There was a shortage of both players and grounds and attendances dropped. Public opinion was divided about whether football should be played at all while thousands of Australians, including well known footballers, fought and died on battlegrounds overseas. Clubs went out of the competition, and all but University returned. Players left and came back. Seasons were as short as 12 rounds and varied in length each year. Administrators argued and then resolved their differences and money went toward the war effort. Governments informed the decision-making of the hierarchy as to whether to play or not to play. Sign up to our Coronavirus Update newsletter Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter here and The Age's here. Australia's involvement in WW1 began in August 1914 and soon after 20,000 troops were promised to England however the VFL completed their season. Inevitably the subject of whether football should continue became a matter for discussion leading into and throughout 1915 with University no longer part of the competition.

In July 1915 The Australasian started its football report with a sentence full of foreboding: "The week's rain and the news from the seat of war killed all real enthusiasm in the day's proceedings." Loading In 1916, as the situation overseas deteriorated, the debate became even more heated as to whether games were necessary. The VFL said if the 1916 season continued no payments would be made to players and a percentage of gate takings would be paid to war funds. Bruce Coe, who co-authored with Bruce Kennedy No Umpires in This Game: The VFL during two world wars, said the main impediment to playing during The Great War was the availability of quality players.

"All the leagues were shutting down. They were sending players overseas regularly," Coe said. By March that year the VFL decided to construct a season with more than half of the clubs deciding not to take part. Only Fitzroy, Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond would continue playing during 1916 in a competition lasting 12 rounds and finals. Fitzroy finished bottom with two wins but qualified for finals, turning around their form to win the flag. "There were arguments about giving the opportunity to people who could not go to the war because they had been rejected and were in essential services something to do on Saturday afternoons and to give them a couple of hours respite from the worries of war," Coe said. "All those clubs that continued were pushing money into the war effort. They were playing as amateurs."

Recruiting calls were held at games and in 1917 a bye occurred so August 4 could be a recruiting day and recruiting carnivals were held as the conscription debate raged. Loading The VFL kept winning the argument to play and Collingwood and South Melbourne added flags in 1918 with the VFL continuing unabated in 1919 during the spanish flu pandemic. Australia entered WW2 on the eve of the 1939 finals but it wasn't until 1942 that discontinuing the competition became real as the government began to control how resources were used. With the MCG becoming known as Camp Murphy to house troops and South Melbourne's ground suddenly unavailable after the schedule was released, adaptability was needed from both clubs and administrators.

In March 1942 the VFL eventually decided to run a wartime competition without Geelong, who struggled to get a team to Melbourne because of petrol rationing and therefore stood out of the VFL in 1942 and 1943. The Brownlow medal was temporarily suspended too and not awarded again until 1946. And the finals were played at Princes Park (now Ikon Park) and Junction Oval during that period with the 1945 bloodbath grand final part of football folklore. Player transfer rules were made more flexible too with clubs having the capacity to grab available Geelong players temporarily. The VFL secretary 'Like' McBrien said "it was not the intention of the League to play football on a normal basis". Although crowds had declined by about 30 per cent by midway through 1942, with grounds on cheap tram routes unavailable, and earlier starting times affecting the capacity of shift workers to get to games, the game served its purpose as a temporary distraction. As the death toll rose, players and clubs expressed the sense of meaningless surrounding the season but by March 1944 the VFL committee was considering post-war plans as light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Coe said the situation facing the game now is different with patriotism the driver of debates during the wars compared to today's revenue and public health concerns but like the game did during the post-war period he expected football to rebound post-coronavirus.