1956 was certainly a grand year for the Olympics, but also a grand year for football in Melbourne.
In the VFL season proper, Melbourne had triumphed over ancient rivals Collingwood to become the proud bearers of the ‘Olympic Premiers’ title. Captain of the Melbourne side in 1956, Noel McMahen says even now that the intensity was increased by the chance to bear the identity of ‘Olympic Premiers - we were all very proud of that title.’
As good as Norm Smith’s Demons were, however, they had proved themselves even more superior by the obstacles which they had overcome to reach this pinnacle of VFL achievement. The first of these obstructions was obviously the unavailability of the MCG for the first four rounds of the 1956 season. It meant that the 1955 pennant won by Melbourne could not be unfurled until after the first month of games, and, more fundamentally, meant that the best side in the VFL had to train from alternative headquarters, notorious for sporadic electricity and water supply. Nevertheless, the team prevailed in September - an extra highlight being that it was over Collingwood for the second year in a row - to the tune of 73 points. As soon as the Grand Final was over, it was then time for the MCG to become the focus of international attention as it transformed into the Main Stadium fo the 1956 Olympics.
But the time for Australian Rules in 1956 was not yet over. In the first Olympic Games to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, a unique opportunity presented itself in Melbourne. In true antipodean fashion, one of the main attractions to grace the Olympics was an Australian football match, exhibiting the finer points of the game.
It does not perhaps make sense to the casual observer that the Australian game would be an automatic part of the Olympics schedule in 1956. Our beloved game, after all, was still largely confined to this corner of the world in the 1950s. But, as host, Melbourne was allowed to hold two demonstration sports - one a national sport, another a sport foreign to the host country. The Australian Olympics Organising Committee decided in October 1954 that Australian Rules football would be the national sport for display, while baseball filled the ‘foreign’ category.
The exhibition match, played between a Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) team and a combined Victorian Football League (VFL)/Victorian Football Association (VFA) team, was played at the Main Stadium, on the MCG, on Friday 7 December at 4.10 pm. It was the day before the Closing Ceremony. All those who played held amateur status, with Hibbins captain of the VFA side, and Denis Cordner captain of the VFL/VFA combined side.
Notable identities made their appearance in both teams - Collingwood’s Ray Gabelich proudly lined up for the VFL/VFA team, along with young Laurie Dwyer of North Melbourne, who qualified thanks to his amateur status in ballroom dancing ranks. Brendan Edwards of Hawthorn, Ken Turner and Brian Gray of Collingwood, and a number of others still to make their mark on the VFL seized the opportunity to be part of the Olympics schedule. Indeed, Richard Fenton-Smith’s form in this game took him to future success with Melbourne in the VFL. In an interesting parallel, it proved to be Denis Cordner’s last full game on the MCG. Fenton-Smith would go on to replace Cordner as first ruckman at Melbourne. Such was the shift between careers in what was the curtain-raiser on a warm spring evening to the soccer bronze medal play-off between Bulgaria and India.
One of those playing for the VAFA representative team was Bryce Thomas, later assistant secretary of the MCC, who lined up on the 19 year-old Laurie Dwyer. As Thomas explained, the VFL/VFA combined side was created out of necessity - with insufficient amateurs in the VFL, the ranks of the VFA were called upon to make up the numbers. With this arrangement made, the competition was in keeping with the amateur ethos of the Olympics. One bonus, as Thomas remembered it, was that ‘all competitors got free entry’ to other events - a definite advantage for keen spectators. They were also presented with a badge in the shape of an athletics track, and the ribbon attached to their lapel pin was white, to signify a demonstration sport.
The uniforms of the two sides were also in keeping with the Olympics theme. The VAFA team wore a white guernsey with green trims, and white socks with green tops. The VFL/VFA combined team wore green guernseys with white trims, black shorts and green socks with white tops. Both sides had the Olympic rings blazoned across the front of their guernseys, and in true 1950s style, were buttoned at the front rather than being lace up or the modern day pull-on guernsey.
Comment was made in official sources that many of the 30,000 spectators, a substantial number of whom were seeing the game for the first time, so were fairly quiet, probably not realising the impact of what they were seeing. However, those involved in the game remember ‘a fair bit of barracking’, some being in response to a slightly delayed start as official photographs were taken. Also still fresh in many minds are the obstacles associated with being forced to adapt to being on the Main Stadium. Running tracks, hurdles and jumping pits had taken over - the MCG was unfamiliar territory in these Olympic weeks.
The challenges posed on the ground were ‘interesting’, mused Thomas. They were also quite hazardous for the players. The Olympic Flag was laid out on the ground, on a flagpole some thirty to forty yards away from the running track finish line, and the boundary line had been moved to decrease the playing area. A greater challenge, however, arose from the plinth for the inside lane of the running track, which rose marginally above grass level. Not only did it threaten to trip the unwary player, but almost caused the long term injury of one member of the VAFA side - Tony Capes, who said in a 2000 article that ‘…as I kicked the drop kick, my toe dug into the track and I almost broke my foot.’ Fortunately, however, he did not, playing an effective role in the back line, and later went on to become an AFL life member and long serving president of the Footscray Football Club.
Compromises and injuries aside, however, the play was generally considered to be of a quite high standard. Fenton-Smith was forging his future with his four goals, echoed by Pettigrove, while Anderson of the VAFA and Dunin of the VFL/VFA sides kicked three each. As this indicates, the day ultimately belonged to the VAFA combination - 12.9.81 to the VFL/VFA’s 8.7.55.
On first reflection, this game could be considered a novelty. One one level, it was. But on another, it brought together all the elements of our game on the world stage. The amateur beginnings of the game, the connections of other sports to Australian Rules - after all, Lindsay Gaze of basketballing fame was nineteenth man for the VFL/VFA side - and the importance of the MCG as a central sporting hub were all emphasised. For those who took part it was, as Bryce Thomas put it, ‘one of the highlights of my sporting life’, whether they went on to greater endeavours or not. Those who watched were seeing a unique event, one of the last Olympic events on a Stadium which would, little more than a day later, be vacated but full of memories of a truly magic time.
