Australian rules football

:Australian Rules redirects here. For the movie, see Australian Rules (film).

Origins of the game

Tom Wills began to devise the rules of the game in Melbourne, in 1858, making Australian Rules — originally known as "Victorian Rules" — arguably the oldest officially codified form of football played today. (H.C.A. Harrison, Wills's cousin, was also named much later as an official "father of the game", but his role does not now seem to have been significant at this very early stage.) A letter by Wills was published in Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle on July 10, 1858,http://www.mcg.org.au/default.asp?pg=footballdisplay&articleid=37 calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during winter. An experimental match, played by Wills and others at the Richmond Paddock (later known as Yarra Park, next to the MCG) on July 31, 1858, was probably the first game of Australian Rules. However, few details of the match have survived.

Related Topics:
Tom Wills - Melbourne - 1858 - H.C.A. Harrison - July 10 - Yarra Park - MCG - July 31

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On August 7, 1858 two significant events in the development of the game occurred: the Melbourne Football Club was founded, one of the world's first football clubs in any code, and a famous match between Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and Scotch College began, umpired by Wills. A second day of play took place on August 21, and a third and final day on September 4. The two schools have competed annually ever since. However, the rules used by the two teams in 1858 did not have much in common with Australian Rules Football as it became known.

Related Topics:
August 7 - 1858 - Melbourne Football Club - Melbourne Church of England Grammar School - Scotch College

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The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian Rules. They were drawn up at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne on May 17, by Wills, W. J. Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith (some sources include H. C. A. Harrison). The 1859 rules did not include some elements which soon became important to the game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running, and Melbourne's game was not immediately adopted by neighbouring clubs. Before each match, the rules had to be agreed by the two teams involved. By 1866, however, several other clubs had agreed to play a single updated version of Melbourne's rules.

Related Topics:
1859 - East Melbourne - May 17 - 1866

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It is often said that the founders were partly inspired by the ball games of the local Aboriginal people in western Victoria. Aborigines did play a sport called Marn Grook, which used a ball made out of possum hide, and included play resembling the high marking ("speccie") in Australian Rules. There is considerable debate over the connection between the two. Wills did have a deep knowledge of Aboriginal culture, and Harrison had grown up in an area of Victoria near present day Moyston where he may have seen Marn Grook.

Related Topics:
Aboriginal - Marn Grook - Possum - Moyston

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Wills had been educated at Rugby School in England and had also, like W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson, been to the University of Cambridge. The Cambridge Rules, drawn up in 1843, included some elements which are important in Australian Rules, such as the mark. Thomas Smith was Irish and had attended Trinity College, Dublin, where the Rugby School rules were popular at a very early stage. These men would have been familiar with other public school and university "football" games. They may also have been inspired by traditional games, played among the thousands of immigrants who poured into Victoria from the UK, Ireland and many other countries during the gold rushes of the 1850s.

Related Topics:
Rugby School - University of Cambridge - Cambridge Rules - Irish - Trinity College, Dublin - Public school - UK - 1850s

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Similarities to Gaelic football

While it is clear even to casual observers that Australian Rules is similar to Gaelic football, the exact relationship is unclear, as the Irish game was not codified by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) until 1887. The historian B. W. O'Dwyer points out that Australian Rules has always been differentiated from rugby football by having no limitation on ball or player movement (in the absence of an offside rule), the need to bounce the ball (or toe-kick it, known as a solo in Gaelic football) while running, punching the ball (hand-passing) rather than throwing it, and other traditions. As O'Dwyer says:

Related Topics:
Gaelic football - Gaelic Athletic Association - 1887 - Rugby football

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: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 ...adapted and shaped within the perimeters of the ancient Irish game of hurling... 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 ; it was rather a case of particular needs being met...

Related Topics:
Ireland - Hurling

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After 1887, the two games developed in isolation from each other. However, since 1967, there have been many matches between Australian rules and Gaelic football teams, under various sets of hybrid, compromise rules. In 1984, the first official representative matches of International rules football were played, and these are now played annually each October.

Related Topics:
1967 - International rules football

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