Premiership tallies are a sacred thing among football fans, but one former club president has suggested that the VFL/AFL start date ought to be altered, a move that would cause Essendon to lose their spot at the top of the table beside the Blues.
Colin Carter, former Geelong president and league commissioner, has set his arguments out in his new book, Football's Forgotten Years,ย suggesting that the actual start date of the competition isn't 1897, but instead 1870.
That shifting of the date would include the Victorian Football Association years, occurring before eight teams - ย Essendon, Carlton, Collingwood, St Kilda, Fitzroy, South Melbourne, Geelong, and Melbourne - broke away to form the VFL.
Essendon and Carlton currently jointly sit atop the premiership tally with 16 each, Collingwood not far behind with 15. Should the start date be shifted though, the Blues' six premierships that they won while in the VFA, would put them squarely on top with 22 premierships.
The Bombers would slip to second position on 20, while Geelong would work their way into third spot with a total of 17 premierships.
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, who was at the launch of Carter's book, declined to either confirm or dispute Carter's argument.
โI am not here today to confirm Colin's thesis โฆ but nor am I here to dispute his conclusions,โ McLachlan said.
โThat's for our historians, our clubs to examine closely and no doubt expand the debate.โ
Well of course they get to “list” their premierships.
They just are not “AFL” or “VFL” premierships, obviously.
Otherwise the filth can claim” all their SANFL premierships (there’s 35 or so) and sit ahead of Carlton.