1.
Essendon Football Club
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The Essendon Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League, the sports premier competition. Formed in 1871 as a club and playing as a senior club since 1878. It is historically associated with Essendon, a suburb in the north-west of Melbourne, dyson Heppell is the current team captain. A founding member club of both the Victorian Football Association, in 1877, and the Victorian Football League, in 1896, the club claims to have over at least one million supporters Australia wide. Essendon has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition, the club was founded by members of the Royal Agricultural Society, the Melbourne Hunt Club and the Victorian Woolbrokers. The Essendon Football Club is thought to have formed in 1872 at a meeting it the home of a well-known brewery family, the McCrackens, whose Ascot Vale property hosted a team of local junior players. Robert McCracken, the owner of several city hotels, was the founder and first president of the Essendon club and his son, Alex, Alex would later become president of the newly formed VFL. Alexs cousin, Collier, who had played with Melbourne, was the teams first captain. The club played its first recorded match against the Carlton second twenty on 7 June 1873, Essendon played 13 matches in its first season, winning seven, with four draws and losing two. The club was one of the junior members of the Victorian Football Association in 1877. During its early years in the Association, Essendon played its matches at Flemington Hill. In 1878, Essendon played in the first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a field at Flemington Hill. In 1879 Essendon played Melbourne in one of the earliest night matches recorded when the ball was painted white, in 1883 the team played four matches in Adelaide. In 1891 Essendon won their first VFA premiership, which they repeated in 1892,1893 and 1894, one of the clubs greatest players, Albert Thurgood played for the club during this period. Essendon was undefeated in the 1893 season, at the end of the 1896 season Essendon along with seven other clubs formed the Victorian Football League. Essendons first VFL game was in 1897 was against Geelong at Corio Oval in Geelong, Essendon won its first VFL premiership by winning the 1897 VFL finals series. Essendon again won the premiership in 1901, defeating Collingwood in the Grand Final, the club won successive premierships in 1911 and 1912 over Collingwood and South Melbourne respectively. The nickname first appeared in print in the local North Melbourne Advertiser in 1889 and it was known firstly as Essendon Town and, after 1905, as Essendon
2.
Geelong Football Club
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The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in the city of Geelong, Australia and playing in the Australian Football League. The Cats have been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with three in the AFL era and they have also won nine McClelland Trophies, a record shared with Essendon. The club was formed in 1859, making it the second oldest club in the AFL after Melbourne and one of the oldest football clubs in the world. Geelong participated in the first football competition in Australia and was a club of both the Victorian Football Association in 1877 and the Victorian Football League in 1897. The club first established itself in the VFA by winning seven premierships, the club won a further six premierships by 1963, before enduring a 44-year waiting period until it won its next premiership—an AFL-record 119-point victory in the 2007 AFL Grand Final. Geelong have since won a further two premierships in 2009 and 2011, the clubs home ground is Kardinia Park, currently also known by its sponsorship name Simonds Stadium. However, the club also hosts matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Geelongs traditional guernsey colours are blue and white hoops. The clubs nickname, The Cats, was first used in 1923 after a run of losses prompted a local cartoonist to suggest that the club needed a black cat to bring it good luck, the clubs official team song and anthem is We Are Geelong. Geelong Football Club was formally established at a meeting held in the Victoria Hotel on 18 July 1859, the club contested its first match of Australian rules football against Melbourne at Argyle Square in 1860, which finished as a scoreless draw. In 1863, Geelong travelled to Melbourne to contest the Caledonian Challenge Cup, although the competition was played under compromised rules, Geelong reached the final and defeated Melbourne to become the second winners of the cup. The club continued to contest the cup in the following years, during this time, Tom Wills—one of the founders of Australian football—played exclusively for the club from 1865 until his retirement from football in 1874. Following the formation of the Victorian Football Association in 1877, Geelong joined the association as one of its foundation clubs. The club relocated to Corio Oval as its home ground in time for the 1878 season. In 1924, following the death of VFL and Geelong administrator Charles Brownlow, the first player to win the award was Geelongs Edward Greeves. Having been one of the dominant clubs in the old VFA and it wasnt until 1925 that the club won its first VFL premiership. Geelong followed up with further wins in 1931 and 1937. In 1941, the club was forced to relocate from its Corio Oval base due to the oval being required for training during World War 2
3.
Coleman Medal
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The Coleman Medal is awarded yearly to the Australian Football League player who kicks the most goals in home-and-away matches in that year. It is named after John Coleman, the former Essendon full forward whose career of 537 goals in 98 games was cut short by injury. Although only instituted in 1981, retrospective Coleman Medals were presented in 2004, winners prior to that were retrospectively awarded Leading Goalkicker Medals. The winners of the Coleman Medal are, Awarded prior to 1955 to the scorer of most goals in the home, Leading goalkickers, accessed 17 March 2011
4.
Fitzroy Football Club
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The club experienced some early success in the league and was the first club to win a VFL Grand Final. It also achieved a total of eight VFL premierships between 1898 and 1944, and more recently two VAFA promotions in 2009 and 2012. Despite this, the club survived in its own right and The Fitzroy Football Club Ltd came out of administration after the merger of its AFL playing operations in late 1998. For a brief time it experimented in partnerships with other semi professional, Fitzroy largely resumed its original VFL-AFL identity through its continued use of their 1975–1996 VFL-AFL jumper, their theme song and their 1884–1966 home ground at the Brunswick Street Oval. Fitzroy began in the D1 section of the VAFA in 2009 and it is notable for being the only club to have played in the VFA, VFL, AFL and VAFA competitions of Australian Rules football. In 2015 Fitzroy fielded its first womens team under the name of Fitzroy-ACU in partnership with the Australian Catholic University, in 2016, Fitzroy-ACU fielded two womens teams in the Victorian Womens Football League VWFL. From 2017, all Fitzroy teams play in the VAFA with the playing in the VAFAs Inaugural womens competition. The Fitzroy Football Club was formed at a meeting at the Brunswick Hotel on 26 September 1883, Fitzroys season-by-season records throughout its thirteen seasons at VFA level are given below. In 1897, Fitzroy were one of the eight clubs who broke away from the VFA to form the Victorian Football League, Fitzroy was the most successful club in the first 10 years of the VFL, winning four premierships and finishing runners-up on three occasions. In contrast, the 1916 Fitzroy team only won 2 home and away matches, all four teams qualified for the finals, and Fitzroy won their next three games to win one of the strangest VFL premierships. The Maroons won their premiership in 1922, a year season which included four very rough games against eventual runners-up Collingwood. However, after this their fortunes waned, and they did not make the finals at all from 1925 to 1942 and it was during this time that the Maroons became known as the Gorillas. Football was less affected by World War II than it had been in 1916 and it was in this year, under captain-coach Fred Hughson, that the Gorillas won their eighth VFL flag against Richmond in front of a capacity crowd at Junction Oval. However, it was also to be their last senior premiership, as the club, by the mid 1960s, Fitzroys traditional home ground the Brunswick Street Oval was in a state of disrepair. Pressure was applied by most VFL clubs, including Fitzroy, to have the ground improved, however, the ground managers were the Fitzroy Cricket Club. The Football Club had to pay the Cricket Club to use the ground, the football club put forward various ideas to try and change the situation, including the amalgamation of the Football and Cricket Clubs to form one club as in the manner of the Carlton Social Club. The Cricket Club held the licence and managed the ground. With a stake in the ground, the club could have better agitated for improvements to the ground by sourcing funds from other organisations such as the VFL
5.
Carlton Football Club
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The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an suburb of Melbourne, the club competes in the Australian Football League. Its nickname comes from the blue colour of its playing uniform. The club has fielded a team in the AFL Womens league since its establishment in 2017. Carlton has had a long and successful history, together with fierce rivals Collingwood, Richmond and Essendon, Carlton was considered historically to be one of the leagues Big Four clubs, and enjoys a healthy rivalry with all three others. The Carlton Football Club was formed in July 1864, in the early days, Carlton became particularly strong and having grown a large supporter base. It became a rival to the Melbourne Football Club in early competition, including the South Yarra Challenge Cup. Carlton won four premierships during the era in the 1870s. In 1877, Carlton became one of the clubs of the Victorian Football Association. He died of tuberculosis in 1883, aged 27, in spite of this, the club was invited to join the breakaway Victorian Football League competition in 1897. The club continued to struggle in early seasons of the new competition, Carltons fortunes improved significantly in 1902. The Board elected the highly respected former Fitzroy footballer and Australian test cricketer Jack Worrall, then the secretary of the Carlton Cricket Club, to the same position at the football club. As secretary, Worrall slowly took over the managing of the players, under Worralls guidance in the latter part of the 1902 season, Carltons on-field performances improved, and in 1903 he led Carlton to the finals for the first time. Carlton built a reputation and financial position, and was able to convince many great players to shift to the club from other clubs. Worrall led the club to its first three VFL premierships, won consecutively, in 1906,1907 and 1908, some players had become frustrated by low payments and hard training standards, and responded by refusing to train or even play matches. The club removed Worrall from the role, and after significant changes at board level after the 1909 season. Many players who had supported Worrall left the club at the end of the season, then, in 1910, several players were suspected of having taken bribes to fix matches, with two players both found guilty and suspended for 99 matches. Despite this backdrop, Carlton continued its strong form, reaching the 1909 and 1910 Grand Finals
