GeelongGeelong
There is evidence that football games were played in the Geelong area around 1858. Around this time Barwon claimed to be champions of Victoria and they were challenged to play by the Melbourne cricketers.
It also appears that Melbourne’s first captain, Tom Wills, had a big part in forming Geelong football. There is also evidence that Geelong was formed at a meeting on July 18 1859, before the official formation of Melbourne.
In early games Geelong used its own set of rules, different to that used in Melbourne. Geelong and Melbourne didn’t play against each other until 1860. The game finished 3 hours after it had started, in a scoreless draw. The match was played on the Argyle Square, Aberdeen street , near the Argyle Hotel. This was the clubs home ground until it moved to East Geelong and then onto Easter Park, now known as the Cario Oval.
Geelong was a strong provincial club. In one encounter against Melbourne in 1868 the game finished at 6:15 pm, after dark when each side had scored. In Geelong’s second successive premiership in 1879, they didn’t lose a game winning 27 in a row.
Over a decade, Geelong built a record that is one of the best of all time. In eleven seasons they won 7 premierships, became runners-up 3 times and finished third, once. Geelong players topped the goal kicking six times, and on five occasions Geelong players were named champions of the colony. In 1886, Geelong players filled the top 5 positions on the goal kicking table, and in that year they won 27 games a drew twice, they didn’t lose a game. One of the most famous footballers of all time played for Geelong, Charles Brownlow (the Brownlow medal is named after him)
As with any great era it had to come to an end, and at the start of the 1890’s Geelong gave way to Essendon. But in 1894 it was Geelong who beat Essendon to end their two year winning streak.
It was Geelong who first suggested a break away competition. This idea (in 1894) didn’t get off the ground but two years later the VFL was formed. When the new competition began it was Geelong who didn’t perform very well.
The provincial team of Geelong was known as the ‘Pivotonians’ for their first 25 years in the VFL. 1n 1923 a cat was added to the teams logo, as a sign of the clubs good luck during the year (it was a black cat). Sam Wells, the Herald cartoonist, Ken McIntyre, a Geelong supporter who later developed finals systems for the VFL and AFL (he created the current ‘Final 8’ system), and Bert Rankin, Geelong captain at the time, all contributed to the ‘Cat’ being added to the teams symbol.
Brief History.
Premierships: 6
Premiership years: 1925, 1931, 1937, 1951-52, 1963.
Brownlow Medallists: 1924 E. ’Carji’ Greeves, 1951 Alistair Lord, 1989 Paul Couch.
