Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal match

Dame Nellie Melba's Appeal for Limbless Soldiers match
Result	Footscray (VFA) 9.10 (64) def. Essendon (VFL) 4.12 (36)
Date	4 October 1924
Crowd	46,100
Stadium	Melbourne Cricket Ground
City	Melbourne

The 1924 match for Dame Nellie Melba's Appeal for Limbless Soldiers, informally known as the 1924 Championship of Victoria, was an Australian rules football exhibition match played on 4 October 1924 between the Essendon Football Club and the Footscray Football Club – who were that season's premiers of the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Victorian Football Association (VFA) respectively. Footscray recorded an upset victory against Essendon by 28 points, giving the VFA one of its most significant victories, on-field or off-field, against its stronger rival competition. The match raised £2,800 for the fund.

In 1897, eight of the strongest clubs in Victoria broke away from the Victorian Football Association to form the Victorian Football League. Since that time, the two competitions had been strong off-field rivals, with the VFL assuming the position as the strongest competition in the state, and generally doing little to assist the VFA. The VFA had often tried to arrange matches against the VFL, particularly a championship playoff match between the two premiers, in an attempt to lift its own prestige and gate takings, but such offers were almost always rejected by the league. By 1924, a total of only two matches between the VFL and VFA had taken place, excluding pre-season practice matches. These were:

In 1924, it was proposed to stage a match between the VFL and VFA for the benefit of the Limbless Soldiers' Appeal, organised by Dame Nellie Melba. It was decided that the match should be a playoff between the premiers of each competition, the first time such a match had ever been staged; on the historical significance of the match, future Hall of Fame sportswriter Reginald Wilmot commented "Nothing but the appeal of Dame Nellie Melba, on behalf of the limbless soldiers, could have induced the League to agree to a game which they have strenuously opposed for nearly 30 years."

Arrangements for the match began to be drawn up in late September. Essendon was in a position to claim the VFL premiership with a win or narrow loss on 27 September, but a heavy loss would require a Grand Final to have been played on 4 October. Footscray had claimed the VFA premiership on 20 September, and was available to play on either 27 September or 4 October, but had already scheduled a tour of Gippsland which precluded playing the match on 11 October. As such, for the game to be played at all, Essendon would need to win the premiership without a Grand Final – which it did with a 20-point loss to Richmond on 27 September. The benefit match was then scheduled for 4 October. Richmond made itself available to replace Footscray, should the VFL and VFA have been unable to reach mutually satisfactory arrangements for the game.

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