Tasmanian Football Association 1881 Season Pictorial Record

Football had a major innovation in the colony with the first Intercolonial matches played. The Launceston Football organized the first Intercolonial matches in Tasmania. VFA Club Hotham visited Tasmania and played matches against a northern team in Launceston and then a match in Hobart on July 6. Hotham defeated the northern team in Launceston 4.19 to 0.2. A major success was the victory of the Southern Tasmanian team against Hotham on Tuesday July 5. Railway won its first premiership in the third season of the Tasmanian Football Association. Railway then defeated Northern premier team City in a match that was considered as the premiership of the Island. This was the first time that such a match was played in Tasmania. Over 40 photographs and 100 player profiles make this the most pictorial record of the 1881 Tasmanian Football Season published to date. The early years of Association football in Tasmania have been little published. They should be recognised as the foundation years of football in Tasmania. This series of publications is the result of research to collect and collate the details of the seasons in the first years of organised football competition in Tasmania. These important seasons established Australian Rules football as an integral part of the sporting landscape of Tasmania. It has become very evident that the passion and fervour experienced now as players and followers of the game, was familiar to those connected with the game in this foundation era. The features of the game, attendances and interest in the game, made football a very significant feature of the sporting communities of Tasmania at the time. It is hoped that these publications make an addition to the documentation of these pioneering early years of football in Tasmania.