Championship of Australia

The Championship of Australia was an Australian rules Football tournament which was contested between football clubs from the Victorian, South Australian and Western Australian leagues. The Championship took place one time in the 19th century and then from 1907 to 1914 before being folded until the start of the Second World War where it was brought back and also involved a team from New South Wales and Tasmania to make it a four club competition.

History
The first instance of a Championship of Australia style event happen in 1896 when Collingwood which was the VFA champions headed over to Adelaide in what some newspaper called a "Championship of Australia" event with the two teams winning their respective leagues in the region. The match which saw 23,000 in attendance would see Collingwood become the first team in history to take out the title as they defeated South Adelaide by thirteen points at Adelaide Oval.

After a eleven year break, the tournament came back for seven years with the same two leagues in the VFA and the SAFA being the competitions that would see teams being entered into the competition. After South Australians teams won the first three editions with Norwood going back to back, Collingwood would take their second Championship of Australia title in 1910 after defeating Port Adelaide by seventeen points. The 1910 edition was also the last time that it was played exclusively in Adelaide with Melbourne gaining the rights to co-host with Adelaide on hosting the tournament.