The 1945 VFL Grand Final Carlton and South Melbourne was Melbourne’s first major sporting event after the end of World War II. The game was advertised as ‘the Victory Grand Final’, and signalled an end to global violence and bloodshed. Ironically, those are the characteristics that will forever be associated with the game that has entered the folklore of Aussie Rules football as ‘the Bloodbath’.

The game also featured a cast of extraordinary characters, including Jack ‘Basher’ Williams, ‘gentleman’ Jim Cleary, Bob Chitty (who was to star as Ned Kelly in a major Australian film), the young Ken Hands, and the mercurial Laurie Nash, who was perhaps the greatest all-round sportsman Australia has ever produced.

What was the cause of the conflict, who was responsible for …
246 p. ; 24 cm. #220122 Sport Football AFL VFL

The 1945 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the South Melbourne Football Club and Carlton Football Club, held at Princes Park in Melbourne on 29 September 1945. It was the 47th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1945 VFL season. The match, attended by 62,986 spectators, was won by Carlton by a margin of 28 points, marking that club’s seventh premiership victory.

The game was noted and remembered for its rough play and a number of violent incidents, out of which seven players were suspended. It has continued to be remembered as one of the roughest games in the league’s history, giving rise to its nickname, the Bloodbath.
The Bloodbath
The roughness of play, and the high number of reports, suspensions and melees, drew heavy comment from sportswriters and public at the time. In more recent years, the game has come to be nicknamed the Bloodbath due to its violent reputation. In all, nine players were reported on fourteen charges during the game. Bottles were also thrown onto the ground by spectators.

The VFL tribunal heard the charges on Tuesday 2 October, and made the following findings:[7]

Ted Whitfield (South Melbourne) received the most severe penalty. He was suspended until 31 December 1946 for his incident with goal umpire Les Whyte in the final quarter, in which he used abusive language, then attempted to strike Whyte, then ran down the field and lifted his guernsey to try to avoid being reported. Whitfield was the only reported player not to appear at the tribunal to defend himself; and a couple of weeks later he was sacked by South Melbourne.[8] Whitfield was also suspended for two weeks for time-wasting by kicking the ball away after a free kick.[7] Jack Williams (South Melbourne) was suspended for twelve weeks: eight weeks for fighting with Rod McLean, and four weeks for using abusive language towards the umpires.
Don Grossman (South Melbourne) was suspended for eight weeks for striking Jim Mooring.
Jim Cleary (South Melbourne) was suspended for eight weeks for striking Ken Hands; but was cleared of a further charge of attempting to strike Bob Chitty.
Bob Chitty (Carlton) was suspended for eight weeks for elbowing Bill Williams.
Ron Savage (Carlton) was suspended for eight weeks for striking Don Grossman.
Herbie Matthews (South Melbourne) was severely reprimanded for time-wasting by throwing the ball away after a free kick.
Only Ken Hands (Carlton) and Keith Smith (South Melbourne) were found not guilty of their charges.

A subsequent investigation also saw Carlton’s Fred Fitzgibbon brought before the VFL committee. Fitzgibbon had been suspended for four matches for striking Collingwood’s Len Hustler in the preliminary final, so was watching the Grand Final from the outer; during the final quarter melee, he jumped the fence, ran to the melee and attempted to strike a South Melbourne player before being escorted from the ground by police. He was suspended for a further four matches.[9]

The game drew condemnation in the media, and headlines around the country for its roughness. The Mirror in Perth noted “widespread disgust has been expressed throughout Australia at the exhibition of alleged football staged by Carlton and South Melbourne in the VFL Grand Final last Saturday”.[10] Melbourne tabloid newspaper The Truth called it “the most repugnant spectacle League football has ever known”.[11] Perth’s the Call newspaper led with the headline “Carlton are Vic. ‘footbrawl’ premiers”.[12] The Recorder in Port Pirie published a local’s summary of the game under the byline “they kicked everything except the ball.[13] The match continued to be viewed as a benchmark against which onfield violence was compared for many years.[14]

Many newspapers took a broader view of the game as symptomatic of increasing roughness of the game in Victoria in general during the early 1940s. The Record, the local newspaper circulating in South Melbourne, reported that “to say the match was a ‘shameful spectacle’ and ‘a blot on the game’ is sheer hypocrisy, as anyone who has followed League football during the last few years knows that roughness is the rule rather than the exception.”[15] The Argus also commented on this and both newspapers placed blame for increased rough play over the previous years on increased frustration and congestion caused by the two major rule changes in 1939: no-drop holding the ball and the reinstatement of the boundary throw-in.[16][15] Speaking years later, Don Grossman also recalled that bumping had become rougher during the war, owing to a rule allowing bumping only within five yards of the ball.[17] The VFL met in November to discuss its position on a variety of potential national rule changes to reduce congestion – such as re-abolishing the boundary throw-in in favour of a free kick, re-introducing the flick pass, and reducing the number of players on the field – as well as direct measures against violent play – including introducing order-off provisions, and appointing stewards to report players instead of umpires – but ultimately supported none of them.[18]

Despite the game’s reputation for violence, all sportswriters praised match umpire Frank Spokes for the control he maintained on the game, and for preventing further escalation of incidents.[5] Spokes spoke to players many times when incidents flared, and waited for players to return to position before restarting play, which was not common practice for umpires at the time.[19] However, the high volume of reports made during this game is also speculated to have been a deliberate directive by the league to the umpiring team, in response to the previous week’s preliminary final between Carlton and Collingwood – a match well known to have been at least as rough as the grand final, including a wild final quarter melee with many kicks and punches thrown, but from which only one player was reported.[20][21][22] Supporting this, The Record made specific note that Matthews and Whitfield were both reported for time-wasting by throwing or kicking the ball away after a free kick; this had been a technically reportable offence for many years, but was almost never enforced in practice.[23] Matthews himself said he had been doing it for his entire 14-year career without a problem, and was surprised to have been reported.[7]

Both clubs blamed the other for the violence in the game.[18] Reflecting on the game in the Sporting Globe ten years later, South Melbourne full forward Laurie Nash placed the blame on Carlton for starting the violence in the first half with targeted rough play, but blamed South Melbourne for carrying on the violence in search of retribution in the second half, while Carlton went back to playing the ball – probably costing South Melbourne the game. He also happily recalled getting away with punching out Bob Chitty in the final quarter, in retaliation for Chitty’s two second-quarter strikes against South Melbourne’s youngsters Ron Clegg and Bill Williams, which started the game’s melees; and, said that Jim Cleary, who was nicknamed “Gentleman Jim” for his reputation as a fair player,[24] was very unlucky to be suspended for eight weeks for what he thought was an honest attempted spoil on Hands.[25]