The 1942 Inter-services competition featured some of the biggest names of the day such as Alan La Fontaine, Laurie Nash, Alby Pannam, Phonse Kyne, Bob Pratt and Frank Curcio . Players from the VFL, VFA, country Football teams and from Interstate participated, making it both of high grade and of interest to a wide range of football followers.


See RAAF Team Inter-Services Premiers 1942 Framed

1942 in Melbourne

By May 1942 the Second World War was at a climactic point. Japan bombed Pearl Harbour in December 1941, followed by six months of success. Singapore had surrendered in February 1942 sending many Australians into POW camps. In February, U.S. General MacArthur had left the Philippines. The ugly island fighting in the Pacific had started, and fighting started on the Kokoda track in July, right on Australia’s doorstep. The great carrier battle at Midway in June 1942 turned the Pacific war but at the time this was not clear.

In Europe, Nazi Germany was fighting hard against Russia, following on their successes in 1941. Focus on oil fields in Russia’s south though June and July 1942 brought the German army to the city of Stalingrad where a climactic battle would be fought at the end of the year.
Melbourne was a centre of military activity. The US-Australian Headquarters were established on St Kilda Road and General McArthur arrived in March. US Soldiers rested in Melbourne and the Argus increased its coverage of U.S. baseball. Australian Army, Navy and Air Forces were being trained in various camps in and around the city and a number of football grounds were used for various military purposes.

Rationing was in place for petrol, paper and food. Newspapers became thinner and transport became difficult to find.


Geelong opted out of the VFL in 1942, with a major factor being transport difficulties. The VFA (and many other leagues) closed down completely due to a combination of problems such as access to grounds, availability of players and some had ethical questions over continuing organised sport while the war was on.

The VFL chose to continue playing football through the war. Though many players were unavailable due to war service, VFA, country and interstate players swelled the ranks.

The VFL raised money for the war effort through the ‘comforts fund’. The fund provided money for sporting equipment and entertainment for services personnel.

An Inter-Services Competition – the ‘War Services Cup’

With so many men undertaking training in Melbourne, it is no surprise that a wide range of sports were played including athletics, baseball, football and cricket. Both the Army and RAAF ran internal football competitions and football. The Argus reported that Major-General Stanke Adjunct General requested that there be a competition (Argus 6-May-1942 p8) and the VFL was approached to provide grounds. Further League support via provision of umpires, ground attendants, trainers as well as footballs was also provided. It was decided to have no entry fee but to ask each spectator to donate to a patriotic fund.

Football Record Round 4 30-May-1942 p4 League Players Must Play

Football Record Round 5 6-Jun-1942 p14 A Silver Coin

With internal competitions already in place, the inter-services competition created an inter-service rivalry. The army agreed to field three teams, “each of which will be up to League Standard”. With so many big name players having joined the Service, it can easily be imagined how excited the organisers must have been setting up their teams.

The competition eventually settled on eight teams, RAAF, Navy, and Army Teams representing various bases and units.

Click here to use the file Football Record Round 5 6-Jun-1942 p9 Tomorrows Matches

Football Record Round 6 13-Jun-1942 p16 Tomorrows Matches

Football Record Round 7 20-Jun-1942 p16 Tomorrows Matches

Bands and baseball games were used to lure in the public. Crowds at the first game were 2,000-3,000 but rapidly grew to 30,00 per game. The VFL support for the competition varied throughout the competition and at least one pundit suggested that the now popular Services competition be moved to Saturdays in competition with the VFL and because many stars were in the Services, the VFL would be reduced to second tier status. The fact that the VFL continued through the war while other competitons shut down was still a contentious issue to some.

Argus 13-Jun-1942p10 War Services Cup

Argus 2-Jul-1942 p6 Troops Footballs stolen - Short

Results

Team names fluctuated throughout the competition due to issues with censorship.

The composition of teams 'improved' thoughout the competition as the various teams rounded up players. A good example of the change is the fact that the first round saw the seasons biggest victory as Motors trounced eventual premiers RAAF by 95 points. A number of key RAAF players were not mentioned in the game and maybe the result of the loss caused an improvement in the RAAF team whose team in the final had played a combined total of VFL games higher than that of eventual VFL winners Essendon

Watsonia forfited their place in the finals, probably due to troops moving north to Queensland and New Guinea.

The Age - 3-Aug-1942 p5 Pratt Hoskin - Photographer Unknown

The Age - 17-Aug-1942 p4 Hillard Johnson Loxton - Photographer Unknown

The Age - 8-jun-1942 p4 Army Airforce - Photographer Unknown

Table 1: Ladder at end of Home and Away Season

Source: Reproduced with permission from the collection of the RAAF Museum/ Archives

Argus 17-Aug-1942 p6 RAAF Wins Premiership

Argus 3-Aug-1942 p6 Remarkable Semi Final

Teams

In most sources players are identified by surname only. This makes it difficult to confirm the identity of the player as there can be many players with the same surnames. Player names and teams listed here are based on:

• RAAF Services_v_Richmond Souvenir Guide
• Argus 6-Jun-1942 p10 Services Games Tomorrow
• Argus 20-Jun-1942 p10 War Services Games
• The Age - Jul 27, 1942 p5
• Football Record Round 5 6-Jun-1942 p16

For the final game before the finals, the Argus (Argus 17-Jul-1942 p6) reported that the Navey had 8 league players in their team and the opposing Watsonia whites had 9 VFL players.
For the semi final game the Argus (Argus 1-Aug-1942 p10) reported that with an exception of one, the Motors team were all League players.

RAAF

Blue and Light Blue V

The RAAF administrative and training facilities were based in Melbourne during the war

See RAAF Inter-services premiership team 1942 (SLV 122_241)

Bob Pratt (Coburg, South Melbourne)
Frank Curcio (Fitzroy)
Ron Todd (Collingwood, Williamstown)
Eric Glass (Williamstown, Melbourne)
Cliff Johnson (Williamstown)
Alby Pannam (Collingwood)
Jack Grant (Fitzroy)
Alby Weiss (St Kilda)
Vin Doherty (Collingwood)
L. Hill (Fitzroy)
W.Walsh (Melbourne)
C. Witt (St Kilda)
A. Gilbert (WA)
WJ Scarlett (WA)
H Auliffe (WA)
Diggins (WA)
E Page (SA)
C. Doherty (Collingwood)
F. Page (Norwood SA)
Beaumont (Camberwell)
Sheppard (Brunswick)
Normon (Preston)
Scarlett (Subiaco)
McRae (Ararat)
Henderson (Williamstown)
Gilbert (Claremont WA)
Reynolds (West Adelaide)
Witt? (St Kilda)
Oliss (Claremont WA)
Walsh? (Fitzroy)
Diggins (Subiaco)
Quick? (Essendon)
Cave (Sandringham)

Motors (2nd Australian Motor Division)

Black, White Band

Captain: Harold Comte (St Kilda), Harry Hickey (Footscray) (V-C then took over as captain)
George Hawkins (Prahran)
Sam Loxton (St Kilda)
Bill Hudson (StKilda, SA)
Jim Matthews (St Kilda)
Ron Reynolds (Sth Melb)
Rex Ritchie (Sth Melb)
Bill Harwood (Sth Melb)
Rex Richie (South Melbourne)
Ollie Grieves (Carlton)
Fred Huppatz (Footscray)

Watsonia (Infantry)

White

Watsonia Whites - Infantry Team
Brunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy
Back Row, Unknown, Leo Maynes (Fitzroy,Essendon), Norm Ware (Footscray), Bernie McVeigh (Fitzroy), Unknown, Unknown
Second Back Row: Soldier, Unknown, Len Toyne (Fitzroy,Melbourne) , Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Leo Monaghan (Fitzroy), Unknown, Soldier
Second Front Row: Soldier, Unknown, Soldier, Soldier, Possibly Stan Judkins (Richmond) - Capt, Soldier, Soldier, Unknown
Front Row: Unknown, Unknown, Trainer?, Unknown, Unknown, Soldier


Captain: Stan Judkins (Richmond)
Leo Monaghan (Fitzroy)
Len Toyne (Geelong, Fitzroy)
Jim Toohey (Fitzroy, Camberwell)
Norm Ware (Footscray)
Kew Ming (Echuca, North Melbourne), Long distance Kick record Holder from 1929.
Jack McElroy (Brunswick/Carlton) played for Whites

Mt. Martha Area (Army)

Blue and Gold Band

Captain: Horrie Edmonds (Collingwood), Phonse Kyne (Coollingwood) (V-C)
Bert Mills (Hawthorn)
Jack Mueller (Melbourne)
Norm Campbell (Collingwood)
Kevin Hurley (North Melbourne)
Fred Jones (Hawthorn)
Green? (Collingwood)
Green (Essendon)
Beale (Wimmera District)
Caffin (Camberwell)
Coleman (Collingwood Seconds)
Crispe (Carlton and Brunswick)
Crump (Sandringham)
Honeyman (SA)
Hovey (Collingwood Seconds)
Ingram (Port Melbourne)
Kay (St Kilda Seconds)
Lindsey (St Kilda Seconds)
McInerney (Mordialloc)
McIlroy (Carlton and Brunswick)
Perry (Western District)
Robertson (Yarraville)
Rowe (Dandenong)
Ryan (Williamstown)
Stodgell (Carlton Seconds)

Navy

Maroon, White Collars, Cuffs (Monogram F.N.D.)

Captain: Marcus Boyall (Collingwood, SA)
Goulding (WA)
Neville Way (St Kilda, Norwood WA)
N. Swan WA, Fitzroy)

Puckapunyal (Scarlets, Lines of Communication Training Depots)

Allan La Fontaine (Melbourne)
Laurie Nash (South Melbourne and Coburg)
Audley Gillespie-Jones (Melbourne, Fitzroy)
Fred Froude (Collingwood)
Broxam (Bendigo)
Cooper (Old Melbournians)
Drysdale (NF League)
Edwards? (Fitzroy)
Fleming? (Essendon)
Hillier (South Adelaide)
Hutchisson (Horsham)
Logan (Wimmera League)
Jones (Wimmera League)
McCoy? (St Kilda)
Onslow (Coolgardie)
Jamieson (Benella)
Hyndes (Port Pirie SA)
Flecker? (Hawthorn)

Statistics

Table 2: Leading Goalkickers

Note - 465 of 469 goals accounted for in records

All-Star Games

Combined Services Teams played twice during 1942. The first game was against Richmond (plus a couple of Fitzroy ring ins named Mick Hughson and Noel Price) and then the second match against the VFL premiers Essendon. The VFL teams won both matches in close contests.

Richmond 12-Jul-1942

Source: Reproduced with permission from the collection of the RAAF Museum/ Archives

The Age 13Jul1942 p5 Richmond d Services

Essendon 27-Sep-1942

Argus 28 Sep 1942 p6 - Introduction to Servies Team

The Argus 28-Sep-1942 p6 Thrilling Football

Boyles Photos