While the league reviewed the application of the Public Service, it was also fielding other applications, most notably that of the Footscray Football Club from the VFA. Footscray was widely regarded as the strongest candidate among existing clubs to join the VFL, and had been considered as such for many years. It was the richest VFA club, had a strong corporate backing due to its location in the heart of the industrial district of the western suburbs, and it had dominated the Association since the war, winning four of the previous six premierships and five minor premierships in a row. Its win against VFL premiers Essendon in Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal match at the end of the 1924 season had affirmed its credentials.