The origins of Australian rules football date back to the late 1850s in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria.
There is documentary evidence of "foot-ball" being played in Australia as early as the 1820s. These games were poorly documented but appear to have been informal, one-off affairs. In 1858, cricketers, sports' enthusiasts and school students began to regularly play variants of English public school football in the parklands of Melbourne. The following year, four members of the newly formed Melbourne Football Club codified the laws from which Australian rules football evolved.
Professional historians began taking a serious interest in the origins of Australian rules football in the late 1970s, and the first academic study of the sport's origins was published in 1982. Since then, research has challenged various origin myths, including the view that Australian rules football is derived from the Irish sport of Gaelic football. Since the 1980s, it has also been claimed that indigenous football games, collectively known as Marngrook, may have influenced early Australian rules football. This claim is largely based on circumstantial evidence that Tom Wills, one of the game's pioneers, gained exposure to Marngrook while growing up amongst Aboriginal people in the Victorian bush. The proposed Marngrook link is still hotly debated amongst historians.
Pre-1858 accounts of "football"
Forms of football were played prior to European colonization, and include games such as Marn Grook.
With the arrival of Europeans, forms of football were played very early on in the Australian colonies with matches being played in by 1829 in Sydney, Tasmania and Melbourne by 1840,Shane Pill & Lionel Frost (2016) R.E.N. Twopeny and the Establishment of Australian Football in Adelaide, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 33:8, 801. Adelaide by 1843, Brisbane by 1849, Most of these early games took part at local festivals and the rules under which they played (if any) not recorded, as such some are considered to have been comparable to mob football.
Immigrants from England brought with them an awareness particularly of Rugby football (1845) as well as Eton football (1847) and Harrow football (1858), Cambridge rules (1856) and a variety of other games. The codes of Cambridge and Harrow, while more similar to modern soccer, shared many aspects of modern Australian rules in particular the absence of an 'off-side' rule, kicking from the hand, marking (fair catch), carrying the ball in hand, tackling or shoulder charging the player with the ball and kicking through upright goals to score.
Accounts from the Colony of Tasmania of football in the 1850s indicate that, as in early Victoria and most likely elsewhere, that matches were played under mostly English public school football games rules, but particularly Rugby, Eton and Harrow rules.
In the Colony of South Australia from 1854 a version of Harrow football was also being played.Pill, Shane. (2020). 1860-2010: Celebrating 150 years of organised football in South Australia. The rules under which the Old Adelaide Football Club played in 1860, while published, are now lost, however many assume that they were also along the lines of Harrow. This would, of course have appeared remarkably similar to observers (as were the games of Harrow and Cambridge) and as such, was a key reason why the colony later adopted the Victorian Rules to facilitate intercolonial matches.
In the Colony of Victoria the merits of these different schools and their footballing traditions were also known on the Victorian goldfields in 1858 particularly the Cambridge rules which were popular. Most notably, 1856 Cambridge laws permitted players to catch the ball, with a free kick awarded for a fair catch. Accounts of early football in Victoria in the 1850s was that football was particularly popular on the goldfields with the English playing school football, Scottish immigrants played a game similar to soccer and Irish immigrants playing a game of high punt kicking.
Historian Graeme Atkinson considers it likely that football was being played regularly in Geelong prior to the formation of the Melbourne club and that rules were drawn up prior to the first rules of the Melbourne Football Club which were drafted on 17 May 1859.Graeme Atkinson, 1981, "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Australian Rules Football but Couldn't be Bothered Asking", Five Mile Press Rules allegedly used by the Geelong Football Club in 1859 were originally written down by hand. The Geelong Advertiser appears to indicate that Geelong had Saturday football teams which regularly "hacked shins" in March and April and that the formation of the Melbourne FC spurred Geelong's footballers to incorporate their own club. Geelong is believed to have its own rules which included a running bounce to limit carrying the ball (at least as early as 1862) that was later adopted by all Victorian clubs.
The "house" rules played locally by clubs in this period borrowed elements from the various codes that are present today including Australian rules, soccer and rugby football with the rules played being decided prior to the start of the match.
1858 – Earliest documented clubs and matches Football became increasingly organised and ingrained in the colony of Victoria in 1858, particularly in the capital Melbourne and surrounds.
The first written records regarding a football club in St Kilda date from April 1858. However, it was an informal version of the game.Bader, F. (August 2008). "The Leathern Sphere", St Kilda Times. St. Kilda Historical Society Inc. Archived from the original 24 February 2012. Two months later, on 15 June 1858, the earliest known record of Victorian football match was recorded. The game was played with modified rules between St Kilda Grammar School (now defunct) and Melbourne Grammar School on the St Kilda foreshore.The Melbourne Book – A History of Now. Published 2003. Hardie Grant Books. South Yarra. . pg. 182 There are also reports from 1858 of "football" clubs in Albert Park and Richmond.
Tom Wills' letter
A little over a year after his return from England and Rugby School, where he played rugby football, Tom Wills 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:
Sir, – Now that cricket has been put aside for some few months to come, and cricketers have assumed somewhat of the chrysalis nature (for a time only 'tis 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 new supple limbs, why can they not, I say, form a foot-ball club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws? If a club of this sort were got up, it would be of vast benefit to any cricket-ground to be trampled upon, and would make the turf quite firm and durable; besides which it would keep those who are inclined to become stout from having their joints encased in useless superabundant flesh. If it is not possible to form a foot-ball club, why should not these young men who have adopted this new-born country for their motherland, why I say, do not they form themselves into a rifle club, so at any-rate they may be some day called upon to aid their adopted land against a tyrant's band, that may some day 'pop' upon us when we least expect a foe at our very doors. Surely our young cricketers are not afraid of the crack of the rifle, when they face so courageously the leathern sphere, and it would disgrace no one to learn in time to defend his country and his hearth. A firm heart, 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 the matter, and form either of the above clubs, or, at any rate, some athletic games, I remain, yours truly,
T.W. WILLS.Wills, Tom. (10 July 1958). "WINTER PRACTICE", Bell's Life in Victoria. Reprinted in Blainey, Geoffrey. (1990). A Game of Our Own: The Origins of Australian Football. Black Inc. . pp 17–18.
Experimental matches Two weeks after this letter's publication, Wills joined cricketer and hotel proprietor Jerry Bryant in organising scratch matches in Richmond Paddock outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
On 7 August 1858 a famous match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College began at Richmond Paddock, which was co-umpired by Wills and John Macadam and also involved Scotch headmaster Thomas H. Smith.pg 36. Melbourne FC Since 1858 – An Illustrated History A second day of play took place on 21 August and a third, and final, day on 4 September. p303. While the full rules of the match are unknown, the match was played with a round ball, the distance between the goals was approximately half a mile (approximately four times longer than the MCG playing surface), and there were 40 players per side. The game was declared a draw with each side scoring one goal. The two schools have competed annually ever since for the Cordner–Eggleston Cup.
Some regard these early matches as the first matches of Australian rules football, however to many it is clear that the game was still in the process of evolving. The Herald wrote in August 1858:The Herald, 23 August 1858.
1859: first rules
The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian rules football. The ten simple rules were drawn up on 17 May at a meeting chaired by Wills and in attendance were journalists W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson. Accounts of the people directly involved differ. Some sources also claim that Thomas H. SmithThomas Smith himself made this claim in response to an article about the history of Melbourne FC in The Australasian published 26 February 1876 (from Melbourne FC Since 1858 – An Illustrated History pg 36). Smith's personal account mentions Thompson arriving after the decision to form the club and H. C. A. HarrisonHarrison's involvement in the early stages is believed by many to be due to him being perceived as the "father of the game" in later decades and subsequent erroneous reporting were also present. The meeting was held at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne hosted by owner and Melbourne Cricket Club member James (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.pg 20–10. Melbourne FC Since 1858 – An Illustrated History. Goeff Slattery Publishing 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.
A hand-written copy of these first rules still exists.
Various theories
English school football Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie Sandercock, Ian Turner and Tony Collins have all written in support for the theory that the primary influence was rugby football and other games emanating from English public schools.
The first rules of Australian football were published in the annual Victorian Cricketer's Guide alongside rules used in English public schools for the purpose of comparison. In the 1860 edition, J. B. Thompson announced:The Victorian Cricketers' Guide for 1859–1860.