Bendigo Gold and Melbourne City winless seasons
2013
1 Port Melbourne 16 14 2 0 1664 1144 145.45 56
2 Footscray 16 12 4 0 1766 1084 162.92 48
3 Williamstown 16 12 4 0 1620 1170 138.46 48
4 Box Hill 16 11 4 1 1572 1178 133.45 46
5 North Ballarat 16 10 6 0 1367 1154 118.46 40
6 Collingwood Reserves 16 10 6 0 1455 1314 110.73 40
7 Werribee 16 9 7 0 1419 1181 120.15 36
8 Sandringham 16 8 7 1 1437 1470 97.76 34
9 Geelong Reserves 16 8 8 0 1559 1355 115.06 32
10 Northern Blues 16 7 9 0 1150 1469 78.28 28
11 Essendon Reserves 16 6 9 1 1333 1437 92.76 26
12 Richmond Reserves 16 6 9 1 1392 1559 89.29 26
13 Frankston 16 4 10 2 1145 1416 80.86 20
14 Casey 16 5 11 0 1058 1405 75.30 20
15 Coburg 16 3 13 0 1148 1599 71.79 12
16 Bendigo 16 0 16 0 935 2085 44.84 0
2014
1 Geelong Reserves 18 16 2 0 2273 1364 166.64 64
2 Box Hill 18 13 5 0 1815 1326 136.88 52
3 Williamstown 18 12 6 0 1809 1394 129.77 48
4 Casey 18 12 6 0 1830 1434 127.62 48
5 Werribee 18 10 8 0 1897 1661 114.21 40
6 Collingwood Reserves 18 10 8 0 1766 1667 105.94 40
7 Port Melbourne 18 9 8 1 1726 1704 101.29 38
8 Essendon Reserves 18 9 9 0 1765 1590 111.01 36
9 Northern Blues 18 8 10 0 1709 1622 105.36 32
10 North Ballarat 18 8 10 0 1556 1558 99.87 32
11 Sandringham 18 6 11 1 1705 1992 85.59 26
12 Frankston 18 6 12 0 1522 1885 80.74 24
13 Coburg 18 6 12 0 1534 1973 77.75 24
14 Bendigo 18 0 18 0 912 2649 34.43 0
from the Australian Football website
It is perhaps perversely appropriate that, with a name more suited to a soccer club, Melbourne City’s performances during its two year stint in the VFA were about on a par with what might be expected from the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool were they to forego the cossetted luxury of life in the FA Premiership and try their hands at a sport in which success is based on ability and skill rather than on a combination of the pompous ineptitude of genitally-challenged match officials and the glorified ‘coin toss’ of the infamous penalty shoot-out.
All of which is not to imply that the players who represented Melbourne City in 1912 and 1913 had bad haircuts, the mental age and general disposition of pre-schoolers, and a ineradicable predilection towards cheating. It is simply to admit that they were not very good. Indeed, so uniquely bad were they that they failed to secure a single victory in 36 matches, never so much as getting within a goal of the opposition.1
The City Men were not wimps, however. They took defeat hard, and made their opponents earn their victories with blood, bruises and the occasional broken bone. Their successors in the VFA, Hawthorn, would maintain this reputation for toughness, and, while it would be a long time coming, they would eventually learn to supplement steel with skill, achieving no small amount of success in the process.
Melbourne City twice lost games by 7 points: in 1912 against Prahran, and in 1913 against Port Melbourne. In the latter match, the City Men still somehow conspired to lose despite managing 28 scoring shots to their opponents 15.
Amazingly Bendigo also came close to winning against Carlton seconds and Casey.
The Gold should have won both these games and could count themselves unlucky.
