With the recent change to the criteria of the McClelland Trophy, I have recently investigated the history and evolution of the award through time. It has an interesting history from the conception of the award to the changes it has faced to make it endurant.
The initiative of the McClelland Trophy started in 1950, when a suggestion was made to the VFL to create a “club championship” to attract more attention to the second and third grade games. The system of the VFL at the time consisted of each club having a senior team, reserve team and a thirds team (Under-19s). This system allowed clubs to develop local talent in their minor teams before playing them in the seniors which was identical to the structure of the Victorian Cricket Association (VCA), along with many other aspects of the game.
As the first wave of momentum to codify a variation of football with the Melbourne Rules (evolved into Victorian Rules, and later Australian Rules) started with the intention of keeping cricketers physically fit during the winter, the Aussie sporting calendar became football in the winter and cricket in the summer.
Along with that, the identity of each local cricket club was replicated by having a nearly identical football club with the same name, colours and mascot. Currently in the Victorian Premier Cricket Competition, all of the historical 13 VFL Clubs have an identical history and identity to an existing cricket club counterpart in this league as well as three clubs from the Victorian Football Association (VFA).
Hawthorn won the McClelland Trophy in 2024. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
At the current time, the secretary of the Essendon District Football League (EDFL) suggested to the VFL to introduce an identical club championship to reward the best performing club overall. With the requirements of the winning club to have consistent positive performance across all teams, productivity of the club’s system and culture was emphasised from senior to lower divisions. The thirds division started in 1946 with seven of the 12 VFL clubs fielding a team; by 1947, 11 of the 12 clubs had a thirds team leaving Collingwood as the sole club without a thirds team. Collingwood was hesitant to join because they had their own schoolboy’s competition. To keep the number of teams even, the VFL permitted a series of additional teams in the competition including the Essendon Doutta Stars (1947 and 1948), Trans-Tasman Airlines (1949), and Richmond Juniors (1950) because of Richmond Junior Football League dissolving. Lastly, Collingwood launched their thirds side for the 1951 season making it a full thirds league. Now having three full divisions, the VFL saw an opportunity for stakeholders to be more engaged with the junior sides.
In the lead-up to the 1951 VFL Season with all 12 clubs now competing in all three divisions, the board unanimously approved of the suggestion for a club championship and decided to name it after the current president, Dr William Caldwell McClelland, and therefore established the Dr W.C. McClelland Trophy, or as it is more commonly known as simply the McClelland Trophy.
The original format of the trophy consisted of the league awarding each club five points for a win in the firsts division, two for a seconds win and one for a thirds win. If a game is drawn, half of the allocated points will go to each team. This is to demonstrate the emphasis on the higher divisions while maintaining the expectation of the winning team to have a successful firsts, seconds, and thirds teams across the board. This was successful in creating an interest in the minor grades like the VCA. In the beginning of the 1954 season, the VFL changed the system to award ten points for a firsts win, four for a seconds win and two for a thirds win to avoid allocating thirds teams half a point in the event of a draw. This format stayed the same until the end of the 1990 season.
The 1980s and 90s saw the VFL expand heavily interstate to other areas of the country and become the AFL. To maintain that each club has an equal opportunity to recruit talent, the AFL abolished their reserves and thirds competitions. The reserves competition was replaced by the state leagues and the thirds competition was replaced by a brand-new Victorian Under-19s competition with new clubs representing localities. Because of these changes, as well as West Coast and Brisbane not fielding a side in the minor leagues, they changed the criteria for the McClelland Trophy to be awarded to the team that finished on top of the ladder at the end of the home and away season, what is more commonly known as the minor premiership.
AFL CEO Andrew Dillon. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
With the AFL Women’s league beginning in 2017 with eight teams, expanding to 18 teams by 2023, the AFL again changed the criteria of the McClelland Trophy. This time the winner was to be the team with the most aggregate points across both the men’s and women’s Premiership, with a men’s win being worth four points and a women’s win being worth eight points as they play half the season compared to the men’s league. As well as that, the winner of this prize was awarded $1 million, thus giving the award a monetary incentive for the first time in the award’s history. This initiative was to create more investment in the AFLW from existing AFL fans, as the cash prize would benefit the club entirely. This is consistent with the original purpose of the award, however, this time, the league was acknowledging the two leagues as equals rather than a hierarchy.
The fourth change of the criteria came this year which will take consideration of the teams’ rankings after the finals series rather than before it. This emphasises the importance of maintaining your ranking and presenting the best version of the club when it comes to September.
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It is saying that despite a successful home and away season, any team that can’t play until the last weekend of September, is a team that should be forgotten in history. In the past ten years, from the teams that have finished fifth-eighth in the home and away season, we have had eleven preliminary finalists, four grand finalists and two premiers. The AFLW has only been using the final eight system for three seasons now; however, every season a team has qualified for a preliminary final from the lower four sides as well.
This is the first time since the inception of the award that finals games will be put into consideration. It’s another indication of the further evolvement of the game.
