1 on 29 July.

Club senior records

The below table is the results for senior clubs during the 1876 season. The table shows the record across all matches, including senior, junior and intercolonial matches. The clubs are listed in the order in which they were ranked in the Australasian newspaper. Other than announcing the top three place-getters, there was no formal process by which the clubs were ranked, so the below order should be considered indicative only, particularly since the fixturing of matches was not standardised.



Other awards

In May, shortly before the start of the season, the North Melbourne Football Club was disbanded, and most senior players and many members of the club joined the Albert-park Football Club, which was itself in a weakened position due to the departure of many players. There was no formal amalgamation between the two clubs, but Albert-park took on a strong North Melbourne character, fielding more former North Melbourne players than Albert-park players, and many fans openly cheered for North Melbourne rather than Albert-park – and some in the media came to describe the club as Albert-park cum North Melbourne. The arrangement lasted only for one year, and the Hotham Football Club was re-established in North Melbourne in 1877.

Disputed match between Carlton and Melbourne

The result of the final match for the season, between Carlton and Melbourne held at the Madeline St reserve on 23 September - a de facto premiership playoff match - was disputed between the two clubs, owing to a disagreement over whether the first half goal scored by Melbourne's F. Baker was valid. Baker had taken a mark right on the goal line and quickly kicked the ball between the posts, but Carlton players protested that Baker had illegally pushed Carlton defender Nudd out of the marking contest.
According to The Australasian reporter Peter Pindar, who reported the details of a conversation he had with field umpire Searcey after the game, Searcey agreed that Nudd had been illegally pushed and was about to annul the goal and award a free kick when the Carlton players began to protest; however, he was offended by the language that the Carlton players had used toward him, so he instead left the ground immediately, without having resolved the issue of the goal. There was a delay of fifteen minutes before a new umpire, Mr Bride, could be found, and while Carlton unsuccessfully protested the awarding of the goal. Each club scored one additional goal during the rest of the game, resulting in a 2–1 victory for Melbourne. Following the match, the Carlton Football Club maintained its position of disputing Baker's goal, and claimed the match as a 1–1 draw. With no formal means of resolving the dispute, both clubs maintained their positions, to the point that the two clubs reported different results for the match in their annual reports.
But as major newspapers all considered the match to be a Melbourne victory, Melbourne was thus declared the premier club for the season, having beaten Carlton twice and lost to Carlton once during the season, with the other match being drawn.