Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Monday 27 September 1909, page 7


FOOTBALL CHAMPION.

RESULT OF PLEBISCITE.

LEAGUE: BUSBRIDGE.

ASSOCIATION: McKENZIE.

OVER 105,000 VOTES CAST.

The poll for the selection of football champions in both the league and the asso-ciation finally closed on Saturday night. A great number of votes had been reserved

until the last day. Altogether 45,796 were cast on Saturday, and the task of counting and recording these kept a staff of seven enumerators busy all day yesterday. The result showed that Busbridge had been chosen champion player of the league, best-ing the second man—Ricketts—by 1,380 votes. Busbridge's total was 16,592 votes. McKenzie was chosen champion of the asso-ciation players. He polled 17,884 votes, de-feating Woods, the second man, by 7,667

votes.

This plebiscite had been open since Sep-tember 11—for thirteen issues of "The Argus." The interest on the first day was so great that over 4,000 votes were polled Since then it steadily grew until on Friday last 12,334 votes were cast, Busbridge alone receiving 3,553, or nearly as many as the total votes of the first day. The popularity of the plebiscite can best be gauged by the fact that throughout the thirteen days 105,132 votes were recorded.

The total number of votes polled for league players during the thirteen days was 64,801. Of those 26, 637 were cast on Satur-day and 38,164 on previous days. For the association players, the total number of votes recorded in the plebiscite was 40,431. Of these 19,150 were received on Saturday and 21,172 on previous days.

In the list appended below all the vote east are accounted for, but the list of players who received less than 150 votes was too long for publication. The name of Lee, of Collingwood, was inadvertently omitted from the published list on Thursday last. His name was, however, retained in the enumerator's list, and the votes cast for him have all been recorded in his favour. He finished seventh on the list, with a total

of 942 votes.

Votes were sent from all parts of the country from football enthusiasts, who were supporters of the Melbourne clubs, had seen them play, and had opinions about the merits of the players. On Saturday two telegrams were received. One was from Wycheproof, asking that two votes should be recorded for Johnson and Mad den, coupons for whom would be received yesterday. The other telegram was from a Riverina station. It had been sent from Jerildene. It read: - "Please accept my vote for Busbridge as champion league

player."

All kinds of letters from all kinds of

people accompanied the coupons. In many cases the voters burst into verse, in which they acclaimed the merits of the particular player they had selected. Most of the candidates would be covered with blushes if they could read all the adulatory things written about them in prose and verse by enthusiastic admirers during the last few days. Here is a sample verse on Bus-

bridge:-

Here's to you, Fuzzy Buzzy,

You're a champion and no kid.

Your orders were to play the game,

And play the game you did.

Here's to you, Fuzzy Buzzy,

From the centre to the goal, You'll be on top, like Peary,

And you'll top the bloomin' pole.

The supporters of some players have been filled with disappointment because their heroes were not at the top of the poll. One tender-hearted enthusiast at the Presby-

terian Ladies' Collage yesterday sent in the following pathetic complaint: -

Since the beginning of the voting for the cham-pion footballer I have been watching daily to see ___'s (Univeristy) name, and cannot under-stand how such a good, consistent player could be overlooked. I herewith enclose some coupons

for his benefit."

Whole families recordod their votes, One held of a family enclosed his coupons in the following letter: -

"Please accept 6 votes for Busbridge of Essen-don Football Club. Father and five sons. Mother takes no interest in the game."

From the members of another family two sets of coupons were received, some for Busbridge and some for Ricketts. An ac-companying note explained the difference of opinion thus. "The members of our family cannot agree over this."

From a Carlton boardinghouse, 15 coupons

were received with a letter as follows:-

"I am sending 15 votes for Buzzy-one from every person in the house. We had one admirer of Johnson,but he went for Buzzy after seeing both men play on the 11th inst. "

Geelong supporters of the game plumped solidly for Henry Young. Among associa-tion players they had several choices, but every Geelong coupon bore the name of H. Young as the selected league player. This spread throughout the Western district, and from all parts of it votes were received for Young. One letter from Warrnambool

read:-

" Please find enclosed votes for Young, the loyal player for Geelong. From a family of twelve and five grandchildren. Also same number of votes for Woods of Prahran."

An artistic voter in a city insurance-office

decorated the envelope in which he for-warded his coupon. In red and black ink he drew pictures of Johnson, Picketts, and Bushbridge in football costume. So that no-body could mistake his opinion, he printed under Johnson, "No chance"; under Ricketts "His rival"; and under Busbridge, "Champion ." An impartial student of the game from last Melbourne wrote as fol-lows:-

" I am voting for Pearce although I do not consider he is the champion of the season. He has not had the same opportunity of proving himself that some of the other players have had. If there were more players like him-that is, honest

straight, and fair-the game would be far more popular with the public than it is at present."