There were three Challenge Cups which were contested among the top senior metropolitan clubs between 1861 and 1871: The Challenge Cup, which was won and held based on the results of specific games, was separate from the premiership (which is considered to have officially existed from 1870), which was based on a club's results in all games during a season.
It was initially put up as the prize for a football match between University and a team of challengers which was to have been played during the Society's Caledonian games on 28 December 1861.
In 1865, the Athletic Sports Committee put up a new Challenge Cup trophy, valued at ten guineas.
It resurfaced unexpectedly in 2007, having been inherited by a distant descendant of South Yarra president John Steavenson in Bristol, England.
Five clubs contested the Cup during the 1870 season: Melbourne, Carlton, South Yarra, Albert-park and Railway.
[33] Albert-park ultimately gave the Cup back to South Yarra at the end of the year, but maintained its position that it had won it outright and was making the gift in its capacity as the trophy's owner.
Carlton won the playoff 2–0 to claim undisputed and permanent ownership of the South Yarra Challenge Cup.