by The VFL/AFL has seen many changes in the last 120 years, including some fundamental elements: here are the AFL teams that changed their name and logos.
ESSENDON BOMBERS
Original name: ‘Same Olds’
The precursor to the AFL was the Victorian Football League, which started in 1897. The VFL was a breakaway from the older Victorian Football Association (established 1877), with different teams competing in each.
The one exception was Essendon, who fielded a team in both leagues.
The VFA team was established at the Essendon Cricket Ground (later named Windy Hill); the VFL side struggled to find a suitable venue, and eventually landed at the East Melbourne Cricket Club. They played there for more than 20 years, to the chagrin of their Essendon based fans.
Neither side was originally known as, ‘The Bombers’.
The VFA team played as ‘Essendon Town’, the VFL side were known as the ‘Same Olds’. This unusual label came from the a club song that had been written by supporters:
‘The Same Old Essendon we used to be,
The Same Old Essendon we are you see
At the end of the season, that premiership flag,
The Same Old Essendon will have it in the bag
For the Same Old Essendon are we’.
The song was sung during home games by people sitting in the main grandstand, and the ‘same old’ tag stuck to the team.
In 1921, facing financial difficulties, the Essendon VFA team disbanded, the VFL side then relocated to Windy Hill. The ‘Same Old’ name fell into disuse around the same time, with most people referring to the club as ‘The Dons’.
Also in 1921, the Essendon Aerodrome opened. Before Tullamarine was built in 1970, this was Melbourne’s primary airport.
During World War II, the airport was heavily used by the military. The VFL continued during the war and the conjunction of these things – the football club, the airport, and heavy military air traffic – caused the local team to acquire a new name: The Bombers.
FITZROY LIONS
Original Names: The Maroons, The Gorillas
The Fitzroy Football club was founded in 1884, and played initially as ‘The Maroons’. The name came from their original strip: primarily that colour, with a band of navy blue around the shoulders.
In 1897, Fitzroy were among the clubs that left the VFA for the VFL; they continued to play as the Maroons in the new league through to the 1930s.
Sometime late in that decade – different sources state 1937, 1938 or 1939 – the club name changed to the ‘Gorillas’. The suggestion came from Dr Cec Raphael, a noted Melbourne physician who was then the club doctor.
The 1930s, as we will see below, was a time when several clubs replaced their original name with something more aggressive. This appears to have been the rationale for Raphael’s suggestion, and its adoption: the Maroons was simply thought to be not stirring enough.
A Gorilla logo was developed, and it was printed on button badges, which were popular with fans.
But the new name also brought derision from supporters of other clubs. Fitzroy players and fans were sometimes called ‘apes’, and mocked with ape-like gestures and sounds.
Support for another name change built steadily. In 1957, the club switched to the Lion, thinking this a suitably forceful logo, that was more dignified.
When Fitzroy merged with Brisbane in 1996, the Lion carried over as the emblem for the new club.
GEELONG CATS
Original name: Seagulls, Pivotonians
Another club whose current name began in an unofficial capacity is Geelong. Also founded in 1877, the club was originally known as the ‘Seagulls’.
The team colours were blue and white, this was said to represent Corio Bay (blue) and its huge seagull population (white).
Geelong was one of the founding members of the VFL, but left the Seagull name behind shortly after joining. They were unofficially known for a time as the ‘Pivotonians’; the city of Geelong, a key rail and shipping hub, was sometimes referred to as ‘The Pivot’.
A dominant force while in the VFA, Geelong struggled initially in the VFL. In 1923, their form was so bad that a cartoonist for The Herald newspaper, Sam Wells, drew a comic suggesting they adopt a black cat to try and turn their luck around.
The idea caught on. A cheeky fan had button badges printed with a black cat logo on it, which were distributed to fans; shortly afterwards, Geelong won four games in a row.
The black cat seemed to have done the trick: the Cats, as they have been known ever since, won their first VFL Premiership in 1925.
HAWTHORN HAWKS
Original name: Mayblooms
The Hawthorn Football Club has roots stretching back to the 1870s, but was founded in its current guise in 1902. They joined the VFA in 1914, playing in a brown and mustard strip that initially had a ‘V’ on the front.
Their original name was the ‘Mayblooms’, which derived from a common type of bushy tree.
Hawthorns are flowering, shrub-like trees that are popular in England and Australia, and often used for hedging. They were a common sight around the houses in the suburb of Hawthorn, and so seemed a perfect fit for the local footy club.
The plant even seemed to match the club colours:
‘The Hawthorn plant was in full bloom at the start of winter, when it was covered in the gold of the yellowing fruit and the brown of the bronzed foliage.’
– Hawthornfc.com
The common name for the Hawthorn plant was ‘Maybloom’, the side played as the Mayblooms until 1943. Similar to Fitzroy, it was then felt a more dynamic name would be desirable.
According to the club’s website, the name ‘Hawks’ came from coach Roy Cazaly; before a game against Essendon in May 1943, he informed the players that they would be known as the Hawks from that point forwards.
Such was the simplicity of sport in a pre-professional, less commercialised era: Cazaly simply willed the new name into existence. The club’s name and logo were changed, and the song updated to incorporate the ‘mighty fighting Hawks’ lyric.
MELBOURNE DEMONS
Original name: Whites, Red Legs, Fuchsias
Another club with a plant-y former name is the league’s oldest: founded in 1859, Melbourne are one of the oldest sporting clubs in the world.
Originally playing in an all-white uniform, and dominating the fledgling football scene, the club were referred to as ‘The Invincible Whites’. Things changed in the 1860s, when a club official brought back red sporting socks from a trip to England; these were adopted by the club, who were then called the ‘Red Legs’.
They switched their strip from white, to blue and red, shortly afterwards, around 1866, believing it to be more eye-catching.
The new colours were similar to the Fuchsia, a flowering plant found in many Australian gardens. When in bloom, the Fuchsia has bright red petals, with a vivid, royal blue centre.
The similarity caused the club to adopt the plant as its logo, and Melbourne would be known as the Fuchsias until 1933.
Catalyst for a name change came with the appointment of a new coach. For the 1933 season Melbourne appointed Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes, a no-nonsense former player, who had won two Premierships with Richmond and had been renowned for his on field toughness.
Hughes took over an underperforming side, and exhorted them to lift their standards. The legend, and this one may even be true, is that during a huddle early in his tenure, he berated his players with, ‘You are playing like a lot of flowers. Lift your heads and play like demons!’
The club adopted the Demon name and logo shortly afterwards. Hughes went on to have great success as Melbourne coach, winning four Premierships; he was an inaugural inductee into the AFL Hall of Fame, when it was established in 1996.
RICHMOND TIGERS
Original name: Wasps
One of football’s biggest clubs has a name shrouded in some degree of mystery: it is not clear exactly when, or why, Richmond became known as the ‘Tigers’.
The club was founded in 1885 and was initially linked to the Richmond Cricket Club. The cricket club’s colours were yellow and black, these were adopted by the footy club as well (the cricket club logo is pictured above).
The new club’s colours called to mind an obvious symbol: the Wasp. And through the 1890s it seems there was a push by the club to use this as Richmond’s name and logo, although how formally it was adopted is unclear.
In terms of how they went from Wasps to Tigers, the story goes like this:
‘A Mr Miles, one of the club’s keenest supporters, often perched himself in a tree outside Punt Road Oval, to watch matches because he could not afford the cost of admission. With his booming voice he would call, ‘Eat ‘em alive Tigers!’ He was a cult figure and his catchcry became the Richmond symbol.’
– ‘100 Years of Australian Football’
The league’s official history carries this story and has the name change occurring in 1921. And you can find lots of Richmond supporters on fan sites and reddit forums giving different versions of it.
But whether or not Mr Miles was real, this seems unlikely to be the origin of the Tigers name.
Wikipedia lists the name change as occurring between 1908-10, and links to newspaper articles from this period where the club is referred to as the Tigers. But other online resources have even earlier references.
‘Tigerland Archive’, a detailed history site, has a year-by-year chronology with a reference to Richmond as the Tigers as far back as 1894. The same site also notes that the Richmond social club was known as the Tigers by the early 1900s.
Similar to the bulldogs, it seems that the Tiger may have attached itself to Richmond gradually, over an extended period.
SYDNEY SWANS
Original Name: South Melbourne, The Southerners, The Bloods
Before they relocated to Sydney in the 1980s, the Swans were based in South Melbourne, with a home ground on the edge of Albert Park Lake. And before they were the Swans, they were the Southerners, or, The Bloods.
In florid prose from the early years of football journalism, they were even sometimes called, ‘The Bloodstained Angels’.
Sydney were one of the founding members of the VFL, and played under this assortment of names until the 1930s. Then in 1933, such a significant year for name changes you wonder if the different clubs didn’t influence each other, they changed to the Swans.
Souths won the flag that year, their playing stocks boosted by several players imported from West Australia. As the state symbol for WA is a Black Swan, a cartoonist for the ‘Herald and Weekly Times’ wryly suggested the club adopt that logo as well.
Black Swans can also be found in number on Albert Park Lake, so the club actually liked the suggestion. They changed their name and logo to the Swan for the following season.
By the 1980s the club were in financial trouble, with dwindling crowds, a rundown home ground and lack of on-field success. The VFL was by this time keen to expand interstate, the Swans relocated to Sydney for the 1982 season, and became the first non-Victorian club in the league.
WESTERN BULLDOGS
Original name: Footscray, Tricolours
When Footscray was founded in 1877, the club colours were blue and white hoops. Red was added in the 1880s to match the Footscray Rowing Club; the two clubs were closely aligned and shared a large number of members.
Now playing in red, white and blue, Footscray were called the ‘Tricolours’. The club stuck with the VFA when the VFL broke away, and became one of the most successful teams in that league over the next two decades.
As the VFL gained in popularity, and financial success, Footscray had a change of heart, and joined the new league in 1925.
They changed their name to the Bulldogs around the same time. The legend, so good it is sad to disprove it, is that a bulldog unexpectedly ran onto Whitten Oval during a game against Collingwood; Footscray won the match, and adopted the bulldog as their logo afterwards.
This incident is referenced in the official, commissioned history of the competition:
‘In 1928, (the club) was dubbed the Bulldogs after a genuine bulldog accidentally led the players out against Collingwood.’
– ‘100 Years of Australian Football’
The actual event, as reported in ‘The Australasian’, had a bulldog paraded around the ground at three quarter time, as a kind of early fan engagement activity. This indicates that the club was already known as the bulldogs, even if only unofficially.
The name can be traced to earlier in the decade. The club history on the Western Bulldogs website links it to three time Premiership winning captain Johnny Craddock: Craddock retired in 1920, during his playing career it was often said he played with ‘bulldog tenacity’.
This phrase appeared on a banner at a function given in Craddock’s honour, shortly after his retirement. It appears that the bulldog then made its way from unofficial nickname, to formal name and logo, over the course of a few years.
In an attempt to broaden the club’s appeal, in 1996 the name was changed from Footscray to the Western Bulldogs. The club continues to bring a bulldog, current incumbant: Caesar, to the ground on on game day.
