Hobson's Bay Railway Football Club was a short-lived 19th-century

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

club. Active between 1867 and 1870, the club was notable for being among the five clubs to contest the first season of senior premiership football in Victoria.

History

During the 1860s, football in Melbourne was dominated by four principal senior clubs. Later in the decade, several small football clubs were formed among the employees of different major companies and services, including the public transport services, police and armed regiments, competing at what would later be considered a junior level. The Hobson's Bay Railway club was among these, representing employees of the

Melbourne & Hobson's Bay Railway Company The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company was incorporated on 20 January 1853 to build the line from Melbourne to the port of Sandridge, now Port Melbourne. The proposal met ...

. The club was largely based around Richmond, and its home games and scratch matches were played on the Lonsdale Cricket Ground. Railway's earliest reported match was played at odds against

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

in August 1867, resulting in a 0–2 defeat. The club was active at junior level over the next two years, playing matches against other minor clubs or the second twenties of the major clubs. In its season retrospective for the 1868 season, ''the Australasian'' newspaper made mention of the Railway club among a list of minor clubs, noting "I am not aware that they have been very prominent in the field this season, and they do not call for any special remark." In 1869, the same newspaper identified the club as the strongest among the city's non-principal clubs; the club played seven games in 1869, winning four and drawing two, and was of sufficient prominence that it was invited to the pre-season meeting of the principal club secretaries. In 1870, the club began arranging fully fledged senior games against the other principal clubs in what is now considered the first premiership season of senior Victorian football. The club was well short of the standard of the other principal clubs, playing three games and suffering heavy losses in all. However, its season was most notable for a match it didn't play: in a match arranged for the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

against Albert-park on 11 June, Railway declined to play when only fourteen of its players arrived; but rather than cancelling the game, Albert-park controversially claimed a

walkover John_Carpenter_was_disqualified,_prompting_his_teammates_John_Taylor_(athlete).html" ;"title="John_Carpenter_(athlete).html" "title="Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres">men's 400 metres running in a walkover. Americ ...

victory – literally taking to the field and scoring two unopposed goals – and counted it towards the four consecutive matches it was required to win to claim permanent ownership of the cup, a position disputed by all of the other clubs. There are no reports of the Hobson's Bay Railway club continuing in senior or junior level football beyond the end of the 1870 season.

References

{{Reflist Australian rules football clubs in Melbourne