1900 With A Little Help From Our Friends
	Preston's first premiership came in 1900 after a decade of languishing near the bottom of the V.J.F.A. ladder and being faced with extinction on a number of occasions. Perhaps the gods were smiling on the struggling club, because it took a remarkable set of circumstances before the victory was gained ...t

It took an amazing combination of the Boer War, a disputed walk-over, a short-lived (and absurd) League finals system, and bureaucratic red tape before Preston finally qualified for the final in which they beat Collingwood Juniors to raise their first pennant.

The strange chain of events started innocuously enough when all round 3 League games on May 19 were postponed, due in part to celebrations over the relief of the Siege of Mafeking in South Africa and wet weather that saw many grounds unfit for play.     Mafeking was a small British garrison besieged by thousands of Boer troops for eight months before relief finally arrived. The British forces were led by Robert Baden-Powell, later the founder of the Boy Scout movement, and the survival of the garrison was hailed by the entire British empire as a victory over the Boers.

Fitzroy were due to play Essendon at the latter's home at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground. The V.F.L. originally rescheduled the round to be played on the King's Birthday holiday on the following Thursday, but after further rain, again postponed the round until after the end of the home-and-away season.

1900 was the second of two years that the League experimented with a shortened season where each of the eight clubs played each other twice to determine a ladder, then split into two sections based on the results, and played a final knockout round of matches to determine the premiership.    Melbourne won just four of the 14 home and away games, but managed to become premiers after finishing sixth of the eight teams.   The V.F.L. quickly saw the absurdity of the situation and abandoned the system.

Preston set a new club record by winning their first eight games, and in round 9 met Fitzroy Crescent, who shared the Brunswick Street ground with Fitzroy and who were also unbeaten.     The scriptwriter got it absolutely spot on, the match at Preston Park resulting in a thrilling draw with Preston's inaccuracy costing dearly, 3.13 to 4.7.   Preston later protested unsuccessfully that a goal to Jack Thomson was incorrectly disallowed and that a point had been awarded to Fitzroy after the bell.

Fitzroy Crescent, Collingwood Juniors and Preston dominated the home and away season to the extent that the only games any of them lost was to one of the other pair.     By August 25, the Crescent led the ladder with 14 1/2 wins, Collingwood were second with 14 and Preston were third on 13 1/2, having lost both games to Collingwood.

Preston's position was further under threat as Northcote had lodged a protest on the grounds of that Preston had included an illegal player in their win over Northcote on August 11.    Protests at the time were not uncommon, but were usually over disputed scoring decisions, perhaps not surprisingly seeing that each club supplied their own goal umpires!

Then came the controversy.

Preston were drawn to play the Crescent side at Brunswick Street in a crucial match where a loss would have spelt the end of Preston's first real crack at a premiership.   Coincidentally, the game was to be played on the Saturday that the V.F.L. had allocated for the matches postponed earlier in the year.

To the Crescent team's horror, the East Melbourne Ground where the Essendon v. Fitzroy match was originally supposed to have been played was unavailable, and the V.F.L. did the only thing possible and re-scheduled the game to Brunswick Street.     This left Fitzroy Crescent without their normal ground, and such was the rapid growth of the inner Melbourne suburbs, they were unable to secure another suitable venue until the eve of the match when the Brunswick ground was finally found to be available.   And here the V.J.F.A. bureaucracy set in.

The V.J.F.A. had an unwritten law that clubs wishing to switch home games to other grounds must advise the executive by the Wednesday evening prior to the game.     The Crescent team could not organise the Brunswick ground until the Friday, and despite the Friday night edition of "The Herald" previewing the comparative strengths of the two teams and the importance of the match in deciding the premiership, the V.J.F.A. executive on the same evening ruled that Fitzroy Crescent had not complied with the unwritten law and therefore must forfeit the game.

Sections of the Melbourne press, notably "The Sporting Judge", a weekly sporting newspaper that was still in circulation as late as 1946, took up the Crescent cause, noting that the circumstances were outside of their control, and that the V.J.F.A.'s decision to stick to the unwritten policy was pig-headed.   The Judge, to no avail, demanded that the match be played following the end of the V.J.F.A. season.

The V.J.F.A., not renowned for flexibility in their decision making, stuck to its guns, and ignored the late change in the League arrangements, pointing out that the Crescent side should have been aware of the clash back in May and they had done nothing in the meantime to find a suitable ground or, in fact, to ask for the first round clash to be switched from Preston to Brunswick Street.

To add fuel to the fire, at the same meeting the V.J.F.A. decided that they would not hear Northcote's protest on technical grounds because it had been lodged outside the prescribed period.   The effect of the V.F.L. rescheduling the round may have been far-reaching as three of the five V.J.F.A. games for the day were walk-overs, but of the others, Melbourne Juniors were struggling to field a side, and the Montague side, based in Port Melbourne was about to be debarred from the competition for consistent bad behaviour.

Being awarded the match without a ball being bounced in anger allowed Preston to draw level with Fitzroy, just two points behind Collingwood and in Preston's case, with games against two of the bottom sides to come.

The three sides all won the second last round comfortably, but to add further spice to the mix, Collingwood and Fitzroy were drawn to play in the final round. Preston seemed assured of a victory over the lowly Carlton Juniors, and a win to Fitzroy would have left Preston on top of the ladder, but having to play the enraged Fitzroy Crescent in the final.    Against this, a win to Collingwood would ensure them top spot and a final against Preston, who they had beaten comfortably twice through the season.   Collingwood ulrimately beat Fitzroy Crescent easily to leave them half a game in front of Preston and the Crescents, still rueing the forfeited game, effectively out of the running..

The V.J.F.A., like the V.F.L. and V.F.A. had been experimenting with finals systems and required a final to be played if the top side did not finish at least two wins clear of its nearest rival.   Collingwood and Preston were therefore drawn to play in what appears to be the first ever final in the V.J.F.A. competition. Ironically, the final was played at the Brunswick Street Oval in Fitzroy before a crowd estimated at 5,000 and with the Fitzroy Brass Band in full swing.

Collingwood, with their wins over Preston during the year, started favourites and secured the first goal to lead by four points just on quarter time, before ruckman "Joe" White snapped Preston's first goal to give Preston a narrow lead.    The second quarter was a battle of defences, neither side being able to register a goal, Sid Hall's marking at centre half back being the highlight of the quarter.

Defences were still on top until fifteen minutes into the third quarter, when C. "Cook" Flynn marked in front, and to the delight of the Preston supporters, kicked truly.    Flynn had been a late inclusion in the side after recovering from a serious injury at work that saw him miss the last three games.    Just minutes later, Preston rushed the ball forwarded for Ted "Dewey" Hall to mark and convert, leaving Preston in front, 3.3 to 1.1.

Preston sensed victory and much of the last quarter was very defensive. Preston failed to score, but Collingwood could only manage five behinds, three of them rushed by the desperate Preston defence.

"The Preston Leader" described the small Preston township as "alive with excitement, and many business places, private residences and outlying farmhouses hoisted the yellow and blue colours of the team".

Preston's victory was even more fortunate as it was one of the few years that the minor premiers, (the team finishing on top of the ladder), did not have a right of challenge if it lost the first final.    Had this rule been in place, Collingwood would have challenged and the two teams forced to play off again to settle the premiership.

From what can be gleaned of the V.J.F.A. rules of the time, it appears that if the top side finished two games clear of their nearest rivals, they were automatically declared the premiers with no "finals" being played.

This rule appears to have stood Preston in good stead in the following two seasons.

In 1901, Preston lead the ladder comfortably and in what seems to have been the last home-and-away round played a Port Melbourne based side, Blenheim, at Preston Park where it was suggested that "if Preston lose, the two sides will play again in a final", and in 1902, two weeks before the end of the season "Preston will retain the premiership even if they lose the last their last two games" (premiership celebrations seem to have come early with Preston in fact dropping the last two games after losing just one match (against Fitzroy Juniors) in the preceding 14 rounds.

By this time, the V.F.A. at the time was keen to expand into Melbourne's outer areas and the hat-trick of premierships stood Preston in good stead when they applied for inclusion in senior ranks prior to the 1903 season.

But in today's environment of litigation and legal intervention at the proverbial drop of a hat, one wonder's just what would happen if a football body, or any other sporting organization for that matter, made an arbitrary decision to disqualify a team from a crucial game based on the enforcement of an unwritten rule!