1872 : The Junior Cup
	“… it appears the junior clubs are considering the advisability of having a cup in imitation of their seniors.  The idea at first is not a bad one but when we remark how very bitter – not to say dangerous – the play is made with this additional excitement, it may be as well to pause before taking such a step”   The Collingwood Observer, May 2, 1872

Senior clubs had played for a trophy at various times, the first being the Caledonian Cup in 1862, and more recently, a troubled South Yarra Challenge Cup in 1870 that caused much bitterness between the teams.

The Observer’s warning went unheeded and four clubs, Richmond, Collingwood, East Melbourne and Southern contributed at the start of the season towards the purchase of a trophy.

The Southern club was formed around 1866 and played at Fawkner Park.   They later joined with the ailing senior club, Albert-Park, one of a series of mergers that kept the latter alive until early in 1880 when a final amalgamation came when it joined forces with the local South Melbourne junior team, adopting the latter’s name, but retaining Albert Park’s red and white colours

The trophy competitions at the senior level had been played on a “challenge” basic, usually allowing a team that won three consecutive matches to retain the cup on a permanent basis

But the competitions had been besieged with problems over just who had the right to issue challenges and who had the right to be accepted, and the junior clubs to their credit anticipated the problems

The four junior teams decided to play each other twice; the winner to be the team scoring the highest number of points with two awarded for a win and one point for a draw, and no player who had appeared with one of the senior clubs during the year was allowed to compete.

Remarkably, this the first time that a round-robin series of matches had been planned and a system of premiership points used and it was to be many more years before the simple and logical system of rating teams was tried again.

Wisely, they also put in place plans to resolve disputes, any objections to be heard by the football writers of The Australasian newspaper, the leading weekly publication.

Perhaps the Observer's thoughts on the cup were well-founded as the matches still produced their share of protests and incidents.

Richmond and their supporters were infamous for roughness both on and off the field, and after the final game against Collingwood, the Observer, perhaps with just the right amount of local bias showing through noted

“… a fine specimen of jaw breaking by a Richmond amateur and the latest style of garrotting by another amateur of the R. F. club were illustrated in a very forceful manner”.  

Collingwood were further thwarted in their attempts to grab a vital point for the cup when they had to kick against a strong wind in the first half.

They managed to hold Richmond out, but after attacking for some time with the breeze, the ball burst (not uncommon at the time) and after a delay of some ten minutes, the only other ball Richmond could seemingly find was an old training ball which lasted just two or three minutes before it too expired with a bang.

Adopting a fairly sensible attitude that there can’t be a game of football without a football, the umpire had no alternative but to call the game off 15 minutes early with the wind still howling towards Collingwood’s end.

Mid-year, Collingwood with the only goal of the match to S. Wilson beat East Melbourne, who subsequently protested over the goal umpire's decision.    The Observer regaled the Easterners, noting "their penchant for disputes", but the game was to prove critical in the context of the Cup.

Richmond and Collingwood finished level with eight points each and a final match was mooted to decide the winner.

However, East Melbourne's protest was still outstanding, and The Australasian's panel of experts upheld the objection after the central umpire confirmed he had called a free kick to East Melbourne before Collingwood kicked the goal.

This turned Collingwood’s win into a draw and the loss of the one point gave Richmond the Challenge Cup.   The final points from a possible 12 were Richmond 8; Collingwood, 7: East Melbourne, 6; Southern, 3.

Richmond's joy soon turned to sorrow when a few weeks later, their captain Fred Hyde was killed in a gymnastics accident and the club presented the Challenge Cup to his widow.   Hyde was also the regular wicketkeeper with the Richmond Cricket Club.

 “Scotch from Thornbury”, an elderly correspondent to The Age in 1933, and "an old player from the district" , provided some fascinating insights into football in the early 1870s, and in one of his letters he recalled the Richmond team of the time playing on a section of what was then the Richmond Paddock (now Yarra Park), the “ground” running east to west adjacent to Wellington Parade, many years before the railway line and Jolimont Station were constructed.

He also nominated George Tilley, Haldene, Bill Allamby and Arthur Jerrens as other good players with the Richmond team.

Even more remarkably, “Scotch” claimed to know the whereabouts of the 1872 cup and made an extraordinary offer “... if the current club is interested and would like to hold the cup as a bit of ancient history, I doubtless obtain it and hand it over ...".   The Age responded that it passed the correspondence onto the current Richmond President.

Another contributor, "Elm Grove" also added his recollections of the playing area "... including Jolimont Station ... here and there on the playing area, gum trees were growing and many a player had a dashing run foiled by a player darting out from behind a tree".  Among the players he recalled were two brothers named Mitchell "who also at one time held the four-oared championship of the Yarra".

There was actually a team called Elm Grove from around 1876 (by which time the Richmond club hqad disbanded), presumably taking  its name from the street near Punt Road, but they originally played some distance away in the Survey Paddock, now the site of the golf course in Burnley before moving to the Richmond Oval behind the Town Hall)

Despite the interest shown in the first junior cup, the idea was not taken up again until 1876, by which time both the Richmond and Collingwood clubs of 1872 had disbanded and the Southern had merged with Albert Park (1875).

Despite a solid season on the field and a membership of over 120, Collingwood vanished without a trace after the 1873 season.

Another East Collingwood team was formed and other minor clubs around that area included Comet, who seemed the leading local side for a couple of seasons. Palmerston, Cambridge Union, Abbotsford United, Excelsior, Fitzroy Standard and Northern.   Given the Fitzroy and Collingwood areas bordered on the Carlton Gardens where the Exhibition Buildings now stand, it seems that several of the Collingwood went the the senior Carlton and Carlton Imperial sides after their club disbanded.

The Richmond name re-emerged before the 1878 season when Richmond Standard, a club formed in 1873, arbitrarily declared themselves the premier team in the district for the previous season and therefore entitled to use the name of the town, although they too disbanded around five years later.