The Champion of the Colony Award is a list that was compiled in the 1940s and 1950s by Australian rules football historian Cecil Clarence Mullen (1895–1983) for Mullen's Australasian Footballers' Almanac in 1950,[1][2] for Mullen's Footballers' Australian Almanac in 1951,[3] and for the History of Australian Rules Football in 1958.[4]

According to Mullen's 1950 almanac, the Champion of the Colony was an annual award was originally based on votes by club captains and later by Melbourne's leading football journalists, which was the accepted historical interpretation of the title for many decades.

More recent research has failed to uncover any contemporary evidence of any such award having ever existed,[5][6][7] and it is now generally accepted that the list was compiled entirely by Mullen, based on newspaper reports that he had collected over many years.

Four lists

The final year for each of the lists produced by Mullen varied throughout his works: the 1950 Almanac finishes in 1949, the 1951 Almanac finishes in 1950, and the 1958 history finishes in 1940. A fourth list that is claimed to be based on Mullen's work, finishing in 1945, has been used since 2003 in official Australian Football League (AFL) publications, with the 2017 and 2018 AFL Season Guide noting the newspapers that Mullen used in compiling his list.

The original list as compiled by Mullen contained multiple factual errors, while the 1945 version of the list contains anomalies compared to the lists of 1940, 1949 and 1950.

List of C. C. Mullen's Champions of the Colony

YearPlayerClub
1856Tom Wills 1Corio Bay
1857Tom WillsCorio Bay
1858G. S. BruceRichmond Cricketers
1859Tom WillsGeelong
1860H. W. BryantMelbourne
1861George O'MullaneSouth Yarra
1862Henry C. HarrisonMelbourne
1863Henry C. HarrisonMelbourne
1864A. M. GreenfieldBallarat
1865Tom WillsMelbourne
1866Henry C. HarrisonMelbourne
1867Henry C. HarrisonMelbourne
1868Jack ConwayCarlton
1869Henry C. HarrisonMelbourne
1870T. W. C. RiddellSouth Yarra
1871B. J. GoldsmithMelbourne
1872Tom WillsGeelong
1873J. C. DonovanCarlton
1874W. N. LaceyCarlton
1875George RobertsonCarlton
1876George CoulthardCarlton
1877George CoulthardCarlton
1878H. P. DouglassGeelong
1879George CoulthardCarlton
1880James WilsonGeelong
1881James WilsonGeelong
1882James WilsonGeelong
1883John BakerCarlton
1884Jack KerleyGeelong
1885Peter BurnsSouth Melbourne
1886Charlie PearsonEssendon
1887John WorrallFitzroy
1888Dinny McKay 2South Melbourne
1889Bill HannayseePort Melbourne
1890John WorrallFitzroy
1891Peter BurnsSouth Melbourne
1892Charlie ForbesEssendon
1893Albert ThurgoodEssendon
1894Albert ThurgoodEssendon[8]
1895George VautinEssendon
1896Bill StricklandCollingwood
1897Fred McGinisMelbourne
1898Dick CondonCollingwood
1899Mick GraceFitzroy[9]
1900Fred LeachCollingwood[10]
1901Albert ThurgoodEssendon
1902E. M. 'Ted' RowellCollingwood
1903Hugh Gavin 3Essendon
1904Vic CumberlandSt Kilda
1905Percy TrotterFitzroy
1906Jack McKenzieEssendon
1907Dave McNamaraSt Kilda
1908Bill BusbridgeEssendon
1909Bill BusbridgeEssendon
1910Dick LeeCollingwood
1911Bruce SlossSouth Melbourne
1912Ernie CameronEssendon
1913Vic CumberlandSt Kilda
1914Dave McNamaraSt Kilda
1915Dick LeeCollingwood
1916Vic ThorpRichmond
1917Paddy O'BrienCarlton
1918Jack P. HowellSouth Melbourne
1919Vic ThorpRichmond
1920Roy Cazaly 4South Melbourne
1921Horrie CloverCarlton
1922Goldie CollinsFitzroy
1923Tom FitzmauriceEssendon
1924Tom FitzmauriceEssendon
1925Colin Watson*St Kilda
1926Ivor Warne-Smith*Melbourne
1927Syd Coventry*Collingwood
1928Ivor Warne-Smith*Melbourne
1929Syd CoventryCollingwood
1930Allan Hopkins*Footscray
1931G. J. 'Jocka' ToddGeelong
1932Haydn Bunton, Sr.*Fitzroy
1933Gordon CoventryCollingwood
1934Laurie NashSouth Melbourne
1935Laurie NashSouth Melbourne
1936Harry CollierCollingwood
1937Dick Reynolds*Essendon
1938Jack ReganCollingwood
1939Dick ReynoldsEssendon
1940Jack DyerRichmond
1941Ted Cordner 5Melbourne
1942Jack Dyer 5Richmond
1943Jack DyerRichmond
1944Norm SmithMelbourne
1945Jack GrahamSouth Melbourne
1946Des FothergillCollingwood
1947Don CordnerMelbourne
1948Ollie GrieveCarlton
1949Les FooteNorth Melbourne
1950Bill HutchisonEssendon

* Player also won the Brownlow Medal that year.
1 While Tom Wills is listed as champion in 1856, he did not arrive in Victoria until 23 December 1856[11][12] after having spent the last seven years in England and Ireland.
2 The lists ending in 1940, 1949 and 1950 have the 1888 winner as Denis "Dinny" Mckay of South Melbourne, but the list ending in 1945 has his teammate Peter Burns as the 1888 winner.
3 While Hugh Gavin of Essendon is listed as champion in 1903, he did not play for Essendon that year: he played for Boulder City in the Goldfields of Western Australia.[13]
4 While Roy Cazaly of South Melbourne is listed as champion in 1920, he did not play for South Melbourne until 1921: he played for St Kilda in 1911-1915 and 1918-1920.
5 The lists ending in 1949 and 1950 have the 1941 winner as Ted Cordner of Melbourne and the 1942 winner as Jack Dyer of Richmond, but the list ending in 1945 has the 1941 winner as Wally Buttsworth of Essendon and the 1942 winner as Ted Cordner.

C. C. Mullen

The son of Alfred Raphael Mullen (1858-1913), and Eleanor Jane "Nellie" Mullen (1866-1938), née Rooking,[14][15] Cecil Clarence Mullen was born in Richmond on 25 September 1895. He died at Kew on 4 April 1983.[16] It is significant that, despite his birth and death records having him as Clarence Cecil Mullen, all of his electoral roll records have him as Cecil Clarence Mullen.

In addition to his work as a football umpire, journalist and football historian,[17] he had a strong interest in (brass band) music,[18] and was responsible for the formation of the Richmond Amateur Boy's Club[19][20][21][22] — through which he was an early and significant influence on the cricket and the football of a number of prominent sportsmen, including George Bates, Syd Dineen, Neil Harvey, Tommy Lahiff, Jock McConchie, Bill Munn, Laurie Nash, Leo Opray, Ron Richards, Alby Pannam, George Smeaton, and Clarrie Vontom.[23]

See also

Notes

  1. Advertisement: Copp & Company, The (Adelaide) Advertiser, (Saturday, 12 August 1950), p.6.
  2. Everett (2010).
  3. Football Almanac, The Herald, (Saturday, 4 August 1951), p.12.
  4. Mullen (1958).
  5. Smith (2009).
  6. Richer (2014).
  7. "Modern scholarship has shown that [Mullen's] work contains many anomalies, such as phantom matches, anachronisms, exaggerations and omissions. Despite their inaccuracies, or perhaps because of them, Mullen’s Australasian Footballers' Almanac (1950), Mullen's Footballers’ Australian Almanac 1951, and his History of Australian Rules Football: 1858-1958, are fundamental to the study of football historiography. . . .
    Mullen’s writings popularised and preserved many myths and pieces of folklore. Football scholarship has outgrown his pioneering attempts at constructing a history of the code, and although much of his work has been superseded a critique is still necessary. Some of the myths and phantoms he created, such as the so-called "Champion of the Colony" first published in Mullen’s Australasian Footballers’ Almanac (1950), are still cited in current reference texts. Mullen’s work may be unreliable but its legacy endures" (Ruddell, 2010, p.2).
  8. During the 1923 season, in an article discussing the issue of who was a "champion player" — both as outright "champion" and as "champion" in a particular position — the football correspondent for The Argus ("Old Boy"), spoke of his observations of players over the years (at least as early as Carlton's George Coulthard in the early 1880s) and, despite the "tremendous difficulty" of such a task, was emphatic that Essendon's Albert Thurgood was his best-ever "champion player" (out of twenty outright "champions", and 62 "champions" in a particular position):
    "I have never had any doubt myself that A.J. Thurgood is the best all-round man I ever saw play the game in Victoria. He was a champion goal-kicker, could get the ball for himself, and wherever placed was a champion. In the Essendon premiership and championship teams between 1891 and 1894 he played in every position on the field, and in all was a success. Further than that, he was a match-winner; a man who could do the seemingly impossible and turn a forlorn hope into victory." ('Old Boy', "Football: The Champion Player", (Friday, 29 June 1923), p.6).
    A week later, in a second article, "Old Boy" apologized for inadvertently omitting Fitzroy's Jim Grace and Geelong's Hugh McLean, and, as well, supplied the names of a number of other outstanding players suggested to him by various correspondents ('Old Boy', "Football: The Champion Player", (Friday, 6 July 1923), p.6).
  9. At the end of the 1899 season, in the process of naming his own "champion player", the football correspondent for The Argus ("Old Boy"), selected a team of the best players of the 1899 VFL competition:
    Backs: Maurie Collins (Essendon), Bill Proudfoot (Collingwood), Peter Burns (Geelong); Halfbacks: Pat Hickey (Fitzroy), George Davidson (South Melbourne), Alf Wood (Melbourne); Centres: Fred Leach (Collingwood), Firth McCallum (Geelong), Harry Wright (Essendon); Wings: Charlie Pannam (Collingwood), Eddie Drohan (Fitzroy), Herb Howson (South Melbourne); Forwards: Bill Jackson (Essendon), Eddy James (Geelong), Charlie Colgan (South Melbourne); Ruck: Mick Pleass (South Melbourne), Frank Hailwood (Collingwood), Joe McShane (Geelong); Rovers: Dick Condon (Collingwood), Bill McSpeerin (Fitzroy), Teddy Rankin (Geelong).
    From those he considered to be the three best players — that is, Condon, Hickey, and Pleass — he selected Pat Hickey as his "champion player" of the season. ('Old Boy', "Football: A Review of the Season", (Monday, 18 September 1899), p.6).
  10. At the end of the 1900 season, the football correspondent for The Leader ("Follower"), chose Fitzroy's Mick Grace, just ahead of Melbourne's Fred McGinis, as his "Champion of the Season". ('Follower', "Champion of the Season", The Leader, (Saturday, 29 September 1900), pp.17).
  11. Wills arrived in Melbourne on board the Oneida which had departed from Southampton
  12. "The Argus". The Argus. Melbourne. 24 December 1856. p. 4. Retrieved 7 May 2011 via National Library of Australia.
  13. "FOOTBALL". The Argus. Melbourne. 12 May 1904. p. 7. Retrieved 7 May 2011 via National Library of Australia.
  14. History in Medals, The Portland Guardian, (Monday, 3 December 1934), p.2.
  15. Deaths: Mullen, The Argus, (Saturday, 26 November 1938), p.8.
  16. Clarence Cecil Mullen (died 14 April 1983), findagrave.com
  17. Mullen, 1950; 1951b; 1953; 1958, etc.
  18. South Street's Great Bands, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 20 October 1951), p.11; Mullen (1940); Mullen (1951a); and Mullen (1965).
  19. Richmond Amateur Boys have Fine Football and Cricket Clubs, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 10 September 1927), p.6.
  20. Richmond Amateur Boys: Remarkable Cricket and Football Records, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 1 December 1928), p.6.
  21. Richmond Boys' Club: Fine Work by C.C. Mullen, The Sporting Globe, (Saturday, 17 December 1932), p.4.
  22. 'Juvenis', "Among the Schools: Richmond Amateur Boy's Club", The Age, (Tuesday, 6 August 1935), p.4.
  23. On the Fringe of the Ruck, The Herald, (Friday, 29 May 1936), p.21; Here is Gordon Junior, (Wednesday, 24 July 1940), p.9; and Ruddell (2010), p.2.

References

General

C. C. Mullen

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