The Victorian Country Football League was formed in 1927, essentially to provide a voice for country clubs and competitions that wanted a stronger hand during their dealings with Victorian Football League clubs like Richmond, Carlton and Collingwood.
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In the early 1960s, with the popularity of country football at its peak, the VCFL increased its demands on VFL clubs. The VFL’s response on behalf of its clubs was to propose a new method for country recruiting. It would take several years of talks and stand-offs before finally, on the eve of the 1967 VFL grand final, the VFL informed the VCFL that it planned to introduce a form of recruiting based on zoning before the following season.
A report in The Age said the district councillors “rejected absolutely the proposed country recruiting scheme”.
The report described volleys of heated words between the Collingwood delegate Jack Hamilton and the Ballarat District councillor Bill Henderson; Jack Titus of Richmond and Hampden District councillor John Lark; Percy Bentley of Carlton and Bendigo District’s Ivan O’Donnell. Bruce Wilkinson of Central Gippsland demanded a state government inquiry into the VFL’s proposed scheme.
The next day, country officials were guests of the VFL at the grand final between Richmond and Geelong. The Richmond captain, Fred Swift, dispatched drop kicks from full-back that sailed on a perfect arc towards the Members’ wing. Swift had been recruited from Sandhurst. Country officials felt a measure of pride when he accepted Richmond’s first premiership cup in 23 years.
After the season, the VFL announced that, under the club country recruiting scheme, country Victoria and the Riverina would be divided into 12 zones. The 12 VFL clubs would have exclusive recruiting rights to one zone each.
In November 1967, the VCFL called another ordinary meeting, its fifth for the year. The secretary tabled the standing committee’s recommendations that the VCFL should reject zoning, but it should continue talks with the VFL on clearance arrangements. The District Council voted 14-1 to accept the recommendations.
Ivan O’Donnell (Bendigo) then moved a motion, seconded by Ernie Thorson (Southern Gippsland), that the VCFL should disaffiliate from the VFL “in view of the dictatorial attitude of the Victorian Football League in implementing zoning throughout the state of Victoria, and in view of the blatant disregard of clearance agreements”. During his address to the VCFL table, O’Donnell described VFL officials as “little Hitlers”.
Ivan O’Donnell lived his early years in the family pub in Axedale, just outside Bendigo. He moved into football administration at a young age, first at Sandhurst then at the Bendigo league, where he became the secretary in 1955.
In 1967, Ivan O’Donnell and Ernie Thorson were relatively new to the VCFL table, having both become district councillors four years earlier, and they were less inclined towards the acceptance of VCFL officials from the past.
Their call to disaffiliate was rejected by their fellow district councillors, who voted 10-5 to defeat the motion. John Lark, the Hampden District councillor, said he appreciated O’Donnell’s views, but he believed that severing ties with the VFL was not the answer.
In late November 1967, the VCFL standing committee presented the country body’s case to the VFL’s recruiting sub-committee for the withdrawal of country zoning in “the strongest terms”.
But when the VFL refused to withdraw the scheme, the standing committee accepted the decision and began its push for concessions during long and tense negotiations.
At the VCFL’s ordinary meeting in February 1968, the standing committee advised that the VFL’s resolutions should be accepted with the exception of the clearance arrangements.
Under the existing rules, country players needed the approval of their club and their competition before they could gain a clearance to a VFL club. Under the VFL proposal, the country player would require the approval of only his club.
While the VCFL eventually voted to accept the introduction of country zoning, Ivan O’Donnell and the Bendigo Football League were unwilling to relinquish their ill-feeling towards the VFL over the proposal that a country player could obtain a clearance to a VFL club without the approval of his competition.
In mid-1968, Bendigo league officials advised the VFL that they would grant permit to VFL players who wanted to play in their competition without a clearance.
They had made this ruling, they said, because they rejected the VFL’s right to introduce zoning against the wishes of VCFL officials, and because of the VFL’s decision to grant a permit to Alex Ruskuklic to play with Fitzroy in 1967, an act they regarded as unconstitutional.
The Bendigo league duly granted permits for Rodger Marsden to play for South Bendigo and Michael Evans to play for Kyneton without a clearance from their VFL club. Marsden had played three senior games for Geelong over two seasons, while Evans had played 14 games in North Melbourne’s senior team. The VCFL told the Bendigo league to revoke the two permits.
The Bendigo league replied that it would not revoke Marsden’s permit until the VFL had paid the transfer fee for Graham Brandt, who had left South Bendigo to play for South Melbourne.
The VFL club duly paid the fee, but the Bendigo league continued to allow Marsden to play for South Bendigo.
Bendigo officials then settled in for a fight that would last for more than two years before they would agree to fall in line with their fellow country leagues, albeit highly grudgingly.
* This is an edited excerpt from Behind the Goals: The History of the Victorian Country Football League, which has been published by AFL Victoria and Ten Bag Press. Email pauldaffey27@gmail.com or pierre.demajo@afl.com.au with inquiries.
