February 11, 1885
A deep dive into the preliminary meeting of the Richmond Football Club.
T-minus 9 days until the club’s birth.
The February 11th meeting is documented in the Richmond Guardian newspaper three days later (pg 3 of Feb 14 edition)1,
A senior football club is about to be formed in Richmond, and at a preliminary meeting held on Wednesday evening, great enthusiasm was manifested by some of the local players who had assembled to discuss the advisability of starting the movement. About 40 names were handed in, and from these will be selected a capital 20 to represent the City of Richmond, which is about the only suburb of importance without a senior football club.
The reason it took 3 days to report this significant news ?
The Richmond Guardian was a weekly paper at the time.
The article reveals that Richmond’s matches will be played on “the local cricket ground” (aka Richmond Cricket Ground, aka Punt Road Oval, aka <insert naming rights company>) (I still call it the Punt Road Ground, for what it is worth)
Peculiarly, it doesn’t tell us where this Feb 11 meeting took place. There’s no advertisement for it in the previous issues under the Notices column.
If the ‘40 names” that were handed in, means that 40 people were at least present, then possible locations could have been the Richmond Cricket Ground itself, the Royal Hotel across the road, or even the Temperance Hall. Does no venue announcement mean they simply congregated at the Punt Road Ground?
The article goes on to say
Some of the gentlemen who have intimated their intention of donning the orange and black (which will probably be the colors) were last season crack performers in other clubs, but prefer to play with a local club.
Orange and black! They were the colours of the Richmond Cricket Club at the time. The assumption from the Richmond Guardian would be slightly incorrect, as we discover in subsequent meetings.
The Feb 14 edition of The Australasian (a weekly paper) also reported on the meeting - on page 22 for those playing at home - crammed in the middle of the multi-columned article by ‘Felix’ headlined Cricket Chatter2.
“It is intended to play the club as a senior”, is no doubt a reference to some previous incarnations of a Richmond Football Club which were a junior side.
The Australasian is also adamant of the orange and black guernsey.
Btw, Felix was the pen name of Australian cricketer Tom Horan, who in our footy records played 4 games with Richmond in 1888, at age 34 mind you!
(Was he possibly present at the Feb 11 meeting as a journo?)
The Herald, which was a daily paper (except Sunday), took a bit longer to report on the meeting - 5 editions later - but did place it on page 2 of their Feb 16th Monday edition3.
The Richmond residents have long felt that a city such as theirs ought to be represented in the football world, and on Wednesday evening a preliminary meeting was he'd with a view of discussing the advisability of forming a senior football club. At this meeting it was resolved to start at once, and some forty gentlemen handed in their names as members
It also said the club colours will “probably” be orange and black, promoted the Feb 20 meeting, said the home ground with be the Cricket ground, and predicted the club will “at the end of their first season, show quite as good a record as many of the older-established football clubs”.
What isn’t explained in those newspaper articles is the real reason why the Richmond Football Club was formed.
That answer would be given officially 24 years later by James Charles, credited as the founder of the club and who we have to assume was at that Feb 11 1885 meeting as he was a pivotal RCC committeeman. On June 19 1909 his letter printed in the Richmond Guardian in part revealed that,
…the R.F.C was started to assist and get the R.C.C. out of their financial difficulties. In the year 1884, the Richmond C.C. was in debt to the tune of about £900, and with no idea how or where the money was to come from to meet their liabilities. Matters looked so serious for us that there was every possibility of before long losing the ground altogether. I, being one of the committee, with the others, being responsible to the bank for the amount, thought that the only way out of it was to start a senior football club, which we thought in time might relieve us of our burden, which I am glad to say has been pretty well done…
Charles’ comment of the debt being £900 (see newspaper scan below), doesn’t fit with the cricket club’s AGM report in September 1884 that reported “the present liabilities £140 5s 5d”
But the reasoning for the footy club’s creation is correct - to help alleviate the cricket club’s debt.
To wrap thing up, let’s return to the Richmond Guardian article. Readers are told that a general meeting will take place on Feb 20 at Byrne’s Royal Hotel “when all members and intending members are requested to be present”.
If anyone was interested in adding their names the could write to James Charles, or the RCC honorary secretary Harry Brock.
Unanswered questions:
Where was the Feb 11th meeting held?
Who was at this meeting? James Charles, Harry Brock definitely. That’s all we know.
Was Tommy Horan one of the men at the meeting, documenting it for the Australasian, or did he receive the report second hand.
How does the not-yet-digitised Richmond Australia report the Feb 11th meeting
What time was the Feb 20th public meeting held at the Royal Hotel?