1875 The Second Twenties Cup
	1875 saw the introduction of another Cup competition, but oddly enough, it was retricted to the second twenties of the senior clubs.   It was to be the long-forgotten Carlton Imperial club that took home the trophy  ...

1875 saw the re-introduction of a Cup competition when the Carlton club donated a trophy to be battled out by the second twenties of the senior clubs.

The objective of the cup was to introduce a semblance of a regular fixture and some incentive for the players in the second twenties, many of whom were inclined to forgo their engagements and turn up instead to watch their seniors when they played major matches.

Wisely, the appointed Cup committee ignored the previous attempts at a challenge cup and adopted instead an almost identical format to that used by the Junior Cup of 1872.

But therewas one obvious difficulty : "It strikes me there will be some difficulty in exactly deciding who are second twenty players" predicted The Australasian's football writer.

The rules of the competition required the clubs to provide a list prior to the season to the cup committee with the proviso that players listed could act as emergencies for the senior team.

From what can be gathered, players who actually played in the senior team were then ineligible for the second twenties for the remainer of the season, but this proved unworkable and was overturned mid-year.

The teams that competed in approximate finishing order where Carlton Imperial, Albert Park, West Melbourne, North Melbourne, East Melbourne, Carlton. Melbourne and St. Kilda.

Carlton Imperial defeated Albert Park by two goals to nil late in September to finish level with the Parkites on points.

The pair played off on October 9, by which time most newspapers had abandoned their football columns for the cricket season and little coverage of the game was given. but it is known that the Imperials won with the only goal of the match.

The Carlton Imperial club was formed in 1869 and despite always being overshadowed by Carlton, the Imperial side competed as a senior club in 1876 and were included in the early match arrangements for the new Victorian Football Association in 1877.   They were drawn to play Geelong on Queen’s Birthday, May 24, but found the problems of consistently losing players to Carlton too much and they disbanded before the match was played. 

The 1876 edition of The Footballer shows their membership as 110, around half that of Carlton, and perhaps it was not a coincidence that their membership fee was also half, 2s 6d as opposed to five shillings.  

Several of their leading players did, however, take advantage of the new Association rule allowing players from disbanded clubs to transfer to other teams, Carlton not unnaturally being the major benefactor.  

The Imperials  played in the University Paddock (sometimes “Reserve”) and this also may have been a bone of contention between them and Carlton, the latter club moving to a ground within the University in 1876.    The club derived their name from the Carlton Imperial Hotel in Madeline Street, their secretary and a leading player, Ed. Barass (later with Carlton) being the publican.

A Crowded Forward Line

St.. Kilda struggled throughout the year and forfeited at least one game towards the end of the season. 

The Melbourne senior side along with Carlton dominated their, but their Second Twenty were little better than St. Kilda, but a totally meaningless game between the pair on September 11 managed to create a little confusion if not controversy.

The match was originally planned for the Melbourne ground (then outised the Cricket Ground), but with St. Kilda forfeiting one match and turning up for another with just 13 players, the ground trustees gave the nearby East Melbourne permission to play Richmond if the second twenty match did not come off.

Obviously there was some communication problem, not unusual in those times, and just before three o'clock, the St. Kilda second twenty made a surprise appearance.

East Melbourne (despite their ground being less than five minutes walk) and Richmond refused to leave, and Melbourne claimed their prior rights to the ground.

Come three o'clock, all four teams swung into action, with seemingly a strong wind advantage, both captains winning the toss elected to kick to the same end.     Several "collisions" occurred and more serious conflicts were avoided only by two constables who happened to be at the ground interjecting a modicum of common sense and suggest the teams toss for the use of the ground.

The East Melbourne and Richmond match went ahead but the fate of the unexpected second twenty match remained untold.

And the following year ...

Perhaps a little perplexed by the criticisms of the previous year's competition, there was no sign of a Cup forthcoming from Carlton, but undeterred, the secretaries of the senior second Twenties subscribed for a trophy to be competed for under the same conditions as the previous season,

The idea to go down all that well with the press of the day.

The Footballer suggested in its pre-season comments that the move "cannot be regarded as satisfactory" suggesting that, as in other years and at different levels, the extra competitiveness caused players to overstep the boundaries when it came to sportsmanship and resort to "all sorts of devices and meanness" in their pursuit of the trophy.

Perhaps their struggling attempts at the senior level gave the second twenties a little more to play and it was to again to be two of the struggling clubs that dominated the cup competition.

Albert Park entered an unlikely merger with the unpopular North Melbourne juniors, the resultant entity generally referred to in the press as "Albert Park-cum-North Melbourne", whilst on the other side of town, Carlton Imperial were still fighting a battle to keep players from switching to "the northern enemy", Carlton.

Although the senior club by some years, Melbourne never really encouraged a second twenty, Eas Melbourne and Carlton seemed to make little effort, and St. Kilda, as always was overwhelmed from the start.

Albert Park won the first match against Carlton Imperial (a victory that proved critical at the end of the season), and the second was drawn. although the Imperials protested on a number of accounts.

At the end of the competition, Albert Park with eight wins and two draws led the Imperials with eight wins, and the loss and draw against the "Parkites" .   Under pressure from the Imperial club, the organising committee for the competition heard the protest over the draw and rules that the Imperials protest was justified on several accounts and ruled that the game be re-played on October 14.

After a tense struggle, another draw resulted and again the Imperials protested, claiming a goal had been awarded to them and subsequently declared "no goal" by the goal umpire.

Subsequently the goal umpire provided a statutory declaration confirming that he had originally called "no goal" and the organising committee wisely agreed with The Footballer's final comment; "the sooner these baubles are to end, the better".

The Final Placings :