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Geelong Soccer between the Wars

By Roy Hay Published in Investigator, June 1994 with some updates in May, 2026

Soccer, or Association Football, or simply football, as it is known throughout the world, has been played in Geelong since the 1880s. Until recently it has been primarily a migrants’ game and it played a significant part in the ways in which successive generations of migrants came to terms with Australian society. Between the wars the majority of migrants came from the United Kingdom and they brought their favourite sport with them.

Immigration and manufacturing

The First World War interrupted a sharp rise in immigration into Australia. In the aftermath of war thousands of migrants from Britain and a few from other parts of Europe arrived. 36,700 immigrants landed between 1921 and 1925, the largest increase in a five year period since gold rush days. Victoria and Geelong benefited from this influx and several new industries were created. Of particular interest in Geelong, Ford began operations in 1926, the Valley Mills Worsted Mill was formed as a private company in 1924 and the highly profitable Commonwealth Woollen Mills were sold off to a local consortium in somewhat suspicious circumstances in 1923. Each of these three firms had teams associated with them playing soccer in Geelong by the mid-1920s.¹ Valley Mills and Ford took part in the inaugural league in 1926 and Federal Mills joined in 1929. It was the recreation clubs, rather than the firms themselves which were responsible, certainly in the case of Fords. The other clubs reflect the immigrant groups even more directly – Union Jack, Caledonians, Overseas. Each of these was the offshoot of an existing Geelong social club.

Other teams

Two other groups were involved. The military and the navy were represented by the Queenscliff Garrison and HMAS Brisbane and Melbourne. The appellation of the Geelong and Western Districts League for the main competition was sustained by the entry of Colac into the Madden Cup, which it won, in 1926 and the League from 1927 onwards. Ballarat was the other outsider, making a winning appearance in the Madden Cup in 1928.

The first match in Geelong?

Soccer had been played in Melbourne since the 1880s and matches resumed after the First World War in 1919 with a new record attendance being established in a second round Dockerty Cup match between Northumberland and Durhams and Melbourne Thistle at Middle Park, Melbourne on 3 July 1920.² The First Division of the League now had twelve teams with matches being played at Middle Park and reserve games at Spotswood. A demonstration charity match was played in Geelong on Monday, 26 April 1920, between a team from the crews of the visiting warship HMAS Platypus and its accompanying submarines and the Victorian Amateur British Football Association team Windsor. It was played on Geelong Oval and the Geelong Advertiser asserted “This will probably be the first demonstration of the game ever given in Geelong.”³ The crowd was given as “some two thousand people” and the Navy won four-nil with the proceeds going to the Geelong Hospital.⁴ The game did not catch on immediately, it appears, for there is no further record of soccer in the Advertiser that year. However, a club was formed in Geelong in August 1923.⁵

A local club formed

Following an advertisement in the Geelong Advertiser a group of soccer enthusiasts met on Belmont Common for a game and to discuss forming a local club. Arthur D. Ive was elected President, with C. Ensby as Secretary and W. Drinnan, Treasurer.⁶ Since the Melbourne league season was just ending, the club planned its entry to the league for 1924. The Geelong United soccer club, so called because its players were drawn from all over the United Kingdom, held a smoke night on November 24, 1923, at which Ive’s successor as President, W.G. Madden, foreshadowed the development of the social side of the club.⁷ Mr. H.A. Haldane of the Newport Club, one of the guests, noted the entry of the club into Division Two of the Metropolitan competition in 1924. According to the treasurer, ‘the club was financial to the extent after paying all debts of £14/10/- – very encouraging given the short time it had been in existence’. Mr. C. Ensby remarked on ‘the feeling that appeared to exist among a certain section of the public that the “Soccer” club was there to oust the Australian game’.⁸ The Secretary, A.D. Ive disclaimed any such notion, pointing out that ‘every week people accustomed to see “Soccer” were coming out from the old country’.⁹ W.G. Madden was an Australian but most of the other members were immigrants from the United Kingdom. Madden did not marry till relatively late in his life, hence his nephew said he had time to be involved in soccer.¹⁰

The Victorian league

By 1924, the Victorian league competition had expanded to a first division of eight teams and a second division split into two groups of eight. In addition, fourteen reserve teams took the field in two divisions.¹¹ The Dockerty Cup, presented for the first time by Mr. Harry Dockerty in 1909, and still being contested in 1994, was now attracting teams from Wonthaggi, Bendigo and Geelong. Enough players had joined to allow the Geelong club to field senior and reserve teams in its first season. Geelong was drawn in Division Two B of the League and the Reserve League. On 26 April 1924, the club played its first league match against Melbourne Welsh at the Hope Street ground in Geelong West. The team that day was Hutchinson, Armstrong, Wardrop (captain), Shaw, Wilkinson, D. Drinnan, Donaldson, Smith, Dempsey, Buckley and Kelly.¹² In 1924 Geelong United had a team with a mixture of age and experience and some younger lads learning the game. Wardrop, the club captain, had played with Fitzroy and St. Kilda for several years. Among other good players were the diminutive Dadds at right half, Baker, the Irish born goalkeeper, and Dempsey and Lowe at centre forward and outside left respectively. Dempsey had moved back to half-back when Shaw broke his collar-bone, but then resumed in attack with good effect.¹³

Mixed success

The highlights of that first season included a seven-nil thrashing of Union Jack, in a replayed Cup match at Kardinia Park in front of 100 spectators.¹⁴ Travel to and from Melbourne caused problems and in June, Arthur Ive wrote to Soccer News about the non-appearance of St. David’s to fulfil its fixture in Geelong. St. David’s claimed the motor to transport them to Geelong had not turned up, but Ive said that he had written to the club a week before the game without reply.¹⁵ In its first season the seniors finished in mid-table, but the Reserves won the championship. In 1925 both finished respectably in their leagues.¹⁶

The Geelong Advertiser carried quite extensive reports on Geelong United’s matches and on 21 July 1924, at a general meeting of the club a proposal to form a local soccer league was floated.¹⁷ It was to be two years before this idea bore fruit.¹⁸

In August, when the United had no league game, a match between the club’s Scottish and English players was arranged, but prior to kick-off a number of scholars from the Geelong Church of England Grammar Preparatory School were given their first lesson in the game.¹⁹ Grammar still plays soccer in 1994.

Melbourne competition

Geelong United played in Melbourne competitions for three years, according to Ian McCulloch, President of the Geelong League, but in fact by 1926 the travelling to Melbourne had become too onerous and interest in the game had grown to the point where a local Geelong league was a reasonable proposition.²⁰ The former Secretary, A.D. Ive, had by then moved to Melbourne, though he was later appointed as representative of the Geelong Association to the Melbourne League, in place of Mr. Mackay who resigned.²¹ It was reported that the Geelong City club and the local league were at loggerheads over various matters, including the allocation of the City’s ground at Hope Street for Cup matches.²² It was suggested that City might rejoin the Melbourne competition the following year as a result.

Local competitions

Three local competitions were started in 1926 – the Geelong and Western District League, the Caledonian Charity Shield and the Madden Cup.²³ Geelong teams also took part in the Dockerty Cup and the Carrick Cup, a competition for representative teams from local leagues, including Melbourne and Wonthaggi. The tournament winners are shown in the accompanying box.

Team changes

In 1926 there were seven teams in the Geelong league, namely Geelong City, Ford Recreation Club, Valley Worsted Mills, Overseas Club, Queenscliff Garrison, HMAS Brisbane and North Geelong.²⁴ The last of these was in trouble before the end of the season, while the Brisbane left the Geelong area around the conclusion of the league. It was the only team from the Geelong area to take part in the Dockerty Cup that year, going down to Bentleigh in the first round.²⁵

In 1927 the Geelong and Western Districts League consisted of Caledonians, Colac Thistle, Geelong City, Overseas, Ford Recreation Club, HMAS Melbourne and Union Jack.²⁶ Valley Mills and Queenscliff Garrison had dropped out, but new clubs Caledonians and Union Jack were formed and admitted. The Brisbane was replaced by HMAS Melbourne.

Competition for grounds

The Friendly Societies Oval was secured for a match between Overseas and Union Jack, while Bakers Oval, Manifold Heights was to be the venue for a game between Caledonian and Fords in April 1927.²⁷ Preston Soccer Club was beaten in a friendly match at Easter,²⁸ but the crew of HMS Renown, in the area in connection with a Royal visit, trounced Geelong’s representative team on the main oval at Kardinia Park on April 27 by nine goals to one.²⁹ Not all relations with the local football clubs were as cordial. On the opening week of the league season, there was a double-booking of Bakers’ Oval, with Caledonian being surprised to find an Australian Rules game in progress when it turned up for its first match against Geelong City on April 23.³⁰

Year	Competition	Winner	Runner-up
1926	League	Geelong City	Ford
	Caledonian Shield	Geelong City	Ford
	Madden Cup	Colac	Ford
1927	League	Caledonians	Colac Thistle
	Caledonian Shield	Caledonians	Geelong City
	Madden Cup	Geelong City	Colac Thistle
1928	League	Colac Thistle	Valley Mills
	Caledonian Shield	Union	Caledonians
	Madden Cup	Ballarat	Ford
1929	League	Federal Mills	Colac Thistle
	Caledonian Shield	Federal Mills	Colac Thistle
	Madden Cup	Federal Mills	Colac Thistle
1930	League	Federal Mills	N & D United
	Caledonian Shield	Valley Mills	Colac
	Madden Cup	N & D United	Valley Mills

Ford’s withdrawal

Ford did not last out the season and the rules of the Association were changed to allow players from Fords to transfer to other clubs after the deadline of July 23.³¹ Caledonian went through the league season undefeated, but still only managed to win the title by two points from Colac, which suffered only one loss in 1927.

LEAGUE LADDER 1927

Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Caledonians	12	10	2	0	42	10	22
Colac Thistle	12	9	2	1	28	14	20
Geelong City	12	8	1	3	38	20	17
Overseas	12	4	0	8	20	33	8
Ford’s Recreation	12	3	0	9	20	16	6
HMAS Melbourne	12	3	0	9	17	23	6
Union Jack	12	1	1	10	11	59	3

Source: Geelong Advertiser, Saturday, August 27, 1927

A misunderstanding

Caledonians also won the Caledonian Charity Shield from Geelong City, but City was successful in the final of the Madden Cup, beating Colac by three goals to two in a replay, after a nil-all draw. The presentation of the trophy was delayed after Colac protested that Geelong City had fielded an ineligible player, perhaps one of those who had transferred from Fords, but the matter was resolved on the spot and the protest withdrawn.³² The Colac captain claimed he had received information about the ineligible player from Mr Cameron, the Secretary of the Association, and hence treated it as authentic.

National affiliations

The local league continued in 1928. The City team which won the Madden Cup in 1927 folded, despite claims to the contrary in May 1928.³³ Queenscliff Club decided not to affiliate, so the league began with five teams, Valley Mills, Ford, Caledonians, Union Jack and Colac Thistle.³⁴ The Union Jack and Caledonian teams were strongly Anglo-Celtic in composition, with perhaps a more Scottish flavour to the Calys.³⁵ Caledonians had a new ground at Hope Street, while the Union Jack clubrooms were in the old Trades Hall and Masonic Hall building in Yarra Street.³⁶ Matches were also played at the Richmond Crescent ground in South Geelong and at North Shore.³⁷

Ballarat success

The Madden Cup competition semi-finals were between Union Jack and Ballarat, won by Ballarat by three goals to one, and Ford and Valley Mills, after Ford beat Colac in a previous round. This was Colac’s only defeat of the season.³⁸ Ford accounted for Valley Mills by three goals to two after being two-nil down after 20 minutes.³⁹ Ballarat and Ford met in the final at Hope Street, West Geelong, on August 11, with Ballarat winning by six goals to one in front of a crowd estimated at 300 spectators. This was the first time a Ballarat team had taken part in Geelong soccer and ‘Ballarat are in a similar position today to what Geelong were six years ago when soccer was first started.’⁴⁰ The season was not a great one for the Geelong clubs, as Colac Thistle won the league with eight wins from eight games.⁴¹ It appears that Valley Mills finished runner-up, according to a report on July 18 which named them as the second strongest team in the competition.⁴²

A successful new team

It looked as if the 1929 season would get off to a bright start when eight teams entered a five-a-side competition on May 4, with the league scheduled to start on May 11.⁴³ Fords had already departed however, and Caledonians dropped out of the league as did Union Jack, but three new teams came in to bring the total to five once again. The Federal Woollen Mills entered a team and Geelong Wanderers was formed on May 14.⁴⁴ Northumberland and Durham United also joined. The jerseys had not been completed and the players were asked to wear white shirts for the first game against the Federal Mills.⁴⁵ N and D played in Newcastle colours in the end, black and white stripes and, of course, were known as the Magpies. The Federal team turned out to be a bolter in its first season, winning all three competitions.⁴⁶

By 1930 the league was in decline, with only four teams taking part, Northumberland and Durham United, Colac Thistle, the Federal Mills and the Valley Mills. A series of friendly games and the representative games with Melbourne teams helped extend the season and the Geelong teams did quite well; N and D defeated Footscray United in 1930 and lost narrowly to Hakoah, while the representative team went down by two goals to nil to Melbourne in the Carrick Cup. Northumberland and Durham won the Madden Cup beating Valley Mills in the final, and the team was photographed for the occasion. Its squad and officials listed were: A.L. (Geordie) Graham (Secretary), Duncan Davies (President), C. Mitchell (goalkeeper), J. McGregor, Senior (Vice-President), J. McGregor, Junior, (Trainer), W. Turner, Tommy Blacklock, Wally Drummond, Ron (Snowy) Whittimore, W. Cook, Oscar Morrow, Harold Buckley, Elijah (Sandy) Hammond (Captain), A. Doyle, and Jack Davies.

Help with identification and much other information comes from Barbara Beath (née McGregor), whose mother used to wash the strips and keep the copper boiled so that the players could wash in the shed behind their house after the game. The Madden Cup is currently in the possession of Jean McAuley, daughter of Elijah “Sandy” Hammond, who captained the N and Ds to their triumph in 1930. I hope that we may see it competed for once again in Geelong soccer before too long.

Effects of the depression

By 1931 the depression seems to have taken its toll and no local soccer was recorded in the Advertiser in that year, or as far as I can ascertain in 1932 or 1933. The Geelong Association had revived by 1934 at the latest and was entering a Geelong United team in the metropolitan competition. In that year it played in a ten-team third division with Moreland, Elsternwick, Nobels, Spotswood, Pascoe Vale, Navy (having a great season, reaching the semi-final of the Dockerty Cup), Savoia, Nettlefolds and Northcote.⁴⁷ Geelong was knocked out in the first round of the Dockerty Cup by Footscray Thistle.⁴⁸ In 1935, Geelong also went out in the first round of the Dockerty Cup in a home match against Wonthaggi.⁴⁹ It was noted even in May that the club was struggling for league points.⁵⁰ On July 20, it went down by three goals to one against Prahran.⁵¹

Plenty of players

In 1936, Geelong was represented in Division Two of the League and in the Reserve grade by Geelong United. The team finished second bottom of the league and there were no signs of a local competition. Games were played at the Federal Woollen Mills ground in North Geelong. For one match against Box Hill at home, twelve players were named to represent the first team and twenty-one to standby for the reserves, showing the depth of numbers available, or perhaps the difficulty of ensuring that eleven actually turned up.⁵² I have been unable to trace any Geelong soccer in 1937, 1938 or 1939 in the Geelong Advertiser, Argus or the Sporting Globe.⁵³

A convivial game

Whatever its later image, soccer was an extremely convivial game between the wars. Hardly a match which involved travelling for one of the teams passed without a meal or a dance or both, interrupted by numerous toasts and self-congratulatory speeches by participants, which were reported at length in the local press.⁵⁴ The predominantly British migrants probably had less of a cultural gap to bridge than many who came later, but there is no doubt that soccer helped them on their way – providing contacts, support networks, boosting business, helping support local industries, including the domestic manufacture of soccer boots and balls.⁵⁵

GEELONG TEAMS PARTICIPATING BETWEEN THE WARS

Year	League	Teams
1924	VABFA	Geelong United
1925	VABFA	Geelong United
1926	GWDL	Geelong City Ford Valley Mills Overseas Queenscliff HMAS Brisbane North Geelong Colac (played friendly matches only)
1927	GWDL	Geelong City Ford Overseas Caledonians Colac Thistle HMAS Melbourne Union Jack
1928	GWDL	Ford Valley Mills Colac Thistle Union Jack Ballarat (Madden Cup only)
1929	GWDL	Valley Mills Colac Thistle N and D United Federal Mills Geelong Wanderers
1930	GWDL	Valley Mills Colac Thistle N and D United Federal Mills
1934	VABFA	Geelong United
1935	VABFA	Geelong United
1936	VABFA	Geelong United

VABFA – Victorian Amateur British Football Association
GWDL – Geelong and Western Districts League

Not a spectator sport

But the game remained a participatory sport, not a spectator sport, though occasionally numbers in the hundreds did turn up for important finals or representative matches played on enclosed grounds such as West Oval, hired for the game. The clubs did not have enclosed grounds of their own nor a central venue which they could develop as a showpiece for the game. The players made great sacrifices to indulge their interest in the game, travelling to Melbourne by furniture van, washing in the garage behind the home of one of the players, and providing most of their own equipment.

Discipline not a problem

Jean McAuley recounts that her father, one of the best players of his generation, found the cost of travelling to away games an impossible burden. Discipline was not a problem and I have only come across a couple of cases of players being sent from the field for transgression of the laws. One resulted in a tribunal decision, but even here the suspension imposed was revoked when further evidence revealed that the ‘victim’ may have been responsible for the incident.⁵⁶ The number of spectators was probably not great enough to have caused any problems, unlike Australian Rules where some unsavoury incidents were reported at matches in the 1920s.⁵⁷ Referees were more often than not congratulated on their handling of matches, when they were mentioned at all.

Postwar transformation

This migrants’ game was to be completely transformed in the twenty years following the Second World War, when a new generation poured into Australia from a much wider catchment area in Europe. That story and what soccer meant for the next wave of migrants must wait till a future issue, which appeared in the Investigator in September 1996.

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Footnotes

1. Geelong Region, Industrial Register, Geelong Regional Planning Authority, no date; Geelong Events in History, p.28; Ian Wynd, So Fine a Country, pp. 99-101, Geelong Advertiser, December 1, 1976; Bulletin, July 19, 1975, pp. 35-66. The Valley Mill, (known as the Mill of Mystery) was established on the “banks of the Barwon” with a capital of £500,000 and a projected employment of 750-1,000, according to a booklet Corio: Garden Suburb of Geelong, produced by Melbourne SubDivisions Co. of Melbourne, n.d., but probably 1924-5, reprinted as part of HU211, Regionalism in Australia, a Deakin University B.A. course.
2. Argus, July 10, 1920.
3. Geelong Advertiser, April 20, 1920. I owe this reference to Geoff Slattery of the Geelong Advertiser.
4. Geelong Advertiser, April 27, 1920.
5. A.D. Ive, ‘Soccer: Its progress in Geelong’, Geelong Advertiser, July 20, 1929, p. 5.
6. Ive ran a greengrocer’s shop in Geelong, and Mrs. E. Gibson remembers him resplendent in white apron along with another soccer player Donaldson. Information from Mrs. Gibson, April 8, 1994.
7. W.G. Madden, J.P., was President of the Geelong Association. He and his brother J.G. Madden ran an Auctioneer and Estate Agent’s business at 105 Little Malop Street, also advertising as electrical engineers. W.G. Madden was Mayor of Geelong West in 1920. Sands and McDougall, Directory of Victoria, Melbourne, 1926, p. 1208. W.G. Madden died in 1928 at the age of 49. Geelong Advertiser, July 20, 1929; August 26, 1929, and information from his nephew, Mr. John Madden.
8. Geelong Advertiser, November 26, 1923.
9. Ibid.
10. Information from Mr. John Madden, son of J.G. Madden, Geelong Historical Record Centre, April 6, 1994.
11. Soccer News, Melbourne, No. 8, July 5, 1924. This is the only issue of Soccer News held in the La Trobe Library.
12. Geelong Advertiser, April 28, 1924.
13. Sporting Globe, June 28, 1924, p. 4.
14. Sporting Globe, June 28, 1924, p. 3.
15. Soccer News, No. 8, July 5, 1924. Ive’s letter was dated June 23.
16. Geelong Advertiser, July 20, 1929, p. 5.
17. Geelong Advertiser, July 21, 1924.
18. Sporting Globe, March 17, 1926, p. 7.
19. Geelong Advertiser, August 8, 1924.
20. Geelong Advertiser, September 13, 1926.
21. Geelong Advertiser, September 10, 1926.
22. Geelong Advertiser, September 4, 1926.
23. The Caledonian Shield was subscribed for by a number of members of the Caledonian club and others and presented for competition in 1926. It currently hangs in the Geelong Sports Museum on loan from Geelong Rangers Soccer club at Myers Reserve. The Shield is an interesting link between inter-war and post-war soccer since it was used as the league trophy when a new Geelong league was instituted in 1956. Badges attached to the Shield record names of winners in the 1920s and between 1956 and 1960. In 1956, it may have been used as a charity shield separate from the league, because Olympia won the league in 1956.
24. Geelong Advertiser, May 26, 1926.
25. Geelong Advertiser, September 10, 1926, and Sporting Globe, June 9, 1926.
26. Geelong Advertiser, August 27, 1927.
27. Geelong Advertiser, April 4, 1927.
28. Geelong Advertiser, April 18, 1927.
29. Geelong Advertiser, April 28, 1927.
30. Geelong Advertiser, April 25, 1927.
31. Geelong Advertiser, August 12, 1927.
32. Geelong Advertiser, September 26, 1927.
33. Geelong Advertiser, May 3, 1928. A meeting at Bones, 93 Ryrie Street, was called for Friday, May 4, 1928. See also Geelong Advertiser, May 10, 1928, where it is recorded that nothing has been heard of the City team.
34. Ibid.
35. Geelong Advertiser, May 5, 1928. The Union Jack team for the first match was picked from W. Choate, T. Patterson, C. Daniels, R. Woods, S. Lowe, A. Graham, G. Beevers, E.R. Rowley, G. Elliot, D. Barry, G. Roe, T. Frost, J. Strachan, R. Salter. Referee Mr. Donaldson. Caledonian chose from C. Mitchell, T. Russell, W. Russell, W. Hutton, J. McMillan, H. Campbell, T. Sloan, S. Guthrie, T. Young, J. Elliot, J. Ainslie.
36. Geelong Advertiser, July 12, 1928.
37. Geelong Advertiser, June 30, 1928, and July 13, 1928.
38. Geelong Advertiser, July 18, 1928, and August 11, 1928.
39. Geelong Advertiser, July 18, 1928.
40. Geelong Advertiser, August 13, 1928.
41. Geelong Advertiser, August 11, 1928.
42. Geelong Advertiser, July 18, 1928.
43. Geelong Advertiser, May 2, 1929.
44. Geelong Advertiser, May 16, 1929.
45. Geelong Advertiser, May 11, 1929.
46. Geelong Advertiser, June 1, 1929; August 6, 1929.
47. Sporting Globe, July 11, 1934.
48. Geelong Advertiser, May 19, 1934. The team for the match with Spotswood on that day was Nutter, Hammond, Buckley, Ogg, Ballantyne, Cope, Whittimore, McArthur, Massey, Beveridge; reserves, Haley, Phipps and Doyle.
49. Geelong Advertiser, May 9, 1935; May 16, 1935.
50. Geelong Advertiser, May 25, 1935.
51. Geelong Advertiser, July 22, 1935.
52. Geelong Advertiser, July 24, 1936.
53. Sporting Globe, July 6, 1938, which lists teams in First and Second Division.
54. See for example Geelong Advertiser, September 27, 1926; April 18, 1927.
55. Sporting Globe, April 7, 1926.
56. Geelong Advertiser, August 27 and September 4, 1926; September 19, 1927. Bad language on the field of play was condemned.
57. Argus, July 12, 1920; Geelong Advertiser, May 21 and 22, June 25, 1923.