Editing North Melbourne Football Club (section)

===Formative years===
{{More citations needed|date=April 2024}}
The exact date of founding is not known. The club believes that there were early attempts at formation dating back as far as 1864.<ref name="year by year">[https://www.nmfc.com.au/club/history/year-by-year North Melbourne History Year by Year] (extract from From The North Story, by Gerard Dowling)</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=A grass roots history of Australian rules football - : The reader is taken from the Garrison playing fields of Templemore, Tipperary, Ireland in the 1830s to Hotham (Nth Melbourne) to present day places and teams in Victoria, Northern Territory & West Australia. A football playing history spanning 1830s to 2025. |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3644996430/view |access-date=2025-05-17 |website=Trove |language=en}}</ref> An 1865 newspaper article mentions a match between North Melbourne and the [[South Yarra Football Club (1858–1873)|South Yarra Football Club]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155038250 |title=The News of the Day |newspaper=[[The Age]] |issue=3,385 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=4 September 1865 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article255915212 |title=Memoranda |newspaper=[[The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian]] |volume=  |issue=188 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=9 September 1865 |access-date=15 April 2024 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Whether there was continuity between this team and today's club or not, no further mentions appear in the mainstream media until 1869.

[[File:Jameshenrygardiner.jpg|thumb|right|[[James Henry Gardiner]], regarded as a father figure of the club due to his tireless efforts to promote it in its early years.]]
Uncontentious, [[North Melbourne]] was founded in 1869 by local cricketers desiring to keep fit over the winter months, however its involvement in the season 1868/1869 implies that it had been formed at the latest the previous year.<ref name="Hotham History">{{Cite web |title=The North Melbourne Football Club, The Shinboners' |url=https://www.hothamhistory.org.au/the-north-melbourne-football-club-the-shinboners/ |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=Hotham History Project |language=en-US}}</ref> 

Although the borough was originally named Hotham, the club didn't identify with that name until later and went by the "North Melbourne Football Club" name for much of its early history. One thought is that the club was connected to the St Mary's Anglican School which began in 1853,<ref>{{Cite web |title=HISTORY « St Mary's North Melbourne |url=https://www.stmarys.org.au/about-us/mission-visions/ |access-date= |language=en-AU}}</ref> and from the cricket and football field which was the corner of Queensberry and Howard Street, to which first, the St Mary's Anglican School cricket and football playing clubs formed <ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=A grass roots history of Australian rules football - : The reader is taken from the Garrison playing fields of Templemore, Tipperary, Ireland in the 1830s to Hotham (Nth Melbourne) to present day places and teams in Victoria, Northern Territory & West Australia. A football playing history spanning 1830s to 2025. |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3644996430/view |access-date=2025-05-19 |website=Trove |language=en}}</ref> whose colours – blue and white – are reflected in the club's colours today.<ref>Rickard, John, An assemblage of decent men and women : a history of the Anglican parish of St Mary's North Melbourne 1853–2000. / John Rickard St Mary's Anglican Church North Melbourne, North Melbourne, Vic. :  2008</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1940-06-22 |title=WHO’S WHO IN FOOTBALL |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/188808245?fbclid=IwY2xjawKXtrhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFCbkpoUjNrVVpJQWRQOGFiAR59semSEXZwvxxGebgOQOjj-tkAoUvaXLmyhZkS5U7Ia7dmZkXWWIwCfZyZPQ_aem_tXJPAMx7m2XSNmxy-GgpIg |access-date= |work=Sporting Globe}}</ref> 
[[File:St Mary's Anglican School Hotham Established 1853.jpg|thumb|The first football & cricket playing fields for St Mary Anglican School students, Hotham]]
The association between the St Mary's Anglican School's football and cricket teams  and the establishment of the North Melbourne football and cricket clubs playing at  Royal Park, and in their embryonic form as the Hothamites as early as 1860 is consistent with the informal gathering of Hotham's youths playing competitive sport.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The North story : the official history of the North Melbourne Football Club's first one hundred... {{!}} Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/187166 |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}</ref> 

Information on the club's first ever match is limited, but it is known that it took place in [[Royal Park, Melbourne|Royal Park]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=1886-08-28 |title=FOOTBALL. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/221742051 |access-date=2025-05-15 |work=Weekly Times}}</ref> [[James Henry Gardiner]] is often cited as a founder of the club, though he heavily promoted it in its early years in his role in the local council there is no documented evidence of his role in its formation.<ref name="Hotham History" />

One of the earliest newspaper mentions of it was on 14 August 1869 when it was scheduled to play against Messrs. Walker, May, and Co. at [[Princes Bridge]] in what is now central Melbourne.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5819404 |title=SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1869. |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=7,232 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=14 August 1869 |access-date=15 April 2024 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The article mentions that the two teams had already played an earlier match, though it does not say when, it does name Fuhrhop as team captain, presumably [[Harry Fuhrhop]]. Fuhrhop was a Carlton United cricketer who would go on to later captain the football team between 1869 and its 1877 VFA team.

North also fielded a second-20 team that day suggesting the club was of some playing strength.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1869-08-14 |title=SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1869. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5819404 |access-date=2025-05-17 |work=Argus}}</ref> A few weeks later, on Saturday 2nd September, North Melbourne played South Yarra for the Challenge Cup.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1865-09-04 |title=THE NEWS OF THE DAY. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/155038250 |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=Age}}</ref>

According to historian Gerard Dowling (1973), Fuhrhop was a pivotal figure in the early establishment of the club.<ref name="year by year" /> North Melbourne Football Club stalwart, Harry Fuhrop is listed regularly from 1869 representing the club as Captain and a player, and further in 1884 as a general committee member.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1884-04-04 |title=FOOTBALL. |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/66160068 |access-date=2025-05-19 |work=North Melbourne Advertiser}}</ref><ref name="auto"/> Other early newspaper reports include the 24th September 1870 against Carlton United at Royal Park (which the paper noted was the second meeting of the season between the two clubs)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138067129 |title=MELBOURNE v. CARLTON. |newspaper=[[The Australasian]] |volume=IX |issue=234 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=24 September 1870 |access-date=15 April 2024 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and 1st October 1870 against East Brunswick.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5833657 |title=MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1870. |newspaper=[[The Argus (Melbourne)]] |issue=7,586 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=3 October 1870 |access-date=15 April 2024 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> 

Royal Park served as the club's home ground until 1882.<ref name="Hotham History" /> 

Regular premiership matches of Australian Football commenced in Victoria in 1870. Although North Melbourne was a part of this,<ref>{{Cite web |title=FOOTBALL. - Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935) - 2 Jul 1870 |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/196689304 |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Trove |date=1870 |language=en}}</ref> it was classed as a "junior club". The words junior and senior at the time were not used to distinguish underage side but rather the playing quality and strength of the side. ''The Australasian'' noted them as being "one of the best of many junior clubs" <ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article137583335|title=FOOTBALL.|date=1873-11-01|work=Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946)|access-date=2020-04-03|page=11}}</ref> meaning it the club was considered respectable but far from being regarded a powerhouse as such it would rarely if ever compete against the more notable clubs of the time such as Melbourne, University, Carlton or Geelong and as such was not invited to compete in the [[Challenge Cup (Australian rules football)|Challenge Cup]].

The club continued to develop, graduating to senior ranks in 1874, finishing 4th. Along with the promotion, the club adopted its first uniform of blue and white horizontal stripes.<ref name="Timetoast 2019">{{cite web |title=The evolution of the football jumper - North Melbourne Football Club 1874 |website=Timetoast |date=4 May 2019 |url=https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-evolution-of-the-football-jumper-north-melbourne-football-club-1874-2015 |access-date=4 May 2019}}</ref>

In 1876, North Melbourne disbanded, and many of its player and members joined [[Albert Park Football Club (VFA)|Albert-park]],<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=North Melbourne Advertiser |location=North Melbourne, VIC |title=Football |author=Tonball |page=3 |date=26 May 1876}}</ref> giving the club such a strong North Melbourne character that many described it as "Albert-park ''cum'' North Melbourne". In 1877, the club was re-established as a stand-alone entity, under the name '''Hotham Football Club''' and moved to the Hotham Cricket Ground (now Arden Street Oval).<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Leader |location=Melbourne, VIC |title=Football Notes |author=Nomad |date=9 July 1877 |page=12}}</ref>