THE stuttering footage reveals a team of gum-chewing footballers, looking around, enjoying the absence of danger, excited by the prospect of playing the game they love.

There are no bombs and no snipers. There’s no mud and no duckboards. The oval spreads out around them, there’s some patchy grass and what seems like an afternoon mist.

It is London, October 28, 1916: two teams of Diggers come together to celebrate Australian Rules football in front of a crowd of dignitaries and surrounded by bunting, the Union Jack, trophies, bowler hats and all part of a world long gone.

BUY your Herald Sun on April 23 for a special supplement on Victorians who fought in the Great War. For a special presentation on Australians at War CLICK HERE

But the success and exuberance for many on the field was soon gone. In what was a tragic postscript to the match, five footballers never played the game again.

Bruce Sloss was the most experienced of the players who died. The Football Record recalled one moment in 1919 when two returned officers went in to the Swans' rooms before a match against Collingwood.

The match at the Queen’s Club in London’s West Kensington is believed to be the first overseas exhibition of our game.

 It featured some of the best footballers in Australia, young men who had enlisted and left the joy of a Saturday afternoon match a long way behind. But for 100 minutes on a bleak London day, they returned to the beautiful simplicity of a game of footy.

It seems difficult to contemplate that amid the horror of World War I there was time and an inclination to stage a football match on the other side of the world. But in many ways, it made good sense.

Several of the London military hospitals were treating wounded Diggers. Others were in England on training or leave.

The massive Larkhill training camp at Salisbury Plain was a natural recruiting ground.

According to former Essendon centreman Bill Sewart, there were 63,000 huts, housing 30 men each, including a fair few footballers.

Not only was there a natural audience for football, there was a hunger among the troops to play it whenever they could.

Even so, it took Frank Beaurepaire, a resourceful man who would later become Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, to make it happen. Beaurepaire had an outstanding sporting pedigree.

He was an Olympic swimmer and but for an acute bout of appendicitis he would have been on the front line. Instead, he was given the role of supervising sporting entertainments for the troops, largely through his work with the YMCA.

The organisation had a tent of its own amid the massive tent city that was the training ground at Broadmeadows. And it was intimately involved in helping the recruits occupied with physical drills in the belief that a sound body and a Christian outlook were integral to a decent life.

Beaurepaire also understood the importance of football to many soldiers and once he arrived in England, he saw opportunities for football.

He was helped by a Melbourne marathon runner, Thomas Sinton-Hewitt, from the Malvern Harriers Athletic Club. Sinton-Hewitt won the YMCA Marathon from Broadmeadows to the MCG at Christmas 1915 and was keen on finding ways to engage the troops in athletic contests.

He would join Beaurepaire in the 1920 Australian Olympic team in Antwerp, although he didn’t finish the marathon because of cramps. He came late to the war, leaving Australia in May 1916, after he married and at the age of 28. Sinton-Hewitt soon became involved in organising athletics meetings for troops training at Salisbury in England, which is where he crossed paths with Beaurepaire.

From there, he became part of Beaurepaire’s organising team – that included several officers who were also keen to support the idea of a football match between Australian units. On the day, Sinton-Hewitt was one of the two boundary umpires.

The match raised funds for the British and French Red Cross Societies. Numerous celebrities of the day were invited. Even the Prince of Wales (to become King Edward VIII) and King Manuel II of Portugal turned up. Estimates vary at the size of the crowd – Australian reports put it at 8000.

The English press opted for the more sober figure of 3000. Either way, the atmosphere was apparently lively and perhaps a little mischievous. "Souvenir programs sold like hot cakes," one report noted, "mainly because the sellers were pretty English girls."

The Diggers were apparently quite taken with this clever piece of marketing. "…though one more venturesome (seller) than the rest created a sensation when she walked into one of the dressing rooms at half-time and endeavoured to sell programmes to the players."

The program is a intriguing souvenir that features cartoons and sketches from some of Australia’s finest artists of the time – Ruby Lind, Cecil Hart, Laurie Taylor and Will Dyson.

How the teams were selected remains unclear, although it’s a fair bet that Beaurepaire and Sinton-Hewitt had a fair idea of the talent that was dotted throughout the ranks.

In the end, the two teams represented an extraordinary cross-section of talent, ranging across states and mining some of the bigger names of the VFL.

There were League names, such as Bruce Sloss, from South Melbourne, and Dan Minogue, from Collingwood; Bill Sewart, of Essendon, Trotter, of Fremantle, Cooper from Fitzroy.

The Combined Training Group was captained by the fiery red-headed cleric Charlie Perry, from Norwood, in South Australia. Sloss, a decorated and versatile player with the Swans, was skipper of the other team, the 3rd Australian Division. The footage shows the two men tossing the coin to start the match.

Sloss's side wore a blue jumper with a map of Australia (without Tasmania) on it, while the Training Units wore a jumper featuring a kangaroo.

The composition of the teams was fairly straightforward; the 3rd Division was largely Victorian, featuring 15 players who had played in the VFL. The Combined team ranged across the Victorian Football Association, Western Australia, NSW, regional Victoria and South Australia. Only nine of the named side had VFL experience. On the face of it, Sloss's team was the favourite.

It soon became clear that the players were keen on resuming the bumping and tackling of the game they were used to. But the harsh conditions of the War – the lack of decent food, sleep and privations of the trenches – meant the players lacked condition and stamina.

One such player was former Fitzroy captain and Victorian defender Jack Cooper, who had been badly gassed at the Somme. He was sent to London to recover before being deemed fit enough to play.

There were only a couple of points separating the teams at half-time but the Third Division's class started to overwhelm the Training Units.

With St Kilda's Harry Moyes and South Melbourne Carl Willis kicking two goals each, the 3rd division finished with 6. 16 (52) to the Training Units 4. 12 (36).

The match delivered some divergent post-mortems on the spectacle. The somewhat stern Yorkshire Post had little time for Australian Rules, describing it as "a tear-away affair from start to finish, but too higgledy-piggledly to make a spectacle." 

Another English observer was more enthusiastic: "Speed and well-directed kicking counted for much, and in this respect the players showed great cleverness."

See the Herald Sun on April 23 for the 24-page free supplement on Victorians who fought in the Great War.

But the success and exuberance for many on the field was soon gone. In what was a tragic postscript to the match, five footballers never played the game again.

Sloss was the most experienced of the players who died. The Football Record recalled one moment in 1919 when two returned officers went in to the Swan's rooms before a match against Collingwood.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FOOTBALL PROGRAM COVER

CLICK HERE TO SEE CARTOONS FROM THE PROGRAM

SEE MORE FROM INSIDE THE PROGRAM HERE

"In the committee room alongside there is a picture of a match in London showing one of the finest footballers who ever donned the South Melbourne uniform, Bruce Sloss, tossing with opposing captain. Lieut. Sloss, after the game, went across to France, where he gave his life for his country in the fight against Germany. His memory is being kept green by his old club."

Les Lee, who was originally from South Australia and played two games with Richmond, kicked a goal in the exhibition match. He died at Messines, in June 8, 1917.

East Perth player James Foy died in France on March 14, 1917. Cooper succumbed at Polygon Wood, in Belgium in September 1917 and Stan Martin, who played 65 games with University before it folded, died at Bullecourt, in May 1917. It was a sober antidote to the joy of Australian football’s international debut.

Some of the players:

Bruce Sloss

Sloss was born on January 21, 1889 in Malvern and at his death, he was remembered as one of the state's leading players by The Sporting Judge newspaper.

He played in a church competition with the Malvern Presbyterian team and joined Essendon in 1906, but played only two games.

After playing for Brighton for two seasons, Sloss joined South Melbourne, the reigning premiers, in 1910. His last game was the 1914 Grand Final - South Melbourne lost to Carlton by six points.

Sloss was an engineer at a jam factory and invented and patented a machine to cut melons for jam-making, replacing the need for workers to do this by hand.

Sloss was promoted the rank of Sergeant shortly after enlisting and was carrying out his officer training at Salisbury Plains in October when he played in the Pioneer Exhibition Game.

He was killed a couple of miles behind the front-line when struck by a shell while returning to headquarters. Sloss was 28.

Carl Willis

Willis was also a former South Melbourne player and knew Bruce Sloss. Willis visited his mate’s military grave in Armentieres.

He took a photo of the grave and sent it back to Australia to his father, requesting it be passed on to Bruce's mother. He thought it would be a good way to for the Swans to establish a memorial for Bruce.

Willis was educated at Wesley College and became a dentist. He played for University and South Melbourne between 1912 and 1921.

He left Melbourne on June 6, 1916 from Melbourne. Following the Pioneer Exhibition Game, Willis fought in France and Belgium. He was gassed on the first day of the Battle of Messines in Belgium. He was, like many, petrified of gas.

In a letter he wrote in 1917 he described the horror of gas: "I would sooner see men blown to pieces than see them die from gas again. It is a most ghastly death."

After recovering from his injuries at a hospital, Willis returned to his battalion for a few days before receiving orders to return to London and take up a position at Salisbury Plain in charge of a dental unit.

He wrote that it was "strange at first, getting back to the old work again after nearly two years absence".

Following the war he became a member of the AIF cricket team and toured England, South Africa and Australia in 1919. He died May 12, 1930, aged 37.

John Thomas (Jack) Cooper

Cooper played for Fitzroy in nine seasons between 1907 and 1915 and was captained in 1912.

Although his small stature was considered a challenge for a footballer, Cooper was known for his tenacity and courage. He was known as a brilliant back player with a "meteoric dash" from the half-back line.

He left Fitzroy at the end of 1915 to enlist and left on March 7, 1916 from Melbourne.

He was killed in action aged 28 on September 20, 1917 in Belgium.

Bill Sewart

William Isaac (Bill) Sewart joined Essendon in 1905 and played until he enlisted in 1915. He was widely regarded as one of the leading footballers of the era, playing in the centre and playing in two premierships.

He was also a talented cricketer. He played district cricket for Carlton and represented Victoria as a batsman.

He embarked on June 6, 1916 from Melbourne.

Sewart played two games of cricket with an Australian team while overseas, but he was medically discharged after falling seriously ill in France.

Once home, Sewart coached Footscray to back-to-back flags in the 1919-20 VFA seasons.

Daniel Minogue

Daniel Minogue was a miner, from Bendigo, but moved to Melbourne to pursue football.

Minogue joined Collingwood in 1911 and was skipper from 1914-1916, until he enlisted.

Minogue joined the 3 Divisional Ammunition Column, training at Larkhill in 1916 from where he was selected to play in the Exhibition Match. Shortly after the game, he left for France and the Western Front.

He returned from the war in 1919 and in the following year joined Richmond in what was a bitter falling out with the Magpies. He was appointed Richmond’s captain-coach for the 1920 season. Minogue took the Tigers to the grand final that year, defeating his old team and then beating Carlton in 1921, marking the club’s first two flags.

Minogue went on to coach Hawthorn, Carlton, St. Kilda and Fitzroy and holds the league record for the most teams coached.

Percy Jory

Jory was born in Tasmania, but moved to Melbourne to pursue a football, joining St. Kilda as a ruckman.

His games included the 1913 losing grand final, but it was Jory’s reputation as a “tough’’ competitor that distinguished his career.

Jory only played two more games for St Kilda when he returned to Melbourne after the War. Instead, he became a field umpire.

Read a report on the match from the Coventry Evening Telegraph October 30, 1916:

"Unfortunately the weather kept many people away, but those who went to the famous ground in West Kensington saw a capital exhibition of a fine, healthy game, a combination of Rugby and Association football.

There were eighteen players aside and the game divided in to four quarter, lasted 100 minutes. Speed and well-directed kicking counted for much, and in this respect the players showed great cleverness. To those familiar with the rules the match gave much pleasure and was voted to be a great success."

A report on the match from the Yorkshire Post October 30, 1916:

"Australian football as seen at Queen’s Club yesterday, in a match between eighteens representing the 3rd Australian division and the Australian Training Units, is not likely to draw away many followers either of the Rugby or Association codes.

To the ordinary man who favours either of these forms of the game, the Australian style seems a blend of both, with the least attractive features of each accentuated. It is only fair to say that the match being an exhibition, lacked the combative qualities that are said to be a great feature of the sport "down under" and of course scratch teams showed no such power of combination as it seen say, in a match in Melbourne.

"Off-side" is evidently impossible in the Australian game – at any rate, one player was between the goal-posts through which a man on the same side kicked a goal from a point sixty yards away. In short, every man as it seemed, did that which was right in his own eyes and apparently the rule was that there are no rules. Australians who came from those parts of the Commonwealth where they play only this game grew quite excited over the contest.

A Yorkshireman who expressed disappointment to find no "devil" in the game was assured that it was a rare "laying out" business in Australia. It is certainly swift, the game lasts 100 minutes divided in to "23????" and one could only conclude that it would do for old stagers. Indeed it is a tear-away affair from start to finish, but too higgledy-piggledly to make a spectacle.

The very method of scoring is a bore. The two goalposts have no cross-bar and a kick between the post scores a goal. The only other score is a "behind" – the ball kicked over the line between either of the goal-posts and a smaller post, seven yards away. Only a rare player could make anything like a run, for he is obliged to bounce the ball every ten yards."

Powerful images from the Great War

Photographs from the Great War retain their impact across the years – stark, often unflinching and solemn, the images helped establish a monochrome vision of the hell many soldiers dealt with daily. Two of Australia’s finest War photographers were Frank Hurley and Hubert Wilkins.

They were quite different photographers – Hurley was happy to experiment with images to create an atmosphere but Wilkins remained true to the documentary approach and won a Military Cross for his bravery.

Together, they left an incisive rendition of what our Diggers went through, from the heat and dust of the Middle East to the mud and grime of the Western Front.

But as these images attest, soldiers spent a lot of time getting to and from danger, often in dreadful conditions.

For more incredible pictures, see the Herald Sun on April 23 for the 24-page free supplement on Victorians who fought in the Great War.