How did the Victorian AFL teams select their colours?
EVER wondered why you cheer for the navy Blues or how the Collingwood army became black and white? We explain how the Victorian-based AFL teams got their colours.
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WHAT would footy be like if we couldn’t keep our eye on the red and the blue of the Demons, or roar for the yellow and black of Tigerland?
So much of your favourite team’s identity is wrapped up in its colours, but how did the clubs choose their colours, and why did they choose them?
We take a look at how the Victorian-based AFL clubs coloured their worlds.
Carlton
Expediency was the reason for Carlton’s navy blue and white.
Older dyeing methods had a habit of stripping away wool’s natural water-resistant qualities, but blue dyes of the day still allowed the wool to repel water.
Many working people, especially those who worked outdoors, owned blue jumpers, a tradition that goes back to the Island of Guernsey in the English Channel.
With footy fast becoming Victoria’s dominant winter sport, blue woollen jumpers were cheaper and kept players warmer and drier.
When other teams switched to new colours as dyeing techniques improved, Carlton stuck with navy blue.
Collingwood
Fledgling Collingwood toyed with the red, white and blue of the Union Jack but, on a trip to South Australia, an early club supporter noted the use of black and white on the colony’s coat of arms and lobbied for the club to adopt the colours.
The Magpies nickname and the black and white army were born.
Essendon
Essendon started out in workmen's navy blue when it began fielding football teams in the early 1870s.
An annual publication from the day, The Footballer, reported that the club played, like Carlton, in workmen’s navy blue jumpers and shorts but with red and black caps and socks in 1875 and 1876.
The red sash first appeared in 1877.
The ease in dyeing wool blue meant many clubs played in a shade of blue (most in navy) so the sash was introduced to distinguish the Dons from other teams.
It’s unclear when or why Essendon chose red and black.
Some theories suggest the colours reflect those of the McCracken family crest, significant because of one of the club’s founders, local brewer Robert McCracken, but the club cannot confirm these are the origins of the red and black.
The Launceston Examiner newspaper was the first to note the red and black guernsey at a match in Launceston in 1886.
That’s 11 years before the establishment of the VFL in 1897.
Geelong
White seagulls and the blue waters of Corio Bay are believed to be the inspiration for the Cats’ navy blue and white hoops, which the team has worn since it was founded.
Hawthorn
Hawthorn only became the team of brown and gold in 1914 when it joined the VFA and found Williamstown’s colours were too similar to its yellow guernsey with a blue V.
The colours were chosen in a vote by members in February 1914 following a motion from a Mr J. Brain.
Earlier incarnations of the Hawthorn jumper included a blue Guernsey with red shoulders and a red stripe down the front, with blue and white hooped socks, black with a red sash and black and red hooped socks (sound familiar?) and yellow with a blue V – Williamstown’s colours.
The brown and gold designs changed in 1925 (when it joined the VFL) 1933 and 1934 before the Mayblooms settled on brown and gold vertical stripes in 1950.
Melbourne
The Melbourne Football Club has played consistently in predominantly navy blue jumpers with red socks since 1872, but in various designs.
The club played in cricket whites for its first few years and, in 1861 and 1862, experimented with magenta shirts with white pants, before returning to whites for another decade.
Melbourne had a hand in creating the Blues.
According to the Dees, a club official returned from a trip to London with two pairs of red socks, which went to Melbourne and quickly earned them the “redlegs” nickname, and two pairs of navy socks, which reportedly went to Carlton.
The red V made its first appearance on the Dees’ jumpers in 1935.
Navy blue was swapped for royal blue between 1975 and 1988.
North Melbourne
The origin of North Melbourne’s royal blue and white isn’t clear but may be related to its link to the local St Mary’s Church of England, now an Anglican church.
A desire for the St Mary’s cricket club players to keep fit in winter led to North Melbourne’s formation in 1869, and the teams shared royal blue and white colours.
At first, though, the Shinboners had hoops rather than vertical stripes, adopting vertical stripes for the first time in 1886.
While still with the VFA, the team swapped between royal blue and white vertical stripes and variations of navy blue, navy blue and white and navy and white with a red sash before joining the VFL.
From 1925 to 1932, the guernsey was royal blue with a white V. The now familiar royal blue and white stripes returned in 1933.
Richmond
Richmond players originally wore workmen’s navy blue with a yellow and black sash when the club formed in 1885.
It adopted black and yellow vertical stripes from 1887.
One thoery suggests the team took its colours from the Richmond Cricket Club.
From the 1890s to around 1905 the team wore black and yellow Geelong-style hoops and vertical stripes in different seasons, and were known by some as the Wasps.
See the image at the bottom of the North Melbourne section.
Between 1910 and 1913, the team wore a black jumper with a single yellow hoop before swapping it for a yellow sash in 1914.
St Kilda
The original St Kilda colours were red, white and black in vertical stripes.
The reasons for the choice aren’t clear, but the stripes have remained, although they have varied in width over the years.
For a short period, the white stripe became yellow and, between 1919 and 1922, the vertical stripes disappeared in favour of a yellow V.
The white, black and red colours were synonymous with imperial Germany.
With World War I underway by the start of the 1915 season, the white on the St Kilda guernsey became yellow.
Various sources suggest this was in sympathy of the war-ravaged Belgians, or for the cause of republican Germans. Both groups were represented by black, red and yellow.
Western Bulldogs
Protest was the reason for the Bulldog’s royal blue, red and white colours.
The Footscray Rowing Club had dominated the Clarke Challenge Cup, an annual rowing event on the Maribyrnong River, in 1879, 1880 and 1881.
Perhaps to nobble Footscray’s dominance of the event, the Victorian Rowing Association changed the rules, barring men in non-sedentary work from participating.
For working-class, industrial Footscray., it was an enormous blow.
The fledging football club, which had played for a few seasons as the Prince Imperials in navy and white hoops, added a red cap to its uniform for its first season in the Victorian Junior Football Association in 1883, matching the rowing club’s colours, as a form of protest.
A red hoop was added to the jumper in 1886, and the club experimented with sashes and vertical stripes before adopting a design closer to its modern royal blue, red and white in 1901.
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