AFL Commission considers proposal to backdate footy records to 1870

A radical proposal to rewrite the records of the game will hand foundation club Carlton with six “extra” premierships. See how the revised flag ladder will look.

The 1890's Richmond Football Club Team photo.

A radical 24-page proposal to “reclaim the history’’ of the AFL is being presented to club presidents today and looks set to be accepted by the AFL Commission.

The landmark proposal calls for premierships won between 1870 and 1896 to be officially recognised and player records during the “foundation years’’ to be included in the official history of the game.

Since 1897, Essendon and Carlton have won the most VFL/AFL premierships with 16 and Collingwood is second with 15.

Including the foundation premierships, from 1870, would alter the flags leaderboard, putting Carlton on top with 22, followed by Essendon on 20, Geelong 16, Collingwood 16 and Melbourne 15.

The number of South Melbourne/Sydney premierships would double to 10.

The proposal, which has been obtained by the Herald Sun, is the brainchild of former commissioner and current Geelong president Colin Carter.

“I look at the history of football and it offends me because it’s wrong,’’ Carter said.

“I also find it an extraordinary story. It wasn’t as if our competition limped out of an era which doesn’t really matter.’’

How the historic footy records could change.

The VFL formed in 1897 after splitting from the VFA — the relationship between the two groups was reported to be toxic — and the VFL’s founding fathers eventually expunged records of the VFA era in about 1920.

“Our competition today stands on foundations created by our founders in those forgotten years,’’ Carter said.

“Ignoring the years of our VFA history is grossly unfair to the players and administrators of that time. It’s time to give them justice.’’

“We’re not the revisionist, the revisionists are the people in the 1920s.’’

Under the proposal, Australian rules would be identified as three distinct eras — the Foundation Era (1858-1896), the VFL Era (1897-1986) and The National Competition (from 1987).

It would recognise the competition began in 1870, which would mean next year (2020) would be its 150th anniversary of the oldest football competition in the world.

Collingwood president Eddie McGuire has previously dismissed Carter’s push, first mooted in 2011.

“I certainly don’t agree with it. We should just leave it where it is,’’ McGuire said in 2011.

But it is understood Commission chairman Richard Goyder, several other commissioners and chief executive Gillon McLachlan believe the proposal has merit.

Carlton’s 1896 team photo.

The Commission invited Carter to present to his fellow presidents.

Former AFL CEOs Ross Oakley, Wayne Jackson and Mike Fitzpatrick, and AFL greats Kevin Sheedy and David Parkin, reviewed and support the draft proposal.

Historians Geoffrey Blainey, Mark Pennings and Greg de Moore, who have all published books on the history of the game, made contributions.

Officials involved at two of the oldest clubs, president Glen Bartlett and former CEO Peter Jackson at Melbourne and CEO Brian Cook at Geelong, are also supportive of the plan.

Player contributions in the founding years are currently ignored by official AFL records.

A sketch of Carlton champion George Coulthard.

Essendon legend Albert Thurgood.

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Pennings writes: “There would have been no VFL without the contribution of famous players such as George Coulthard, Dave Hickinbotham, Jack Baker, Albert Thurgood and Peter Burns ... these players were the heroes of men, women and children in the 19th Century as much as the Dangerfields, Hodges, Franklins and Martins are in our own time.’’

Essendon’s Thurgood is listed in the AFL Hall of Fame with only 46 games in the VFL. His prior 57 games with Essendon in the VFA do not count.

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Sharpened: The list of premiers between 1970 and 1896.

Another Hall of Fame member, Carlton’s Coulthard was three times “Champion of the Colony’’ and was in Carlton’s 1877 premiership team but his games in that VFA era do not appear at all.

Most of all, Charles Brownlow, who had the game’s most prestigious medal named after him, is officially recorded as an administrator, but excluded is his history as a premiership captain with Geelong (1883).

Carlton won six premierships between 1870 and 1896, Geelong seven, including twice winning three consecutive premierships, South Melbourne five, Essendon four and Melbourne three. Fitzroy won the 1895 flag and Collingwood the 1896 flag.