Introduction

An investigation of this hitherto neglected corner of football history came about by chance rather than by design. Our work on the Boyles photos has included the creation of a large database of football photographs from the 1930s-1950's period as the basis for identifying players in the Boyles photos. What became obvious through this process was the re-use of original team photos. It became clear they had been chopped up and used as a source for football cards. We have also been able to match a range of team photos in various newspapers to photos in the Boyles Photo Collections. This was a surprise as Boyles is not known to have worked for any newspaper.

There are a number of matches and cross-matches that this article attempts to describe. A separate article will discuss the possible connections to Charles Boyles.

Newspapers

The Australasian

The Australasian newspaper was targeted nationally. Unlike the Weekly Times, the Australasian did not publish photos of Victorian regional teams. The 1929 Australasian colourised team photos included all twelve VFL teams and five of the twelve VFA teams.

The Australasian 1929 series of football team photos includes a number of photos showing the players in two rows. The remainder of the photos show three rows.

Examples of the Australasian series

The Australasian 04-May-1929 - Source: State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection	The Australasian 11-May-1929 - Source: State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection
The Australasian 15-June-1929 - Source: State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection	The Australasian 13-July-1929 - Source: State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

For all images in the series see 1929 Australasian Team Photo Series

By using the player images in the photos to identify particular games of football, it can be seen that the photos showing two rows of players were taken first, and the photos showing three rows were taken later. This change could indicate that a different photographer was taking the photos, or maybe it was decided that three rows looked better and the photographer changed his practice. The new front row featured only 2-3 players.

Also of note is the number of times that the photographer took photos of both competing teams on the same day. Often though the photographer only had time to photograph one of the teams.

Table 1: 1929 Australasian Series Dates and Details (VFL Teams Only)

Team	Date Taken	Date Published	Back Row	Middle Row	Front Row
Collingwood	Round 1 Victoria Park Sat, 27-Apr	1-Jun	10	8	0
Richmond	Round 1 Victoria Park Sat, 27-Apr	4-May	10	8	0
South Melbourne	Round 2 Lake Oval Sat, 04-May	11-May	10	8	0
St Kilda	Round 2 Lake Oval Sat, 04-May	18-May	8	10	0
Melbourne	Round 3 M.C.G Sat, 11-May	25-May	10	8	0
Fitzroy	Round 3 M.C.G Sat, 11-May	N/A	10	8	0
Hawthorn	Round 4 Glenferrie Oval Sat, 18-May	22-Jun	10	8	0
Geelong	Round 5 Princess Park Sat, 25-May	8-Jun	9	7	2
Carlton	Round 5 Princess Park Sat, 25-May	15-Jun	9	6	3
Essendon (1)	Unclear Round 8 or Earlier	29-Jun	8	8	2
Fitzroy (2)	Round 7 Essendon Sat, 15-Jun	6-Jul	9	6	3
Footscray	Round 9 Victoria Park Sat, 29-Jun	13-Jul	8	7	3
North Melbourne	Round 10 Arden St Sat, 06-Jul	20-Jul	9	7	2

1 Players in the photo do not match any games in the 1929 Season according to the AFL Tables website. Possibly Round 4 or Round 8, as they were away games with the most (16) players named)
2 The Fitzroy-Brisbane Lions Historical Society supplied a 1929 Fitzroy team photo that was not published in the Australasian, but was probably taken by the same photographer. (See Fitzroy Senior Team 1929 (FBLHS S29) )

The Weekly Times

The 1928 Weekly Times Series consisted of 23 colourised photos - the 12 VFL teams and 11 Victorian country teams. No VFA teams were included. Considering that there were only 52 issues for the year, and there was only a small colourised section in each issue, this was a major undertaking. Also consider the hours needed to remove the background, and to manually colour each of the images.

The 1929 Weekly Time Series was even more ambitious than their 1928 series. The 1929 series included 11 of the 12 VFL teams (missing Footscray), seven of the twelve VFA Teams, and 19 Victorian country teams. Considering the Weekly Times was a newspaper targeting a rural audience, its focus on regional teams is unsurprising.

In contrast to the two rows of players in some Australasian photos, only two of the sixty-five Weekly Times photos of 1928 and 1929 (namely the 1928 Fitzroy team and the 1929 Collingwood team) had the players in two rows rather than three. Given that the 1929 Weekly Times Collingwood photo was taken on the same day as the 1929 Australasian Collingwood photo, and possibly the Australasian photographer did the set up, only one of the remaining sixty-four photos shows two rows. The Weekly Times front row was regularly 3-5 players.

Examples of Weekly Times Team Photos

St Kilda

1928 St Kilda team - Source: 1928 Weekly Times - State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

St Kilda - Source: 1929 Weekly Times - State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

For all images in the series see 1928 Weekly Times Team Photos

South Melbourne

1928 South Melbourne team - Source: 1928 Weekly Times - State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

South Melbourne - Source: 1929 Weekly Times - State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

For all images in the series see 1929 Weekly Times Team Photos Series


Table 2: 1929 Weekly Times Series Dates and Details (VFL Teams Only)

Team	Date Taken	Date Published	Back Row	Middle Row	Front Row
Collingwood	Round 1 Victoria Park Sat, 27-Apr	1-May	10	8	0
Carlton	Round 2 Punt Rd Sat, 04-May	11-May	7	6	5
Richmond	Round 2 Punt Rd Sat, 04-May	25-May	8	5	5
Geelong	Round 5 Princess Park Sat, 25-May	1-Jun	9	7	2
Essendon	Round 5 Windy Hill Sat, 25-May	8-Jun	8	6	4
Fitzroy	Round 6 Brunswick St Sat, 01-Jun	15-Jun	8	7	6
St Kilda	Round 7 Junction Oval Sat, 15-Jun	22-Jun	7	6	5
South Melbourne	Round 8 Western Oval Sat, 22-Jun	29-Jun	7	6	5
Melbourne	Round 9 Windy Hill Sat, 29-Jun	6-Jul	9	6	5
Hawthorn	Round 12 Glenferrie Oval Sat, 20-Jul	27-Jul-29?	8	6	4
North Melbourne	Round 15 M.C.G Sat, 10-Aug	17-Aug	8	6	4
Footscray	team was not published	N/A

There could be many reasons why Footscray was not included. With a turnaround of only one week from when the photo was taken until it appeared in the paper, maybe the weather made the photo session impossible. Alternatively, considering five VFA photos were included in the series, rather than the top four VFA teams, possibly a good VFA performance forced the inclusion of a fifth VFA team photo. Either way, the reasons listed here are pure speculation.

On the Same Day

The Collingwood team photos published in the 1929 Weekly Times and the 1929 Australasian were both taken at the same time (on April 27). The two corresponding 1929 Geelong team photos were also both taken at the same time (on May 25). This means, on each of these two days, either the same photographer took a photo and then moved for a second shot, or a separate cameraman was present. The photos in each newspaper are slightly different. The players' expressions are different. Quite possibly some players were watching one cameraman, and other players were watching another cameraman.

Collingwood photo - Round 1 at Victoria Park

The Australasian 1-June-1929 - Source: State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

Collingwood - Source: 1929 Weekly Times - State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

Geelong photo - Round 5 - 25 May 1929 at Princess Park, Carlton

The Australasian 8-June-1929 - Source: State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

Geelong - Source: 1929 Weekly Times - State Library of Victoria Newspaper Collection

Other Years

Both newspapers later dabbled again in colourised football photos. The Australasian published two of the 1931 VFL finals teams, and a number of Rugby League team photos. The Weekly Times in 1934 published five colourised VFL teams but, unlike earlier years, no VFA or Victorian country teams.

Card Series

1929 Griffiths Black Crow (Weekly Times)

This cigarette card series of 210 cards contains at least forty faces lifted from the 1928 and 1929 Weekly Times images, and probably many more. One possible explanation for this is that the Weekly Times was contracted for the work, and used images in their archives. A partial match of cards to photos appears below. The matching was continued until the strong link between the cards and the Weekly Times photos was established. The matching was not completed, so there are probably many more matches. No matches have been found linking the Black Crow cards to the 1929 Australasian photos.

The source for the Black Crow card images appears to be particular Weekly Times team photos. Note that all the South Melbourne cards are from the 1928 Weekly Times photo, and all the Collingwood cards are from the 1929 Weekly Times photo.

1928 Weekly Times matches

Team	Players
Fitzroy	Jack Moriarty,
Hawthorn	Alan Chandler
Melbourne	Colin Deane, Harry Coy
North Melbourne	John Dowling, Charles Cameron, Leo Dwyer
South Melbourne	Bert Avery, Harry Clarke, Jack Barnes
St Kilda	Percy Outram, Barney Carr

1929 Weekly Times matches

Team	Players
Carlton	Alex Duncan, Horrie Clover , Charlie McSwain, Alex Doyle, Charlie Parsons, Maurie Johnson, James Crowe, Aubrey Martyn
Collingwood	Bruce Andrews, Percy Bowyer, Harry Chesswas, George Claydon, Harry Collier, Gordon Coventry, Charlie Dibbs
Essendon	Jack Dolan, Clarrie Hearn, Jack Vosti, Len Webster
Geelong	Arthur Coghlan, Jack Collins, Ewan Bumpstead, Frank Keppel
Melbourne	Bob Corbett
Richmond	Bert Foster, Cyril Lilburne, Basil McCormack, Joe Murdoch

The 1929 Carlton photo is a good example. Wind appears to have lifted a number of players' collars which one can see reflected in the cards.

Alex Duncan	Horrie Clover	Charlie McSwain
Alex Doyle	Charlie Parsons	Maurie Johnson
Norman Collins	Aubrey Martyn

1926-28 Suburban Premium (Australasian)

The Suburban Premium cards were issued over a number of years by smaller independent retailers. There were two series. The second, and later, series has the player names written on the front of the card.

The quality of the card production is lower than the more professional cigarette company cards. The player names are handwritten onto the cards with a number of different styles of handwriting, there are errors with players' names, and the cutting out and touching up of the images is of varying quality.

The amateurish nature of the cards makes them quite interesting as to who produced them. Although listed for many years as being published circa 1926 and 1928, a large portion of the images were lifted from the 1929 Australasian team photos. A distinctive characteristic of these images is the dark background of the card, as compared to the lighter background of cards not based on the Australasian photos.

The Hawthorn cards, for instance, illustrate that the cards were released over a number of years:

• Jim Jackson ended his long VFL career with two years at Hawthorn (1925-26), meaning that his card was probably produced prior to the end of 1926. Mick Ennis played in the VFL for only three years (1925-27) and only for Hawthorn. His card must have been produced prior to the end of 1927.
• Considering the similarity in style and the dates played, the cards for players Henry, Ennis, Jackson and Utting are probably lifted from a 1926 team photo of an away game.
• Bert Sutton only played for Hawthorn in 1928.
• Len Yemm played for Hawthorn 1929-30, this being his only VFL club. His card must have been produced in 1929 or later.

Table: Hawthorn Players Suburban Premium 1926-28

Player	At Hawthorn	Other VFL Clubs/Years
Bill Henry	1926-27	(Collingwood 1925 and Essendon 1928)
Mick Ennis	1925-27	Only VFL Club
Jim Jackson	1925-26	(St Kilda 1909, Collingwood 1910-15, 1920)
Ern Utting	1925-32	(Collingwood 1919-22)
Bert Hyde	1925-35	Only VFL Club
Ted Poole	1926-38	Only VFL Club
Bert Sutton	1928	(South Melbourne 1921, 1923-24, 1926-27)
Fred Finch	1925-27	Only VFL Club
Len Yemm	1929-30	Only VFL Club

As the series was published over a number of years, we are not looking to establish that all the cards were based on the 1929 Australasian team photos. Of 101 known cards (according to the Australian Football Cards website), at least eighteen cards can be matched:

Table: Suburban Premium cards based on the 1929 Australasian team photos

Carlton	Fred Gilby
Collingwood	Albert Collier (Probably)
Essendon	Norm Beckton, Garnet Campbell, Howard Okey
Footscray	Frank Aked, Bill Russ
Hawthorn	Len Yemm, Ted Poole (Probably)
Melbourne	Richard Taylor, Bill Tymms
North Melbourne	Teddy Briggs , Cyril Kemp
Richmond	Jack Fincher, Percy Bentley, Bill Benton
St Kilda	Horrie Mason, Bill Mohr

The Richmond cards are a good example: note Jack Fincher's stance and Percy Bentley's strands of hair falling down.

Jack Fincher

Percy Bentley

Bill Benton

As mentioned in the above section on the 1929 Australasian photos, the Fitzroy-Brisbane Lions Historical Society supplied an unpublished 1929 Fitzroy team photo. This photo was probably taken by the same photographer who took the 1929 Australasian team photo of Fitzroy. Another clue that tends to confirm the probable link between the unpublished Fitzroy photo and the 1929 Australasian photos is that the unpublished Fitzroy photo was also used as the source of a Suburban Premium card, whereas the published (1929 Australasian) Fitzroy photo was not used as a source.



A second source of images for the Suburban Premium cards was the 1923 Don Postcards series of photos. At least a dozen Suburban Premium cards (from a combination of both the first and second series) can be traced to the higher quality Don Postcards. The Lloyd Hagger card is a good example of the match. In most cases the Suburban Premium cards that match are the one's with a white background.

Lloyd Hagger -1926-28 VFL Suburban Premium - Source: Australian Rules Football Cards

Lloyd Hagger - 1923 Don postcard - Source: Australian Rules Football Cards

• Ray Brew (Carlton)
• Barney Carr (St Kilda)
• Bert Chadwick (Melbourne)
• Horrie Clover (Carlton)
• Norman Cockram (Fitzroy)
• Alex Duncan (Carlton)
• Ern Elliott (Fitzroy)
• Lloyd Hagger (Geelong)
• Jack Moriarty (Fitzroy)
• James Smith (Richmond)
• Mark Tandy (South Melbourne)
• Charlie Tyson (Collingwood

1932 Godfrey Phillips (Australasian)

Godfrey Phillips, founded in England in 1844 by Godfrey Phillips, was an English tobaccco company who produced many series of cigarette cards. This fifty card series appears to be the first Australian Rules series for this brand.

Eight of the fifty cards can be traced to the 1929 Australasian. The most matches are from the Carlton photo. Likely matches are:

Carlton	Charlie Davey, Alex Duncan (as Coburg), Colin Martyn, Harry Vallence
Footscray	Alby Morrison
Richmond	Jack Titus
Melbourne	Ray Usher, Frank Vine (Reversed Image)
South Melbourne	Harry Clarke

Harry Vallence's collar is a clear match.


Note that the image of Arthur Batchelor from the unpublished 1929 Fitzroy photo was used as a 1932 Godfrey Phillips card, just as it had been used for the Suburban Premium card.

Other Interesting photos

The photo of North Melbourne player Charles Cameron may have been sourced from the 1928 Weekly Times. The image below shows the 1929 Griffiths Black Crow card (probably sourced from the 1928 Weekly Times photo), the 1932 Godfrey Phillips card in the centre, and a cropped section of the 1928 Weekly Times photo on the right. All three appear to be the same image. The top of the hair is different, but a close look at the 1932 card indicates that the hairline is not the top of the photo, and that tracing the hairline repeats the similarity found in other features shared by the photos.


Joe Garbutt's (Port Melbourne) 1932 card is very similar to a Charles Boyles photo of Garbutt, except for the fact that the colours in the jumper are reversed. Apart from the jumper colour, the button is in the same place, the mark on the far left of the card joins a mark on the Boyles photo, and an overlay of the faces shows a remarkable similarity.


The Horrie Clover card in this 1932 Godfrey Phillips series was sourced from a very old photo in the 1923 Don Postcards series. The youthful face and the distinctive hair matches the old photo. Clover looked quite different by the 1930's as the 1929 Griffiths card illustrates.

Horrie Clover - 1932 Godfrey Phillips card - source: Australian Football Cards

Horrie Clover - 1923 Don Postcard - Source: Australian Football Cards

Horrie Clover - 1929 Griffiths Black Crow series - Source: Australian Football Cards

The Football Record

Source Photos for the Football Record

During the 1930’s, the VFL's Football Record pulled its photos from a variety of sources. The Football Record reused the same photos, sometimes for ten years, which meant that the photos in the Football Record each year could come from a variety of sources. This website includes pages dedicated to the photos in the Football Record in particular years. Please use those pages for complete details.

The focus here is the Football Record in the period 1929-32. The Football Record sourced photos from both the 1928 Weekly Times series, and the 1929 Australasian series. No examples have been found of the 1929 Weekly Times series being used.

1928 Weekly Times

1928 Weekly Times
• H. Mathews St Kilda
• Ted Poole Hawthorn
• Frank Gallagher Richmond

1929 Australasian

Most of the Football Record's photos (of individual players) originating in team photos are from the 1929 Australasian series of team photos. A quick list would include the following:

Carlton	Alex Doyle, Frank Gill, Colin Martyn, Fred Gilby, Jack Green, Joe Kelly
Richmond	Cyril Lilburne, Stan Judkins, C.Watson, Jack Titus, Bill Benton, Bert Foster
Hawthorn	B Lunn (Hawthorn, but from the Richmond photo), A.E Chadwick, A.Chandler
Melbourne	Bill Tymms, Ray Usher, Frank Vine
St Kilda	Bill Mohr
Geelong	Arthur Coghlan, Keppel , R. Lancaster
Essendon	Keith Forbes
Footscray	Alby Morrison
South Melbourne	Austin Robertson

Bill Mohr's 1929 Australasian photo appears in the Football Record, 1930 Round 9 (p.13), and again nine years later in a 1939 Finals edition (week three, p.19).
A few examples demonstrate the link:



Five of the Carlton player photos appearing in the 1929 Football Record have been lifted from the 1929 Australasian photo. Note the breeze catching the collars.

Round 13 p.7	Finals, week three, p.7	Round 15 p.13
Round 17 p.13	Finals, week three, p.13

Two of the South Melbourne player photos illustrate the match to the 1929 Australasian South Melbourne photo.




The unpublished 1929 Fitzroy photo again demonstrates the same usage (as the 1929 Australasian photos) as at least five photos in the Football Record are sourced from this photo.

VFL Football Record 1929 Round 16 p.13 J Moriarty	VFL Football Record 1930 Round 1 p.13 Arthur Batchelor	VFL Football Record 1930 Round 3 p.11 Colin Niven
VFL Football Record 1932 Round 5 p.12 - Cecil Kerr	VFL Football Record 1929 Round 10 p.13 J Cashman

Football Record photos appearing elsewhere

The link between the Australasian/Weekly Times photos and the VFL Football Record can be further demonstrated by matching the Football Record photos to the Suburban Premium/Godfrey Phillips football cards.

Confirming Existing Relationships

The Football Record and Godfrey Phillips
• Harry Clarke
• Albert Collier
• Gordon Coventry
• Colin Martyn
• Basil McCormack
• Keith Forbes
• Bill Cubbins
• Haydn Bunton
• Garnet Campbell
• Bill Cubbins
• Alan Hopkins
• Horrie Mason
• George Rudolph
• Gordon Strang
• George Todd

The Football Record and Suburban Premium
• Bill Russ

North Melbourne's 1930-31 captain Johnny Lewis had the same image used in the Football Record, the 1932 Godfrey Phillips card, and the Suburban Premium series. Again, this demonstrates the links between these series.

John Lewis - Godfrey Phillips card 1932

1926-28 VFL Suburban Premium - Johnny Lewis

VFL Football Record 1930 Round 9 p.1 Johnny Lewis

Other Relationships

1926 Craig and Hales Footballers and Racehorses
Apart from the relationships identified above, a few other relationships can be found relating to the VFL Football Record of the early thirties. Although the original source is unknown, many of the Football Record's images also appeared in the 1926 Craig and Hales Footballers and Racehorses cards.

Bob Johnson - 1926 Craig and Hales Footballers and Racehorses	Joe Kelly - 1926 Craig and Hales Footballers and Racehorses	Cyril Gambetta - 1926 Craig and Hales Footballers and Racehorses
VFL Football Record 1931 Round 15 p.16 - Bob Johnson	VFL Football Record 1929 Round 9 p.13 Joe Kelly	VFL Football Record 1931 Round 1 p.11 - Cyril Gambetta

Finally, the popular 1933 Wills cigarette card series shares a number of images that appeared in either the Football Record or the 1932 Godfrey Phillips series, pointing to a possible link.
The Football Record and 1933 Wills
• Alex Duncan - 1929 Football Record image, 1932 Godfrey Phillips card, and 1933 Wills card are all the same
• Jack Baggot - 1929 Football Record image and 1933 Wills card are the same
• Frank Murphy Collingwood - AFL record 1930 Victoria v Subiaco p13 Frank Murphy and 1933 Wills card are the same
• Peter Reville South Melbourne - AFL record 1929 Round 4 p13 P Reville, 1933 Wills card and 1932 Godfrey Phillips card are all the same
• Frank Seymour Northcote - AFL record 1931 VFL v VFL p24 Frank Seymour and 1933 Wills card are the same

Peter Reville - 1932 Godfrey Phillips Card - Source: Australian Football Cards

AFL record 1929 Round 4 p13 P Reville

Peter Reville - 1933 Wills Large Size - Source: Australian Football Cards

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