Australian rules football schism (1938–1949)

The original proposal put forward by the rules committee had gone significantly further. Additional rules which were put forward in 1938, but were rejected by the club delegates, were:

• Reducing the number of players in the run-on team from 18 to 16, to open up more space on the field and reduce congestion. It was envisioned that the ruck and ruck-rover would be the positions eliminated.[11] This change was defeated by a single vote, with six clubs in favour and six clubs opposed.[10]
• Replacing the centre bounce with a kick-off from twenty yards behind the centre-line by the team which had just been scored upon. This rule was included amongst the original proposals because, had the rucks and ruck-rovers been removed from the run-on team, it was felt that it would no longer make sense to retain the traditional centre bounce; and it was thought that faster restarts from a kick-off could enhance the game as a tactical spectacle.[11] Once the proposal to reduce the number of players had been rejected, this rule change was summarily rejected.[10]
• As part of the rules to re-introduce boundary throw-ins, it was proposed that only two players from each team – the rover and the nearest-placed positional player – be permitted to contest the throw-in, with the umpire directing other players away, in order to reduce the potential for scrimmages to form at the contest.[11] When the reduction in the number of players was defeated, the boundary throw-in rule was amended to remove this aspect of the proposal.[10]
• Awarding three points if the ball hits the goal post, instead of the standard one point.[11]
• Giving umpires the power to order players off to control rough play.[26]

Give the Association throw-pass to a team of 18 experts and the crowd will never stop roaring from bell to bell. The game would be played with the speed of an ice hockey match and the precision of a chess match.

— Future Hall of Fame sportswriter Hector de Lacy, The Sporting Globe[27]

Observers of the new rules quickly lauded them for having their intended effects of speeding up the game, reducing congestion and making the rules easier to police consistently.[28] The Australasian sportswriter Reginald Wilmot (writing under his pseudonym Old Boy) noted that the rules helped to reward the ball-winner, compared with the old holding the ball rules which favoured the tackler.[29] Many pundits had been worried that throw-passing would lead to a reduction in long kicking and high marking, but noted that in practice, throw-passes were seldom over a distance greater than ten yards, and long kicking remained prominent.[30][31] VFL champion player and coach Dan Minogue lauded the boundary throw-in rule as encouraging more contested football near the boundary line, rather than seeing players content to watch the ball roll out of bounds knowing that they would receive a free kick.[18] Port Adelaide secretary Charles Hayter commented that by encouraging more play along the boundary lines, the rules brought the action closer to the spectators. Several players liked that the reduced number of scrimmages would reduce the risk of injury,[32] and a reduction in rough play and thuggery was noted.[33]

Any mug can throw a ball. Bunton is a champion, and he is never in difficulties in disposing of the ball, and the standard of efficiency of players must be increased rather than that the code be altered to meet a lower standard of play.

— WANFL and future ANFC president Walter Stooke at the 1938 ANFC conference, The Argus[34]

Not all were convinced about the merits of the rules, particularly the throw-pass, after seeing them in action. Many were still concerned that over time the ease of throwing the ball would reduce long kicking and high marking. Champion North Adelaide full-forward Ken Farmer feared that in the extreme case it could result in a game played by seventeen basketballers and a full-forward.[32] Several observers thought the rule made the game too easy, and while that catered well to VFA players, the higher standard of players in the top state leagues could be equally effective with a traditional handpass or flick-pass as they could be with a throw-pass.[34] South Australian sportswriter Steve McKee feared that allowing the throw-pass would rob the game of its individuality, which could affect its ability to compete with and distinguish itself from rival sports in the long term; and that the game would become dominated by smaller, faster players, making it impossible for larger or slower players to have a successful top level career.[35] Wilmot lamented that the agility and evasion displayed by VFL players to avoid tackles was largely absent from the VFA code, with players instead able to execute a simple throw to avoid a tackle.[33] Some observers saw the reduction in rough play as a disadvantage of the new code rather than an advantage, dismissing the VFA code as a "sissy" version of Australian rules football.[36]

A statistical analysis of the 1938 VFA Grand Final between Brunswick and Brighton was published and compared with the averages from ten VFL matches around the same time to illustrate the effect that the rule changes had on making the game more non-stop. It confirmed that the number of kicks had remained steady or even increased as a result of the changes, with a total of 650 kicks and 173 marks recorded in the VFA Grand Final compared with an average of 596 kicks and 160 marks in the VFL matches. It also showed that the ability to throw the ball had more than doubled the use of handpassing, with a total of 160 throw-passes recorded in the VFA Grand Final compared with only 76 handpasses in the VFL games;[37] this extent of handpassing was unheard of under the ANFC rules, and it was not until the 1979 VFL season more than four decades later that VFL matches would average so many handpasses per game.[38] There were only six ball-ups in the VFA Grand Final, and 38 boundary throw-ins.[37] The average score per team per game increased by almost three goals, from 84.7 to 100.5, in the first season under throw-pass rules.

Crowds at VFA games enjoyed a substantial increase under throw-pass rules. Across the first ten rounds of 1938, the average attendance at VFA games was 3,600, compared with 2,400 for the corresponding rounds in 1937.[7] Another 22% increase in crowds was enjoyed in 1939, and club memberships likewise increased.[39] The VFA took advantage of this new found interest by extending the season from sixteen games to twenty in 1939, moving the Grand Final to the Saturday after the VFL Grand Final and securing the Melbourne Cricket Ground as its venue; with a larger venue and no VFL counter-attraction, the 1939 VFA Grand Final between Brunswick and Williamstown attracted the all-time VFA record attendance of 47,098, despite drizzly weather.[33] Many clubs enjoyed record home crowds over the next few years.[40][41][42] Despite the increased crowds, overall attendances were still only about a quarter of those attracted by the VFL, which averaged between 15,000 and 16,000 to home-and-away games in 1938 and 1939.[6]

The new rules generated the interest of other competitions, and to promote its new code, VFA teams played exhibition matches, including in Geelong, Camperdown and Frankston.[43][44] An important match between Camberwell and a composite team of the South Australian Amateur Football League (which usually played League rules) was played in August 1938 at the Adelaide Oval to give South Australian officials the opportunity to see the new rules in action.[45]

Several small competitions in Victoria, usually the secondary competitions in their district, followed the VFA's lead and adopted the throw-pass rules for the 1938 season, even before seeing them in action: these included the Sale District Football Association,[46] the VFA Sub-Districts Association,[47] and the Bendigo Football Association.[48] Interest in the new code spread, and by 1939 the Bairnsdale and Bruthen District League[49] and the Hume Highway Football Association[50] had adopted the rules. The Yallourn District Amateur Association had adopted the rules by 1941.[51] Many other leagues held votes to determine whether or not to switch codes. More significantly, many of Victoria's schools associations also adopted the VFA's rules over its first few years, giving the new code a strong development ground for the future: the Secondary Schools adopted them in 1938,[52] the Technical Schools adopted them in 1939 and the Public Schools adopted them in 1940.[53]

The new rules also gained penetration in Tasmania, particularly in North West Tasmania. Tasmanian administrators had long advocated introducing throwing the ball, having unsuccessfully raised the motion at several ANFC meetings since 1911,[14][54][55] so that there was interest in the new code in Tasmania was natural. The first competition there to adopt them was the North Western Football Association, the second-tier competition on Tasmania's north-western coast, which adopted the rules halfway through the 1938 season.[15] It was a boon to the NWFA, and in 1939 its size increased from five clubs to nine. The smaller nearby Wilmot and Chudleigh Football Associations also adopted the new rules,[56] and a motion in 1940 to adopt the rules in the Darwin Football Association, also based in North West Tasmania, failed by a single vote.[57] However, North West Tasmania's preeminent senior competition, the North West Football Union, remained loyal to the national code.

In October 1938, the ANFC met and discussed whether or not to alter the national rules to incorporate the VFA's changes. The motion to legalise the throw-pass nationally was once again raised by Tasmania, but it again lapsed after no other state would second it. The delegates from New South Wales and Canberra were concerned that the change would make the game unable to distinguish itself from the rival rugby codes which were popular in their regions; and Victoria and Western Australia were strongly opposed, believing it would take the difficulty and skill out of the game; South Australia, which had expressed favour for the throw-pass, also declined to second the motion, preferring to see the rule in action in the VFA for at least another year before making a commitment.[34]

At the same conference in October 1938, the ANFC agreed to adopt two of the VFA's other key rules which had a significant effect on gameplay: altering the holding the ball rule to eliminate the provision for a player to drop the ball when tackled; and re-introducing the boundary throw-in whenever the ball went out of bounds, except when put out deliberately.[58] Both rule changes have become fundamental to modern Australian rules football: the modern holding the ball rule, as it applies to a player who has had an opportunity to dispose of the ball prior to being tackled, is practically unchanged from the 1939 interpretation; and other than the introduction in 1970 of a free kick for kicking out of bounds on the full, the boundary throw-in rule remains unchanged.

The rules the VFA had introduced to curb rough or time-wasting play were not immediately adopted by the ANFC, but were adopted over the following decades. The ANFC adopted the downfield free kick into its rules in 1945,[59] and it adopted the fifteen-yard penalty for time-wasting or cribbing over the mark in 1954;[60] both rules remain part of modern football, except that the distance of the fifteen-yard penalty was extended to fifty metres in 1988.[61]

The change to the out of bounds rule in the national code is often considered to have brought an end to the era of dominant full-forwards which had existed during the 1930s: century goalkickers such as Gordon Coventry and Bob Pratt in the VFL, Frank Seymour in the VFA, Ken Farmer in South Australia and George Doig in Western Australia had been common during the 1930s, but were decidedly less common over the next thirty years, generally put down to the fact that play could be more safely directed along the boundary lines, bringing the forward pockets and half forward flankers into play and resulting in a wider spread of goalkickers.[62]

In spite of this, the four VFA seasons played between 1939 and 1945 under throw-pass rules featured some of the most dominant goalkicking displays by full forwards in the game's history. George Hawkins (Prahran) won the 1939 goalkicking title with 164 goals; Ted Freyer (Port Melbourne) won the 1940 title with 157 goals; Bob Pratt (Coburg) won the 1941 title with 183 goals; and Ron Todd (Williamstown) won the 1945 title with 188 goals – all of which exceeded the then-record of 152 goals set under national rules by George Doig in 1934.[63] Many other high totals were recorded in those four seasons. Sportswriters noted that Freyer's dominance in 1940 came from Port Melbourne adopting a straight-down-the-middle style of play in spite of changed boundary rules,[64] but it was surmised that the sheer skill of those particular forwards playing in the much lower standard VFA teams, particularly the war-weakened teams from 1940 until 1945, was a major contributor to their dominance.[65][66] These historic goalkicking feats were confined to those four seasons; outside that period, the most goals scored in a VFA season during the throw-pass era was 114, by Todd in 1946.

Within any given football competition, a player wishing to switch to a new club was required to obtain a clearance from his old club and a permit from the league's permit committee; the competition could enforce these transfer rules by issuing fines to or docking premiership points from clubs who fielded players without a valid clearance. However, these rules were inherently enforceable only within the same competition; to make a permit and clearance system enforceable between different competitions, separate legal agreements were needed between them under which each competition agreed to penalise its own clubs if they fielded players from the other competition without a clearance. Amongst the major state leagues, the ANFC provided a framework for permit reciprocity agreements as a condition of affiliation; but, since the VFA was not ANFC-affiliated, a separate agreement was needed between the VFA and VFL if clearances were to be recognised between them. Permit reciprocity was not always in the best interests of both competitions, and so such agreements had existed on-and-off between them for the previous few decades: one such agreement lasted from 1913 until 1918; the next was signed in 1923,[68] and was broken in early 1925 as part of the competitions' 1925 expansions;[69] and the agreement that was current at the start of the schism had been signed in 1931. The 1931 agreement was more extensive than simply covering permit reciprocity; it was intended to foster co-operation between the two competitions, and provide somewhat unified control of football in Victoria.[8]

On 15 November 1937, the VFA voted to end the 1931 agreement. The VFA recognised that it would be impractical to maintain a unified control agreement if it were playing under such different rules. The VFA had also grown frustrated with what it saw as a lack of assistance from the VFL, particularly as the VFA had been struggling in 1936 and 1937, when it felt that the agreement compelled the VFL to make its best endeavours to help – although the VFL, in its defence, was having its own difficulties at the same time. Overall, the VFA felt that it would be better able to manage its own interests if not bound by the agreement.[8] With the agreement terminated, clubs now had the freedom to recruit players from the VFL to the VFA, and vice versa, without clearances and would have no fear of legal recourse.

The situation was different for players. A player who crossed without a clearance was in breach of his contract with his original league, as the contract prohibited playing in any other football competition in Victoria without a clearance; this clause was valid regardless of whether or not a permit reciprocity agreement existed between those competitions. Both the VFA and the VFL gave three-year suspensions to any of their players who crossed to their rival without a clearance,[70] but these suspensions were valid only in the original competition and did not prevent the player from playing and earning money at his new club. In practice, this meant that a player could switch competitions freely, but that as long as the schism persisted it would almost certainly be a permanent switch, as his suspension would prevent him from returning unless he stood out of all football for three years. The VFL considered its legal options to seek further injunctions against players who crossed to the VFA without a clearance; but it was not certain that the relevant clause in the contract would hold up in court, and decided not to proceed with legal action.[67]

Although players were permitted to cross without a clearance, not all transfers occurred in this manner, particularly in the first years of the schism; nevertheless, the changes gave players a stronger bargaining chip in negotiations. If a player demonstrated a willingness to accept a VFL suspension by crossing to the VFA without a clearance, then it was in his VFL club's best interests to grant the clearance in the hope that he might later return, rather than allow him to take a suspension which would prevent that from occurring.[71] Not all clubs followed this pragmatic approach: South Melbourne, for example, made a point of refusing clearances to players unless they had given the club ten years of service,[72] and it consequently lost many players without clearances. Many players still sought clearances, as they were keen to keep their options to return to the VFL open, and some turned down big VFA offers if their clearances weren't granted; Jack Dyer, for example, was denied a clearance to Yarraville in 1940, and he opted not to cross without a clearance because he harboured ambitions to return to be playing-coach of Richmond.[73]

There could be lucrative financial incentives for star players to cross from the VFL to the VFA. VFL payment laws (known as "the Coulter Laws") were very prescriptive, limiting match payments to £4 per match;[74] and prohibiting the payment of lump sums either as inducements for players, or to their clubs to secure clearances.[75] The VFA had no such limitations. Additionally, some clubs, such as Collingwood, had strict internal policies to pay all players equally, making it impossible for star VFL players to negotiate for higher pay even within the limitations of the Coulter Laws.[71] This meant that VFA clubs had the ability to recruit a small number of the VFL's best players by offering much more than they could or would be offered in the VFL, and it was this which drew some of the game's star players to the new code.

The end of the agreement also gave VFA players the freedom to cross to the VFL. A capable rank-and-file player would earn more in base player payments under the Coulter Laws than he would earn in the VFA, if he could command a regular senior place in the VFL. However, players who switched without a clearance risked being stuck in the VFL seconds with no ability to return to the VFA seniors if they weren't good enough for regular senior selection. Andy Angwin was the first player to transfer to the VFL without a clearance, switching from Port Melbourne to Hawthorn in 1938.[76]

VFL superstars Laurie Nash, Bob Pratt, Ron Todd and Des Fothergill all crossed without clearances to play throw-pass football in the VFA.

The VFA's new code gained significant publicity and credibility when it was able to convince VFL players, including some of the best players of the era and even some club captains, to defect. There were four particularly significant transfers involving superstar players:

• Laurie Nash (South Melbourne to Camberwell in 1938): Nash was the first VFL player to announce that he would switch for big money without a clearance, doing so at the start of 1938 for £8 per week, double the payments allowed by the Coulter Laws; also a former Test cricketer and star fast bowler at district level, Nash earned £3 per week during summer to play sub-district cricket for Camberwell as part of the deal, at a time when no player would have been paid such a sum to play cricket at such a low level.[77][78] An enormous recruiting coup for the VFA, Nash was a dominant key-position player at both ends of the ground, and many observers and opponents at the time considered him the greatest footballer of his era.[79][80][81] Aged 27 when he transferred, Nash was still in the prime of his career. He played with Camberwell for four seasons from 1938 until 1941; he finished second in both the Recorder Cup and V.F.A. Medal in 1939, and across his career with Camberwell kicked 418 goals in 74 games, including 141 goals in 1940.
• Bob Pratt (South Melbourne to Coburg in 1940): Pratt was one of the VFL's dominant and most spectacular marking full-forwards of the early 1930s, and was considered the best full-forward of his time by many of his contemporaries.[82][83][84][85] As of 2015 he still jointly holds the record for most goals in a VFL season (150 goals in 1934), and he was one of the inaugural legends of the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Pratt walked out on South Melbourne at the end of 1939; he sought a clearance to VFL club Carlton in 1940,[86] and when it was refused he transferred to Coburg without a clearance. Aged 27 at the time of his transfer, he played at Coburg for two seasons until the war. He played 40 games and kicked 263 goals for Coburg, and led the VFA with a then-record 183 goals in the 1941 season.
• Ron Todd (Collingwood to Williamstown in 1940): Todd had established himself as Collingwood's full-forward at the age of 22 in 1938 after the retirement of long-time full forward Gordon Coventry, and he was VFL's leading goalkicker in 1938 and 1939, kicking 120 and 121 goals respectively. A spectacular aerialist with a strong lead, and accurate with both snap shots and long set shots for goal, Todd was an exciting drawcard for Collingwood. Laurie Nash and Dick Reynolds both rated Todd as second only to Pratt as the greatest full forwards they had ever seen.[82][83] He signed with Williamstown at the start of 1940 and crossed without a clearance; at the age of 23, he was the highest-paid footballer in Australia, earning a reported £500 flat and £5 per week for a three-year deal, more than ten times his wage at Collingwood.[87] Todd became a significant drawcard for Williamstown, drawing ground record crowds and a substantial increase in memberships for the club. He played the remainder of his career with Williamstown until his retirement at the end of 1949. He kicked 672 goals for Williamstown in 141 matches, and kicked an all-time VFA season record 188 goals in the 1945 season. His departure from Collingwood was the most acrimonious transfer of the throw-pass era, severely damaging his legacy and reputation at the club for more than sixty years.[88]
• Des Fothergill (Collingwood to Williamstown in 1941). A young goalkicking midfielder and half-forward, Fothergill had been a joint winner of the VFL's Brownlow Medal in 1940, polling a then-record 32 votes. Aged only 20, he crossed to Williamstown without a clearance at the beginning of 1941,[71] and dominated the competition, winning the Recorder Cup and VFA Medal with 62 votes – a record number of votes which was never broken in Division 1. Fothergill had signed with Williamstown until the end of 1944, but due to the war played there only in 1941.[89]

Other notable VFL players to switch to the VFA, with or without clearances, were:

• Harry Vallence (Carlton to Williamstown in 1939). Vallence played with Carlton for more than a decade and kicked 722 career goals, which stood as a club record until the 1990s. He first sought a clearance to serve as playing coach of Williamstown at the start of 1938, having been offered double what he could have earned under the Coulter Laws, but Carlton refused to clear him and Vallence opted to stay for another year.[90] He obtained a clearance the following year.[91] Aged 33 when he transferred, Vallence was still a strong player, was Williamstown's leading goalkicker from full forward for the following three years, and kicked 337 goals in 61 games.[92] The presence of Vallence at full forward and Todd at centre half-forward in the same Williamstown team was a huge drawcard for the club in 1940 and 1941. Vallence played for Brighton after the war.[93]
• Ted Freyer (Essendon to Port Melbourne in 1938) – a forward pocket for Essendon, Freyer had played 124 games and kicked 372 goals for Essendon. He crossed to Port Melbourne without a clearance, and was the first player to formally receive his VFA permit without a VFL clearance (Nash had been the first player to announce his move, but Freyer was the first to have it formalised).[94] He was Port Melbourne's dominant forward for the next four years, kicking 484 goals in 84 games, and twice winning the VFA goalkicking.
• Tommy Lahiff (Essendon to Port Melbourne in 1938) – Lahiff had played for Port Melbourne from 1930 to 1934, then played for Essendon for three years. He was appointed Port Melbourne playing coach in 1938, and was granted a clearance after indicating he would cross whether the clearance was granted or not.[95]
• Jack Titus (Richmond to Coburg in 1945) – Titus kicked 970 goals over eighteen seasons as a small forward at Richmond. At age 37, he was cleared to Coburg, where he played two seasons and kicked 119 goals.
• Terry Brain (South Melbourne to Camberwell in 1938) – a ten-year rover for South Melbourne during its successful period in the 1930s, Brain had initially retired at the end of 1937, but then decided to play for Camberwell in 1938.[96] Brain was cleared by South Melbourne.[97]
• Geoff Mahon (Geelong to Prahran in 1941) – a ruckman who had played 69 games in five seasons for Geelong, Mahon crossed to Prahran without a clearance in 1941.[98]
• Herbie Matthews (South Melbourne to Oakleigh in 1946) – a follower who had played fourteen seasons with South Melbourne and tied with Des Fothergill for the 1940 Brownlow Medal. Matthews was cleared to Oakleigh as playing coach at age 32 in 1946 and served there for two seasons.[99][100]
• Gordon Ogden (Melbourne to Williamstown in 1939) – a ten-year back pocket for Melbourne who had spent 1938 in the country, Ogden was cleared to Williamstown as captain-coach in 1939 and served in the position until 1941.[92]
• Bill Faul (South Melbourne to Prahran in 1939) – seven-year half-backman who had finished second in the 1932 Brownlow Medal, Faul crossed to Prahran as captain-coach without a clearance in 1939.[101] He went on to coach a then-record 313 senior VFA games with Prahran, Northcote and Moorabbin.
• Austin Robertson, Sr. (South Melbourne/Perth to Port Melbourne in 1940) – a thirteen-year senior key position player for South Melbourne, West Perth and Perth, Robertson had been located in Western Australia with his employer since 1937.[102] Upon his return to Victoria, it was expected that he would return to South Melbourne, to which he was still bound; but instead he signed with Port Melbourne for a reported £6 per week,[103] and crossed without a clearance from South Melbourne.[104]
• Alby Morrison (Footscray to Preston in 1939) – an eleven-year half-forward, third in the 1938 Brownlow Medal and, at the time, Footscray's leading VFL career goalkicker with 345 goals, Morrison went to Preston as playing coach with a clearance in 1939.[105] Morrison served there for two years before returning to Footscray in 1941.
• Allan Everett (Geelong to Preston in 1941) – Geelong's captain in 1940, Everett crossed to Preston in 1941 without a clearance.[106]
• Albert Collier (Collingwood to Camberwell in 1945) – the 1929 Brownlow Medallist and 1931 Leitch Medallist and six-time VFL premiership player with Collingwood, Collier was cleared to Camberwell[107] as captain-coach at age 35 upon the VFA's post-war resumption in 1945.[108] He led the club for two years, and took it to its most successful season in 1946 with a minor premiership and Grand Final appearance.
• Harry Collier (Essendon seconds to Camberwell in 1947) – brother of Albert, retrospective winner of the 1930 Brownlow Medal and also a six-time premiership player with Collingwood, Collier joined Camberwell as captain-coach at age 40 in mid-1947,[109] spending only the remainder of that season with the club.[110]
• Jim Bohan (Hawthorn to Camberwell in 1947) – after nine years at Hawthorn, where he represented Victoria and served as club captain for two years including in 1946, Bohan crossed to Camberwell without a clearance in 1947 and played there for seven years.[111]
• Jack Blackman (Hawthorn to Preston in 1947) – a centre half-back and Hawthorn's vice-captain in 1946, Blackman crossed to Preston as captain-coach without a clearance in 1947,[111] and went on to win the J. J. Liston Trophy in 1949.[112]

Nash, Pratt, Todd, Fothergill, Vallence, Titus, Matthews, both Collier brothers, and Roy Cazaly (who played a few games for Camberwell at age 48 while he was there as coach in 1941)[113] are all inductees in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, with Pratt and Cazaly recognised in the Legend category. Only in Todd's case is his VFA career acknowledged in his citation.[114]

Having created a new code of football which was being adopted by other bodies, the VFA took on the role as the governing body and administrator for the throw-pass code. Leagues which adopted the rules split from their traditional governing bodies and entered affiliations with the VFA, paying an affiliation fee for the privilege.[56] The NWFA, for example, ended its affiliation with the North Western Football Union in 1938 to enter an affiliation with the VFA;[142] and competitions in country Victoria were forced to leave their governing body, the Victorian Country Football League, to affiliate directly with the VFA.[143] In September 1946, the VFA was registered as an incorporated company, and it obtained a copyright of its code of rules.[144]

Despite the schism between the VFL and VFA, the two bodies still had a working relationship and collaborated on areas of mutual interest. For example, since 1934 the VFL and VFA had jointly sponsored and managed the Victorian Football Union, which was the administrative body for junior and suburban football leagues within metropolitan Melbourne, including managing permit and clearance arrangements;[145] and the two bodies continued that arrangement despite the schism.[146]

With the VFA and VFL refusing to recognise each other's permits, playing under different codes of rules, actively promoting their own codes, and operating under different player payment structures, Australian rules football was enduring a schism analogous to the divide which existed for a century, and from an on-field perspective still exists, between the league and union codes of Rugby football.

Even before the 1938 season began, the VFL, VFA and ANFC all recognised that operating under divided control and under substantially different codes of rules was not in the interests of Australian rules football as a whole. The lack of a united front made it difficult to effectively promote the game in New South Wales and Queensland – where rugby was more popular – or to defend Victoria from other football codes, particularly as the trafficking of players from one body by the other was undermining public opinion.[147] It was also recognised that unifying control by allowing the VFL to use its size and influence to push the VFA out of the market altogether was not in the interests of football, as the VFA served the functions of promoting football in Melbourne's outer suburbs, and in occupying those suburbs' best quality grounds to keep other sports from using them.[148] Even though it would almost certainly force it to give up the throw-pass which had driven its new popularity, the VFA was willing to negotiate towards a solution for unified control.[149]

The VFA and VFL began reunification discussions at the start of 1938,[150] and negotiations were ongoing throughout the schism – including during the World War II years when the VFA executive committee remained active in negotiation despite the competition being in recess onfield.

Early negotiations, and in particular the negotiations which took place from 1944 until 1945, focussed on a scheme under which the VFL and VFA would amalgamate into a single competition. The VFA stated on several occasions that it was prepared to "sink its identity" into the VFL if its clubs were given the opportunity to contest the Victorian senior premiership.[151] However, the two bodies never agreed to terms, with a number of sticking points preventing a compromise:

• Competition structure: the initial structure put forward by the VFA for an amalgamated competition in 1938 would have seen the establishment of two tiered divisions, with VFA to commence as a second division, and with promotion and relegation between them, such that the second division's top two clubs replaced the first division's bottom two clubs, but the VFL rejected the scheme;[151] a 1940 scheme proposed likewise, with only one team promoted and relegated each year, but also proposing a further third division incorporating teams from other sub-district competitions.[152] In 1944, the VFL offered a similar scheme in which the second division's top two clubs played off for promotion against the first division's bottom two clubs; but by this stage, the VFA favoured a system of complete amalgamation into a single league with a single premiership.[153]
• Zoning: a significant impediment to combining the competitions was the fact that VFL clubs had recruited players under a zoning/district scheme since 1915, whereas VFA clubs did not. Amalgamating the competitions would require significant re-alignment of zones to be agreed to by the VFL clubs; the VFL's zoning committee saw this as unachievable, particularly in places where VFA and VFL clubs were neighbouring, because VFL clubs had always been very protective of their zones.[152] In 1945, the VFL proposed an amalgamation in which the VFA would serve as the second eighteens competition for the VFL, which would have been workable within the existing zoning system; but the VFA was not willing to take on an amalgamation in which its clubs were not granted senior status.[154]
• Grounds standard: most VFA grounds were well short of VFL standard, and unless there were significant and expensive upgrades by all of the councils in VFA territory, this would be a serious impediment for any VFA club promoted to the top division.[155]
• Financial considerations: the smaller VFA clubs had weaker financial means and lower fanbases than the VFL clubs. VFL clubs were concerned that an amalgamation would weaken their own financial position, by reducing gate takings at matches played against a former VFA opponent, and by spreading more thinly the league's annual dividends[149] – indeed, this was a major motivation for the VFL's original secession from the VFA in 1897.
• Rules: the VFA was keen to incorporate as many of its own rules into an amalgamated competition, but the VFL was bound by its affiliation with the ANFC to play under the national rules.[149]

Although at times the VFL and VFA executive committees made progress on negotiations, both bodies required constitutional changes to be ratified by a vote of their club delegates; even if the committees had agreed to an amalgamation, there is no guarantee that the clubs would have voted in favour.[155]

As an alternative to amalgamation, it was thought that a new single control council could be established to manage football in Victoria, which would answerable to the ANFC and which would comprise delegates from the VFL and VFA as well as schools and junior competitions.[156] Another proposal, investigated in 1940, saw a VFL zoning sub-committee investigate a scheme to admit four to six of the VFA's twelve clubs; this scheme was reminiscent of the VFL's 1925 expansion, which would have seen the VFL admit the VFA's strongest clubs, leaving only the VFA's weaker clubs playing under the throw-pass code, which would have halted the new code's growth and possibly killed off the VFA altogether.[157] Nothing came of either scheme.

Although the Association's rules were played only by very small leagues in Tasmania after the war, they were still important in off-field control discussions during the late 1940s. Tasmania was represented on the ANFC by Hobart's Tasmanian Australian National Football League; but Launceston's Northern Tasmanian Football Association and the coastal North Western Football Union, which were leagues of similar standard, were dissatisfied with football being controlled from Hobart, and they sought to establish a statewide council to provide them with equal representation in control of football in Tasmania.[158] The fact that the NTFA and NWFU had a feasible option of switching their affiliation to the VFA, underpinned by the fact that the throw-pass code had enjoyed pre-war success in the NWFA, was used by the two greater northern leagues leverage when negotiating with the TANFL for united control in the late 1940s.[159] The northern leagues were ultimately unsuccessful in establishing a council, and did not follow through with their threat; the TANFL continued to serve as Tasmania's sole voice on the ANFC, although its relationship with the NTFA and NWFU improved in the early 1950s.[160]

Efforts to reunite control stagnated for a few years after 1945, but they were reinvigorated in 1948 by the ANFC. The ANFC had a revived enthusiasm for spreading Australian rules football to other parts of Australia and the world, as it saw a strong opportunity at that time to promote the game in the United States of America.[161] The ANFC and many of its delegates considered it very important that the VFL–VFA schism be ended and the control of football be unified to achieve these aims. ANFC president Walter Stooke called in 1948 upon the old adage that "a house divided against itself is easiest upset" when describing the importance of reunification.[162]

One of the overarching aims of the VFA throughout its negotiation was that it wanted to be represented in the control and administration of the game, and it had rejected solutions under which the VFL retained unilateral control in Victoria.[163] Under the new proposals put forward in 1948, the ANFC offered to grant the VFA a position on the ANFC executive. This new solution would force the VFA to adopt the national rules and permit reciprocity agreements, but would give the VFA the powers of control it desired, and allow it to remain independent from the VFL.

The proposal was first put forward to the VFA in late 1948, and although it was initially rejected – largely because the VFA wanted a full voting position on the council, which was not offered[164] – it began to herald the end of the schism. In March 1949, the VFA and VFL signed a new clearance reciprocity agreement, ending eleven seasons of player trafficking;[165] and by the end of the season, both the VFA and VFL had agreed to lift any active suspensions which players had received for switching codes without a clearance.[166] The ANFC and VFA continued to negotiate an affiliation agreement through the season, which included the ANFC offering the VFA a period of temporary trial affiliation to encourage it to join.[167] Finally, on 8 August, the VFA agreed to affiliate with the ANFC, with the motion succeeding by a vote of 18–7 at the VFA Board of Management.[166] Under the terms of the affiliation:

• The VFA received a seat on the council, which had full rights except that it could not vote on council matters. The Association delegate had full rights to raise motions and put forward its views relating to other motions – privileges which were not enjoyed by any other affiliated non-voting member of the ANFC.
• The VFA would need to abandon its own rules, including the throw-pass, and play under ANFC rules.
• The VFA would be beholden to the ANFC's reciprocal transfer agreements with interstate leagues.
• The VFA could send a representative team to play in interstate carnivals and other sanctioned interstate games, meaning that Victoria would be represented by separate VFL and VFA teams in these interstate competitions.
• The VFA would share the benefits of ANFC programs such as advertising, development programs, etc.
• As it had no vote, the VFA was not initially required to pay a levy to the ANFC.

The VFA began its affiliation and began playing under ANFC rules from the 1950 season, bringing an end to the schism. It began paying levies and contributing to ANFC funds from 1951. It still wanted a full voting position on the ANFC, but it could not initially be granted due to a stipulation in the ANFC constitution that no state could have more than one vote;[166] it began agitating for the necessary change to the constitution,[168] and was finally granted the vote in July 1953.[169] This gave the VFA a formal say in the control and administration of Australian football at the national level, and made Victoria the only state represented by two delegates on the council.