The format used for presenting results is a format that has become standard in Australia. The winning team is named first, or the home team in the event of a draw, and scorers are listed in brackets after the score. This differs from the standard usually adopted in Britain: I'm Australian, live with it. :-)
Competition formats: The ways in which competitions have been run vary considerably. I have tried to indicate how a competition was run in years where the method differs from that used today, but you may find oddities.
Tables: All tables are checked for accuracy where possible. Most tables will have an indication of where they're from; if not, they're probably generated from a results file by computer. Tables taken from newspapers often have compilation errors; these are indicated where known. Tables generated from result files may have errors due to transcription errors in the file. Tables are mostly sorted by competition points and then points difference. Points difference has not always been significant, indeed is not always significant, especially in older tables where percentages (for divided by against) were used, or where no second differentiator was used.
Sydney first grade premiership tables are checked against two sources. Steve Hadden's book lists tables for each year, presumeably taken from the Sydney Morning Herald. David Middleton's 1995 yearbook lists the results for the various years. By using these to generate a table and comparing it against the book version, it is possible to identify errors, which can be eliminated by referring back to the relevant issue of the Sydney Morning Herald. It's interesting to note that both sources contain errors.
+: The plus sign is always used to mark the minor premiers, i.e. the team that finished top of the table at the end of the league proper.
?: The question mark indicates that I don't know what should go there. Data preceded by a question mark means that I think it's right but I'm not sure.
Results files: These are designed to be used as input to a program which can spit out tables, amongst other things. This is why the format is so odd. One day I hope to get the program set up so that it can act as a server.
These files are all copyright. Each contains a copyright notice embedded in the HTML code. They are not in the public domain.
Because of the nature of these files it is worth explaining just what this copyright means. The information in these files is not and cannot be copyrighted. What is copyright is the format and layout of that information, the way I've presented it. If you want to use the information in your own documents you cannot just cut and paste it, you have to rewrite it in your own way, one that is not the same as mine. If you don't do that, you are in breach of my copyright.
That said, if you do want to copy information presented here just email me and ask, and I'll almost certainly say yes. But make sure you do ask. Alternately, you can always link to one of these pages without asking. That's probably a better alternative to copying, if only because I constantly update these pages.
While I have made every effort to ensure that the information in these documents is complete and accurate, there will almost certainly be some errors in it. Rely on it at your own risk.
If you find any errors in these pages, or if you wish me to add some extra information to them, please email me. Please take into accout that I am only one man, and further that I am not omnipotent. :-)