The last grand final between the two clubs set to face each other in this year’s AFL decider pre-dates the iPhone, the Moon landing and the two world wars. It goes back further than federation, when an Australian Football League was beyond comprehension. Much has been discovered in the intervening years, yet an unsolved mystery still hangs over this one wet Saturday in St Kilda, 125 years ago: where exactly was Chris Kiernan.

Fitzroy went into the grand final as clear favourites, and managed to defeat South Melbourne by a solitary point, 3.9 (27) to 3.8 (26). And they did so without their star player. Kiernan was still early in a sporting career that would see him play 102 senior football games and even represent Victoria in cricket. By 1899 the 21-year-old had already finished as Fitzroy’s leading goalkicker twice, and that season was part of the team that romped to the minor premiership.

“The Fitzroy local newspaper mentioned that he trained on both the Tuesday and Thursday night leading up to the grand final after being out with injury for several weeks,” says Australian rules historian Col Hutchinson. But for the season’s culmination, Kiernan was nowhere to be seen. The Age’s report of the match on the Monday described the match as a “great final contest”, and noted simply: “Fitzroy were without the assistance of their clever little forward player, Kiernan, whose place was taken by the veteran Cleary.”

The Argus provided more detail: “Kiernan was expected to resume his place in the team, but at the last moment Fitzroy had to call on Cleary to strip, as Kiernan did not make an appearance.” Yet Hutchinson notes Kiernan re-appeared for the team’s premiership photo, presumably taken in the following days. He believes that fact eliminates the possibility of a falling out for a player who would actually leave the club due to a clash with officials five years later.

“It’s very difficult to find any specific newspaper references to what actually happened,” Hutchinson says. “I think that’s been the main reason why we’ve never quite got to the bottom of what happened.”

The format of the season that year included a “sectional” phase, which would only continue for another seven years. The home-and-away season – in which Fitzroy topped the table – was followed by the sectional rounds, where all eight teams were split into two groups. A clash between the winners of the two groups was to decide the ultimate victors, though the minor premiers could have challenged South Melbourne – who finished sixth in the regular season – to a re-match the following weekend had they lost the grand final.

The Argus also reported South Melbourne officials sought to postpone the match due to the inclement weather which kept the crowd below 5,000, but they were rebuffed. With all that in mind, Hutchinson says he could imagine a player of the day not fully comprehending the calendar.

“There was no announcement saying, ‘oh, this year the grand final, the final match will be played on September the 16th’,” he says. “So the actual date of the match wasn’t widely known until probably a few days before the match itself.” His best guess for the Kiernan mystery is a simple mix-up. “He asks one of his teammates ‘when’s this match we’re playing against South Melbourne?’, they say ‘next Saturday’, and he thought, ‘oh, that means Saturday week. OK, I’ll turn up then’.

The season format wasn’t the only difference to contemporary football. In 1899, the breakaway of the VFL from the VFA was just three years old. Hutchinson notes the amateur nature of the game then was also a contrast.

“Until 1910 or 1911, payment to players was forbidden, it was strictly amateur, and there were periods of time – say, even as early as the time we’re talking about – where players were accused of taking bets on the outcome of matches and deliberately not trying,” he says.

The average score for a team was just 38 and quarters were shorter: 25 minutes without timed stoppages. It was also a period of continued evolution of the rules. “Even though disposal by hand appeared to be permitted, back in 1899 one of the statements in the rule book was, if a player is tackled, he must either dispose of the ball straight away or drop it,” Hutchinson says.

There is no audiovisual evidence of the 1899 season, but there is of South Melbourne’s grand final against Carlton just 10 years later, the earliest known recording. Though the footage has no sound to accompany the vision, the rhythm of the play, the movement of the players, the technique of the drop punt and the mechanics of the contest largely resemble football today, even if modern athletes have super-charged the spectacle.

And the discourse around the game is very much the same. The 1899 season reduced the number of players in a team from 20 to 18. “There’s an interesting quote in the Geelong Advertiser from 1899 about the opening match where the reporter is observing the situation and saying, ‘well, this seems to have freed up play, there’s not as much congestion on the field’,” Hutchinson says.

He believes the fascination with officials’ decisions, controversial incidents and the unpredictable nature of the game remain at the heart of football. “All of that seems to have remained unchanged for all that period of time.”