The Origins of Australian rules football are obscure and still the subject of much debate.
The earliest accounts of "foot-ball" games in Australia dates back to the 1840s and the earliest accounts of clubs formed to play football date to the early 1850s. Football in the early years was played by a variety of rules (and sometimes few rules at all) though the style of football that clubs in Victoria played were similar to each other and also the modern game of Australian rules football. Though football became increasingly common between 1856 and 1858, details of these matches were poorly documented.
Most modern historians generally recognise that football first became organised in Melbourne in 1858 with a series of experimental rules in a bid to keep cricketers fit during the winter months. It was not until 1859 that the first known laws of the game were published by the Melbourne Football Club.[1]
Thomas Wentworth Wills is acknowledged by many to be the game's inventor.[2]
Although there are many theories to the pre-1859 origins of the game, the predominant ones being that it:
a) originated from early Irish games such as caid brought to Australia by migrants
b) originated from English public school games, particularly early forms of rugby football
c) was partly inspired by traditional indigenous Australian pastimes
d) is a combination of some or all of the above and that it shares many influences as a consequence of historical circumstance
There are also theories on where the game originated in Australia and these places include Melbourne, the Geelong region, the goldfields region and even Adelaide.
The Australian Football League, the game's current governing body, officially acknowledges the following with regards to the formation of Australian Football:
a) that 1858 was the commencement date
b) that the game was invented in Melbourne
In its official account of the game's history for its 150th celebrations, however, the AFL dismissed Wills as an inventor of the game and does not recognise any connection to traditional indigenous games. This stance was not without controversy.
However there are some discrepancies in the AFL's account of the game's birth. Firstly the official rules still used today were not in place until 1859. Secondly many claim that the origins can be traced back further.
This article explores developments and theories in the historical accounts of the early origins of the game in depth.
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It is worth noting that new clues to the origins of the game are continually unfolding. Prior to recent times H C A Harrison was mistakenly believed to be the "father of the game", however more recently, his contributions if any to the game prior to the 1860s has been largely downplayed.
The following are published accounts of early football in Australia, many of which in the past have been used to claim the earlier origins of Australian rules football. Most of these prior to 1859 were vague, largely disorganised and with little reference to the actual rules being played.
The following developments prior to the may have influenced the historical record of the origins of Australian rules football.
The mythical George Bruce is alleged to have played for another team Richmond Cricketers Football Club with dubious historical merit and for the Colony of Victoria and, in 1858, was allegedly voted by newspaper writers as the Champion Player of the Colony. Whilst playing, he wore an iron hook in place of a missing hand. Did he achieve greatness despite his disability? Or, did he achieve greatness because opponents kept well clear of him?[6]
The first records of St Kilda or St Kilda Cricketers Football club date back to 1858. There are records of "football" clubs in Albert Park and Richmond which most likely played by their own rules.
Shortly after his return from England and the Rugby school where he played rugby football, Wills had promoted the idea of organised football in the colony of Victoria, most notably when he wrote the following letter, published in Bell's Life in Victoria on 10 July 1858:
Dear Sir, Now that cricket has been put aside for some few months to come, and cricketers have assumed somewhat of the chrysalis nature (for the time being only, it is true), but at length again will burst forth in all their varied hues, rather than allow this state of torpor to creep over them and stifle their now supple limbs, why cannot they, I say, form a football club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws? If a club of this sort was got up, it would be of vast benefit to any cricket ground to be trampled upon, and would make the turf firm and durable, besides which it would help those who are inclined to become stout and having their joints encased in useless super-abundant flesh. If it were not possible to form a football club, why should these young men who have adopted this new country as their motherland - why, I say, do not they form themselves into a rifle club, so at any date they may be some day called upon to aid their adopted land against a tyrant who may some time pop upon us when we least expect a foe at our own very doors. Surely our young cricketers are not afraid of a crack of a rifle when they face so courageously the leather sphere, and it would disgrace no one to learn in time to defend his country and hearth. A firm heart and a steady hand and a quick eye are all that are requisite, and with practice all these may be attained. Trusting that someone will take up this matter and form either of the above clubs, or at any rate some athletic games, I remain, Yours truly, T.W. WILLS.[7]
A month after the letter appeared, Wills acted as co-referee of a game between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, played in the parkland surrounding the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Played over three afternoons by teams comprising forty players with the goal-posts approximately 500 metres apart, only one goal was scored (by Scotch). The rules required the winner to score twice, so the match was deemed a draw.[8] It appears that there were major differences between Aussie Rules as it was to evolve and this early school game, but the match is important as some claim it led to Tom Wills calling a meeting in 1859 at the Parade Hotel (on the site of the present M.C.G. Hotel) at which rudimentary rules for Victorian football (later known as Australian Rules Football) were drawn up.[9] [10] [11]
By June 1858, Wills was organising practice matches at Yarra Park. He called a meeting for 1st August 1858 and this date is usually regarded as the formation date of the Melbourne Football Club. Nevertheless, the club was not formally established until a meeting held on 14th May 1859. During the first season or so, scratch games were played between members of the club, using Wills' rules, the first draft of which was made on 17th May 1859 (see above). (A hand-written copy of these first rules still exists.)[12]
On 7 August 1858 a famous match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College began at Richmond Park, which was umpired by Wills and McAdam and also involved Scotch headmaster Thomas H. Smith[13]. A second day of play took place on 21 August and a third, and final, day on 4 September.[14] While the full rules that were used is unknown, the match was played with a round ball, the distance between the goals was approximately half a mile (approximately 4 times longer than the modern MCG playing surface), there were 40 players per side and one goal each side was scored with the game being declared a draw. The two schools have competed annually ever since for the Cordner-Eggleston Cup.[15]
Some regard these early matches as the first matches of Australian Football, however to many it is clear that the game was still in the process of evolving.
The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian football. The eleven simple rules were drawn up on 17 May in a meeting was chaired by Wills and in attendance were journalists W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson.[14] Accounts of the people directly involved differ. Some sources also claim that Thomas H. Smith[16] and H. C. A. Harrison[17] were also present. The meeting was held at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne hosted by owner and Melbourne Cricket Club member Jerry Bryant. The publican was a friend of Tom Wills with a personal interest in introducing football to Melbourne's schools. Bryant had played a role in organising early football matches at the nearby Richmond Park and his son was one of the first players.[18] The rules were signed by Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. Sewell, J. B. Thompson, Alex Bruce, T. Butterworth and Thomas H. Smith. Importantly, the rules were widely publicised and distributed.
Writing in Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Australian Rules Football ... in 1981, author Graeme Atkinson includes a chapter entitled "The Good Old Days". In it he makes the anecdotal claim that matches with similar rules to those later adopted were being played as early as 1853 during the Victorian gold rush on the Ballarat and Sandhurst (now Bendigo) goldfields, but also highlights the lack of supporting evidence.
The goldfields theory is one of the key planks for the theories of Irish origins.
It is often speculated that the primary origins of Australian Rules Football is English public school football games and university football codes.
Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie Sandercock and Ian Turner have all written in support for the theory that the primary influence was rugby football and other other games emanating from English public schools [19].
Gillian Hibbins in her official account for the AFL also supports this theory.
Arguments to follow the premise that:
a) all members of the Melbourne Football Club committee had experience of English games
b) Tom Wills, himself an exceptional rugby football player, originally wanted to introduce Rugby School rules
c) English school rules were debated extensively by the committee. The club is documented to have looked at the Rugby School Rules but also those of Eton (Eton field game), Winchester (Winchester College football) and Harrow (Harrow football)
d) there are pronounced similarities to the Sheffield rules (which were being formed at a similar time). The most noticeable similarity was the absence of an offside rule and the prevalence of the fair catch (or mark). One theory claims that may have been due to the influence of Henry Creswick (possibly a relative of Nathaniel Creswick) who was born in Sheffield but emigrated to Australia with his brother in 1840 (the town of Creswick is named after them). He moved to Melbourne in 1854 and became involved in the local cricket scene. He played first class cricket for Victoria during the 57/58 season alongside 3 of the founders of Melbourne Football Club including Tom Wills.[20] The reports of the popularity of the Australian game on the goldfields in the 1850s came from the Creswick area. However such a link has not been proven and likely to be circumstantial.
However against this theory is that:
a) the fact that other than Tom Wills, the members felt Rugby School’s rough play and offside rules would not suit players older than schoolboys or the drier Australian conditions.[21]
b) Wills made the now famous declaration "No, we shall have a game of our own".[22]
c) No games of rugby football had previously been recorded in Victoria
Some historians, particularly Martin Flanagan[23] postulate that Wills could have been inspired by marngrook, ball games played by the Aboriginal people in western Victoria.[24]
While the relationship of the Wills family with local Djabwurrung people is well documented, the theory hinges on the largely circumstantial fact that the tribe was one that is believed to have played marngrook.
Wills was raised in Victoria's western districts and is said to have been fluent in the local dialect and frequently played with local Aboriginal children on his father's property, Lexington, in outside of the town of Moyston.[25]
Col Hutchison, former historian for the AFL wrote in support of the theory postulated by Flanagan, and his account appears on an official AFL memorial to Tom Wills in Moyston erected in 1998.
Gillian Hibbins in the AFL's official account of the game's history published in 2008 for the game's 150th celebrations sternly rejects the theory:
Understandably, the appealing idea that Australian Football is a truly Australian native game recognising the indigenous people, rather than deriving solely from a colonial dependence upon the British background, has been uncritically embraced and accepted. Sadly, this emotional belief lacks any intellectual credibility.
Hibbin's account was widely publicised[26] and caused significant controversy and deeply offended prominent indigenous Australians who openly criticised the publication.[27]
The question of whether Australian Rules Football and Gaelic Football have shared origins arises because it is clear even to casual observers that the two games are similar.
Both Irish and Irish Australian historians, including Patrick O'Farrell, Marcus De Búrca, Chris McConville, B. W. O'Dwyer and Richard Davis have supported the theory that Australian Rules Football and Gaelic Football have some common origins.
Other Australian historians, including Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie Sandercock and Ian Turner have specifically rejected any such connection,[28].
In 1843, Irish settlers celebrating Saint Patrick's Day in South Australia played some kind of football.[29] Since none of the modern football games had been codified at the time, the match was most likely a traditional form of football, such as caid. Patrick O'Farrell has pointed out that another Irish sport with ancient origins, hurling — which has similar rules to Gaelic football — was played in Australia as early as the 1840s, and may also have been an influence on the Australian game.[30]
B. W. O'Dwyer suggested that there is circumstantial evidence that traditional Irish games influenced the founders of Australian rules, when the game was codified by Tom Wills and others at Melbourne, in the Colony of Victoria in 1858–59.[31] O'Dwyer argued that both Gaelic football and Australian rules are distinct from other codes in elements such as the lack of limitations on the direction of ball movement — the absence of an offside rule. According to O'Dwyer:
These are all elements of Irish football. There were several variations of Irish football in existence, normally without the benefit of rulebooks, but the central tradition in Ireland was in the direction of the relatively new game [i.e. rugby]...adapted and shaped within the perimeters of the ancient Irish game of hurling... [These rules] later became embedded in Gaelic football. Their presence in Victorian football may be accounted for in terms of a formative influence being exerted by men familiar with and no doubt playing the Irish game. It is not that they were introduced into the game from that motive [i.e. emulating Irish games]; it was rather a case of particular needs being met...[32]
Against this argument is that:
a) there is no historical proof that the need to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running and punching the ball (hand-passing) rather than throwing it were also elements of caid, as there are no documented accounts or rules for the sport
b) the requirement that players bounce the ball, while running, was notably absent from the first Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859
There is no conclusive evidence to prove Australian rules football is a direct descendent of caid.
It is more likely, however, given the history of interaction between the two forms of football, that they have influenced each other over time.
Mr C. Mullen wrote about early Geelong clubs Barwon, Bellarine, Corio Bay, Flinders, Kardinia and Moorabool in an unlocated publication Footballer's Australian Almanac published in 1951. Mullen claimed that these clubs were formed in 1856. While Mullen's work has been cited by several authors since, on the subject of the Geelong clubs there is no supporting evidence.
Citing Mullen, Atkinson's 1981 publication Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Australian Rules Football ... attributes the formation of the Geelong clubs to Tom Wills and claims that they should be recognised as the foundation clubs.
Atkinson considers it likely that Geelong's rules were drawn up prior to the first rules of the Melbourne Football Club which were drafted on 17 May 1859.[9]
In support of his theory are his "records" of the first recorded champion of formalised football in Victoria was Corio Bay (later Geelong) in 1856 and he also claimes that an interclub match occurred between Melbourne Cricketers and Geelong in 1858 under compromise rules.[33]
The rules allegedly used used by the Geelong Football Club in 1859 were originally written down by hand[9], however there is no record of them from earlier than 1866 when they were incorporated by way of compromise into the official Victorian Rules by H C A Harrison and committee:
1. Distance between goals and the goal posts to be decided by captains.
2. Teams of 25 in grand matches, but up to 30 against odds.
3. Matches to be played in 2 halves of 50 minutes. At the end of first 50 teams may leave ground for 20 minutes for refreshments but must be ready to resume on time otherwise rival captain can call game off or (if his side has scored) claim it as a win.
4. Game played with 200 yard [sic.] [182.9 metre] space, same to be measured equally on each side of a line drawn through the centre of the two goals, and two posts to be called "kick off" posts shall be erected at a distance of 20 yards [1.83 metres] on each side of the goal posts at both ends and in a straight line between them.
5. When kicked behind goal, ball may be brought 20 yards in front of any portion of the space between the kick off and kicked as nearly as possibly [sic.] in line with opposite goal.
6. Ball must be bounced every 10 or 20 yards if carried.
7. Tripping, holding, hacking prohibited. Pushing with hands or body is allowed when any player is in rapid motion or in possession of ball, except in the case of a mark.
8. Mark is when a player catches the ball before it hits the ground and has been clearly kicked by another player.
9. Handball only allowed if ball held clearly in one hand and punched or hit out with other. If caught, no mark. Throwing prohibited.
10. Before game captains toss for ends.
11. In case of infringements, captain may claim free from where breach occurred. Except where umpires appointed, opposing captain to adjudicate.
12. In all grand matches two umpires - one from each side - will take up position as near as possible between the goal posts and centre. When breach is made appeal to go to nearest umpire.
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