THE LAFRANCHI MEDALS - Mt Prospect 1898
Mick Cleary's cousins back home in County Limerick were well versed in anti-imperialist rhetoric by the time Mick was kicking a football in the 1890s with the local football team near the gold mining town of Daylesford. Mick's first cousin Donncadh OhAnnigan would soon be taking the fight to the British Army. As Commander in Chief of the East Limerick Flying column, OhAnnigan struck fear in the Black and Tans and their allies throughout 1920/21. At Dromkeen in February 1921 he ordered the execution of two RIC men captured in an ambush that left 11 of the ‘British’ enemy dead. The closest Mick Cleary came to war with the British Army was knocking a pro-conscriptionist off his feet on the bridge outside the Cleary home in Mt Prospect.
Mick and the local Irish Catholics were ardently anti-war. However, war was a long way off when the Creswick Advertiser of Wednesday 21 September 1898 reported how some 50 people had attended a premiership night at the Swiss Mountain Hotel. With Mr T Fletcher in the chair ‘a good supper was tastefully laid out by Mrs Lafranchi’. Jos Hutchins, C Pedrotti, and Mr Hammerton did the singing and a proud Mr A Lafranchi responded 'on behalf of his mother'. Mr J T Yates concluded the night with a toast to the players, noting that they'd ‘won every game and had only two goals kicked against them'. Eventually, Margherita Lafranchi, widow and mother, bade the guests good night and hoped her late husband was happy in heaven.
The Mount Prospect team - left half of the photo - Mick 'Punga' Cleary - arrowed.
The Mount Prospect team (right half of the photo).
Margherita's husband, Andrea, a prominent Swiss-Italian immigrant had died in mid 1897, not long after promising the boys, he'd give them individual silver medals if they won the premiership. They didn’t lose a match in 1898 and the medals were presented posthumously. I am fairly sure that a couple Swiss Italians played in the premiership team. Italian speaking immigrants from the Distretto Di Vallemaggia - in Switzerland, just north of the Italian border - were prolific around Mt Prospect and the region between Daylesford and Castlemaine. Olympian Steve Moneghetti and football legend Ron Barassi share this heritage.
Names such as Righetti, Gervasoni, Caligari, Pedrotti, and Morganti can be found in the local Catholic cemetery at Eganstown. In 2024 I visited Switzerland's stunning Vallemaggia and the villages of Coglio and Someo, the birthplace of so many of these families. It's a fascinating history. The Mt Prospect team must surely have been the first football club sponsored by a non-English speaking immigrant.
In 2023 Laurence Bouch told me his grandfather must have played in the premiership team, as a Lafranchi Medal with his name inscribed on it was among his possessions. Laurence kindly showed me the medal. What a find! You can find the story on my Facebook page.
(RIGHT) Mick 'Punga' Cleary, born in 1871 to John and Johanna Cleary of Mt Prospect. The first born, he was named after his grandfather, Michael Cleary, of Anglesboro, County Limerick. Is the word Punga aboriginal for sun? Or is it Maori for anchor.
