VAFA live stream: Old Melburnians face Old Scotch in match steeped in tradition and history (VAFA)

Not even a grand historical occasion could lift Old Melburnians to their first win of the season as Old Scotch added to their early-season pain. Relive all the action from our LIVE STREAM.

Old Scotch heaped more agony on winless Old Melburnians as the VAFA battle of two of the oldest football teams turned into a one-sided contest on Saturday afternoon.

The Cardinals, who have now won three of four games to start the season, asserted their superiority in the second quarter as the OMs wasted their opportunities in front of goal.

Old Scotch eventually took the honours by 35 points - 91-56 - and have now cleared out to a 56-46 advantage in their head-to-head battle with their old rivals.

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VAFA Round 4 - Old Melburnians v Old Scotch (Men - Reserves)

They had trouble kicking straight but Old Melburnians did just enough to take a low-scoring VAFA Premier Reserves encounter and end the unbeaten run of Old Scotch on Saturday.

OM’s troubled the scorers on 21 occasions, but only registered six majors to keep Old Scotch interested right until the very end. They eventually triumphed by 14 points - 51-37.

The win was the third in four games for Old Melburnians.

PREVIEW

Two of the oldest football teams will lock horns on Saturday in a crucial VAFA round 4 clash.

And underlying the 165-year rivalry between Old Melburnians and Old Scotch will be what both sides have at stake.

OMs badly need victory to get their season going while the Cardinals are flying high with two wins from three games.

You can catch the action from the Reserves/Seniors doubleheader from 11.40am LIVE on KommunityTV as part of a two-year streaming partnership between News Corp and VAFA.

Check the schedule below.

This clash has some serious historical context.

It all started in 1858 when the aligned schools of the VAFA clubs, Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar, played in the first recorded game of Australian rules football.

The final result that day was a 1-1 draw – and that was after three days play.

Today’s VAFA teams play for the Australian Football Cup in the first meeting between the sides each season. This was inaugurated in 1983 to commemorate the 125-year anniversary of that first game.

Charles Dowling and Old Melburnians will be chasing a much-needed win.

Meanwhile, the school rivalry between the two lives on and retains a healthy, competitive edge to this day. They play for the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, which was introduced in 1989.

The overall VAFA bragging rights are held by the Cardinals with a 55-46 head-to-head lead, but the OMs have enjoyed the rub of green in recent times.

Last season, the OMs claimed victory in both meetings, first by 15 points in round 7 and then 25 points in round 11.

Their previous encounters had been back in 2018 when the OMs won by eight points in round 4 before the Cardinals bounced back and won by 37 points in round 10.

The OMs finished eighth that season and the Cardinals ended one spot below them and were relegated to B-grade, where they stayed for the next three years.

Heading into Saturday’s encounter at the newly-renovated Elsternwick Park, the clash has blockbuster written all over it.

Cardinals enter with a ruthless attitude while OMs know that they have to win to realistically keep their finals hopes alive even at this early stage of the season.

Cardinals coach Mark Gnatt knows his side hasn’t beaten OMs for “a period of time”, making him ‘pretty keen to correct that’ on Saturday.

“They beat us twice last year, so we are very aware of the talent they have,” Gnatt said.

“The OMs coach and myself have got a really good relationship, I’ve got a lot of respect for him so I got no doubt they will come out pretty fierce this week.

“It’s going to be another strong battle. We really want to stay on the winners’ page and sort of capitalise off the momentum of the weekend.

“OM’s are a very good footy side, they were probably a bit unlucky not to play finals last year, so we know we are going to have our work cut out if we are going to walk away with the four points.”

OM’s Edward Nichols will play a key role. Picture: Andy Brownbill.

Gnatt also said he would focus on his side keeping a level head as well as staying hungry leading into the match.

“Sometimes with a young group you can lose focus fairly easily and, for me, it is going to be about keeping them grounded,” he said.

“The weekend gets wasted to some degree if we don’t continue on this week.

“We were obviously very disappointed to lose in round 2 to Collegians, so that was the way we were able to turn our focus into the Uni Blues game.

“I will be using a very similar approach this week, albeit a different result from the previous week.

“We do need to keep them grounded, we are only in round 4, we haven’t really achieved anything yet three rounds in.

“We got a long way to go and it’s about making sure we are getting that evolution and keep progressing week in, week out.”