Football history off the field: Utilising archived accounting reports to challenge “myths” about the history of an Australian football club

Abstract

The Australian Football League (AFL) is the largest professional sports competition in Australia. Most AFL clubs began as amateur bodies in the nineteenth century, but to survive they have had to adapt to changes in demand and production costs by adopting a commercial management approach. Because financial management is seen by most club members as secondary to the core business of winning games, accounting data is generally invisible in football histories. We use a range of accounting information from annual reports, committee Minute Books and media commentaries from 1910 to 1917 to demonstrate how financial data can be used to enhance our understanding of the history of one AFL club – Carlton. In particular, we show how previously overlooked accounting records can enrich the history of this sporting club as well as challenge long held “myths”, thus creating new understandings of Australian football history.