'The best game' says Conan Doyle

by Register Staff Writer

During a visit to Australia in 1920, famed writer Arthur Conan Doyle and his wife attended the 1920 VFL Grand final and liked what they saw, as the Register reported.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous author and lecturer, was much impressed with the league football match which he witnessed on Saturday [Richmond vs. Collingwood, VFL Grand Final] and he has the highest opinion of the merits of the Australian game (wrote The Melbourne Herald on Monday).

“I know something about football”, he said, “for I played Rugby for the Edinburgh University and soccer with the Hampshire team. I have also seen the best American football. I consider the Australian game is magnificent, and from the spectacular point of view it is probably the best of them all.”

× Left ▼ +

“I quite agree”, interpolated Lady Doyle, who is also keenly interested in sport. “The man-handling element in the British game, when the play is fast and the scrums break up, make it an extraordinarily fine game”, Sir Arthur continued,

“but in the Australian game there is such constant movement that it stands by itself. They have developed several points which are quite new to me. One of them is accurate passing by low drop kicking. I think that could be introduced into the English game with very great advantage, for it seems to be faster than any pass by hand. Another point that struck me was the extraordinary accuracy of the screw kicking—that is to say when a man running past the goal kicks a goal at right angles to his own line. I have never seen anything to touch the accuracy of both the punting and drop kicking”.

Keeping the game clean

“I think the free kick system is fine”, said Lady Doyle. “It keeps the game clean”. “You are quite right”, agreed her husband. “A strict enforcement of the rule is a good thing. The men's condition was wonderful, for I should think that it is the most gruelling of any game I have seen, and yet the players appeared to be as fresh in the last quarter as they were in the first, and they were playing with just as much vigour. If the Australian cricket is as good as the Australian football, then our fellows will have a tough task before them.

“I was delighted to meet Mr H. C. A. Harrison, who, I believe, is the father of the Australian game”, Sir Arthur concluded, “and I thought it was very sporting of him, as the fastest runner of his day, to introduce the bouncing rule, which robbed him of his advantage. All the same, I should imagine that if there is to be any change in the Australian game it will be in the direction of the elimination of bouncing the ball in order that the fastest man shall get the benefit of his speed. As a stranger I dare not suggest an innovation, but that is how it struck me”.