THIS FRIDAY afternoon, Carlton captain Patrick Cripps and his fellow players will board a Sydney-bound Virgin flight from Melbourne Airport in the lead-up to Saturday’s match with GWS at Sydney’s Olympic Park. The flight will take around 70 minutes from tarmac to tarmac.

One hundred and forty-six years ago, sometime between 11pm and midnight on Wednesday, June 20, 1877, the then Carlton captain John Gardiner and his team members disembarked the Sydney-bound steamship Barrabool - a passenger vessel which later earned the unenviable nickname the “Great Australian Ram” for its propensity to collide with other ships.

How the historic matches were promoted.

It was 1877 – the year Carlton emerge as Premier in the inaugural season of VFA competition – but Gardiner, the great George Coulthard and 20 more Carltonites were on the cusp of creating further history, as members of the first Australian Rules team to participate in an inter-colonial match across the border.

John ‘Tiger’ Gardiner, who captained Carlton in that historic encounter. Two years later, Gardiner would be named Victoria’s inaugural captain for the inter-colonial match with South Australia.

Gardiner and co. were guests of the Southern Rugby Union Club Waratah, whose captain Bill “The Little Wonder” Newing had previously represented Carlton with distinction through the 1860s and ’70s.

Carlton and Waratah would compete in two matches before audiences of 5000, each of whom parted with up to a shilling to attend. The first was a rugby contest at Redfern’s Albert Cricket Ground (won by Waratah two goals and three tries to nil) on Saturday, June 23, 1877; the second the landmark Australian Rules match (won by Carlton four goals to nil) in the presence of the Governor of New South Wales at the same venue two days later.

A glorious sketch of the players in action accompanied an article penned by a correspondent for the Australian Town and Country Journal, and a journalist covering the second contest for The Sydney Morning Herald reported the following;

“ . . . the Victorian game differs essentially from that played here, and gives much more scope for the vigorous enjoyment of football than the Rugby game; and although the play yesterday was, to a great extent, one-sided, it was evident that, from a spectators point of view, it was much more edifying than Saturday’s performance.

The players, under the Victorian rules, (are) not being permitted to hold the ball when tackled (and) no scrimmages take place; and as the area of the ground is not confined within touch or goal lines, and the ball is thrown in from bounds by an umpire, the time lost in resuming play is extremely limited.

Former Carlton player Bill “The Little Wonder” Newing, who captained the Waratah team, pictured in 1871.

The ball, too, has simply to be kicked between the goal posts to score, and although this is considered by many persons as a drawback, it nevertheless simplifies the game materially.”

The Carlton 20 which took to the field for the historic Australian Rules contest with Waratah on June 25, was named as follows:

Loch Bracken, William Bracken, George Coulthard, John Gardiner (capt), Billy Goer, Jack Henry, Tom Kelly, Billy Monie, Jimmy Lewis, Barney Murphy, Harry Nudd, Orlando O’Brien, Edward Prevot, James Rickards, George Robertson, James Robertson, E. Spencer, Smith, John Turnbull and E. Walters.

After the match, the Carlton players were entertained by the Waratah Club at Hook’s Freemasons’ Hotel. The following Tuesday they completed an excursion to the Blue Mountains to view the Zig-Zag railway, and on the Wednesday they boarded the Melbourne-bound steamship You Yangs, their places in Australian football history assured.