With Carlton meeting Brisbane in an AFLW Preliminary Final on Saturday night, how apt that a precious few seconds of film of a Carlton-Essendon Prelim of 113 years ago should now surface.
Flickering images of the 1912 VFL Preliminary Final – mistakenly identified as a League “semi-final” in the intertitles - were discovered in a longer 1926 film within the National Film and Sound Archive’s (NFSA’s) collection.
The film’s existence was recently brought to Carlton’s attention by Simon Huggard, who obtained a time-coded copy of the film from NFSA for examination in his capacity as a Melbourne Cricket Club volunteer researcher.
Back in September, Huggard contacted the Club to determine whether the tiny piece of film actually related to the 1922 semi-final involving Carlton and Essendon. In a subsequent viewing of the footage it was quickly established that the match was indeed the Preliminary Final contested by the respective teams some ten years before.
The match was staged on the afternoon of Saturday, September 21, 1912 on the MCG. It pitted Carlton, which had finished third in the home and away season, with fourth-placed Essendon (the eventual Premiers) and resulted in a four-point loss for the Blues, 6.12 (48) to 7.10 (52).
The NFSA has graciously allowed Carlton permission to screen these brief moving pictures for the first time.
In the film, a section of the audience (47,414 in total on matchday) can be seen, with a row of well-established trees prominent in the distance. Some spectators are sheltered in the long gone Harrison Stand (at the Punt Road end of where the Shane Warne Stand is now) and in one of the many stripe-topped tents availed at the time.
The sequence of play begins with Carlton’s Alex Barningham advancing from the far left as he awaits the outcome of a marking contest. Contesting the mark is the Carlton back pocket Harry Haughton (the number 26 in short sleeves) with Essendon ’s resting ruckman Bill Walker (number 20) and wingman Fred O’Shea (number 15).
The ball then spills clear and as it bounces on the far side of the pack (away from the camera) Barningham takes possession of the loose ball and clears. As he does so, two more Carlton players appear – Viv Valentine sporting the number 6 old style blue lace-up with chamois yoke and Andy McDonald, sporting the more recognizable dark navy blue long-sleeve guernsey with interlocking white letters of the CFC - the monogram formally adopted by the committee in 1909.
At the very end of the film, the two competing number 18s appear from the left of screen – Essendon’s Paddy Shea in the long sleeves, and a future Carlton Premiership player and club Captain Billy Dick in the sleeveless.
These valuable surviving seconds of one of the earliest matchday films offer a fascinating glimpse into how the game was played and the men who played it.
