Origins of Australian rules football

File:Irish_invitational_football_game_Thebarton,_Adelaide,_22_March_1853.png on 22 March 1853 paid for by Irishmen from County Westmeath calling for fellow Irishmen in Adelaide to join them in playing a form of football in Thebarton.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38454695 |title=Advertising |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=XVII |issue=2033 |location=South Australia |date=22 March 1853 |access-date=7 October 2021 |page=1 |via=Trove}}]]

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,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66270104 |title=HIRED SERVANTS. |newspaper=The Cornwall Chronicle |volume=11 |issue=616 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=15 February 1845 |access-date=8 December 2021 |page=2 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2961354 |title=Classified Advertising. |newspaper=The Courier |location=Hobart, Tasmania |date=11 February 1851 |access-date=18 November 2012 |page=4 |via=Trove}}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,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3714754 |title=Classified Advertising. |newspaper=The Moreton Bay Courier |location=Brisbane |date=20 January 1849 |access-date=18 November 2012 |page=3 |via=Trove }}{{cite book|title=A national game : the history of Australian rules football|first1=Rob|last1=Hess |first2=Matthew|last2=Nicholason|first3=Bob|last3=Stewart |first4=Gregory|last4=De Moore|location=Camberwell, Victoria|publisher=Viking|year=2008|isbn=9780670070893 |oclc=298717020|chapter=Australian Rules football begins|pages=1–18}} 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.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8946216 |title=RULES OF FOOTBALL. |newspaper=The Mercury |volume=XXIX |issue=4922 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=6 July 1876 |access-date=1 December 2021 |page=3 |via=Trove}} 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.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112896631 |title=MECHANICS' INSTITUTIONS. |newspaper=Ovens and Murray Advertiser |issue=611 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=29 June 1858 |access-date=8 December 2021 |page=3 |via=Trove}} 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.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46687603 |title=FOOTBALL BORN IN GOLD RUSH ERA |newspaper=Barrier Miner |volume=XLVIII |issue=14,255 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=6 April 1935 |access-date=8 December 2021 |page=8 (SPORTS EDITION) |via=Trove}}

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.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article150077569 |title=CURRENT TOPICS. |newspaper=Geelong Advertiser |issue=3,919 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=21 April 1859 |access-date=1 December 2021 |page=2 |via=Trove}} 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.{{cite book | last=Mangan | first=J. A. | title=The cultural bond : sport, empire, society | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=London New York | year=1992 | isbn=978-1-135-02437-6 | oclc=841168671 | page=116}}

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.{{cite journal|title=Rich Nowell Twopenny: Should he be recognised as one of the 'fathers' of Australian football?|first=Shane|last=Pill|journal=Bulletin of Sport and Culture|page=26 |date=September 2012a|issn=1328-8997|number=38}}{{cite journal |title=Researching the Origins of Australian football|first=Mark|last=Pennings|journal=Bulletin of Sport and Culture|page=25|date=September 2012a|issn=1328-8997|number=38}}

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). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120224012319/http://www.skhs.org.au/~SKHSnewsletter1/newsletters/Insert%20%20Footy%20150,%20Aug-Sept%202008.pdf The Leathern Sphere]", St Kilda Times. St. Kilda Historical Society Inc. Archived from the [http://www.skhs.org.au/~SKHSnewsletter1/newsletters/Insert%20%20Footy%20150,%20Aug-Sept%202008.pdf 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. {{ISBN|1-74066-049-8}}. pg. 182 There are also reports from 1858 of "football" clubs in Albert Park and Richmond. {{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}

File:William Handcock Tom Wills.jpg]]

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. {{ISBN|9781863954853}}. pp 17–18.

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.{{cite book | author=Ken Piesse | author-link=Ken Piesse | title=The Complete Guide to Australian Football | publisher=Pan Macmillan Australia | year=1995 | isbn=978-0-330-35712-8 }} 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.[http://www.scotch.vic.edu.au/Sport/Arules/coregg/cordegg.htm Scotch College – 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.

{{blockquote|The game of football promises, as it deserves to be, one of the popular amusements of the ingenuous youth of Victoria. Hitherto, a modification of the Rugby rules has been adopted, which, in the opinion of some, might be altered for the better. But as the cricketing season is so close at hand, it is, perhaps hardly worthwhile to discuss the matter seriously.}}

File:Victorian cricket team 1859.jpg (standing, third from left), J. B. Thompson (seated, second from left) and Thomas H. Smith (not pictured) met at the Parade Hotel, run by Jerry Bryant (standing, second from right), where they wrote the first laws of Australian football.]]

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.{{cite book|title=Melbourne F.C. : since 1858 ; an illustrated history|editor=John Murray|publisher=Geoff Slattery Publishing|year=2008|isbn=978-0-9804420-0-7|url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4269123}}

Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie Sandercock, Ian Turner and Sean Fagan have all written in support for the theory that the primary influence was rugby football and other games emanating from English public schools.{{cite journal|title=Irish and Australian Nationalism: the Sporting Connection: Football & Cricket|journal=Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies Bulletin|volume=3|number=2|date=1991–1992|pages=47–59|first=Richard|last=Davis}}{{cite journal |last=O'Dwyer|first= B.W.|title=The shaping of Victorian Rules football|journal=Victorian Historical Journal|volume=60|issue=1 |date=March 1989|pages=27–41}}

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.

{{blockquote|Football, as played in Victoria, is now fit to run alone. I have accordingly omitted the Rugby and Eton rules, because we seem to have agreed to a code of our own, which, to a considerable extent, combines the merits while excluding the vices of both.}}

Writing to Wills in 1871, Thompson recalled that "the Rugby, Eton, Harrow, and Winchester rules at that time (I think in 1859) came under our consideration, ... we all but unanimously agreed that regulations which suited schoolboys ... would not be patiently tolerated by grown men."The Australian Cricketers' Guide 1870–1871, p. 114 The hardness of the playing fields around Melbourne also influenced their thinking. Even Wills, who favoured many rules of Rugby School football, saw the need for compromise. He wrote to his brother Horace: "Rugby was not a game for us, we wanted a winter pastime but men could be harmed if thrown on the ground so we thought differently."de Moore, Greg. Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall. Allen & Unwin, 2008. {{ISBN|174176548X}}, p. 94

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.{{cite book|first=Brendan|last=Murphy|title=From Sheffield with Love|year=2007|pages=39–41|publisher=Sports Book Limited|isbn=978-1-899807-56-7}}

{{main|Marn Grook}}

File:Marn grook illustration 1857.jpg's 1850s scientific expedition shows Aboriginal people engaged in domestic and recreational activities, including a kicking game with a ball made from Typha roots.]]

Some historians, including Martin Flanagan,Martin Flanagan, The Call. St. Leonards, Allen & Unwin, 1998, p. 8 Martin Flanagan, 'Sport and Culture' Jim Poulter and Col Hutchinson postulate that Tom Wills, who was the son of a politician and a squatter and was educated at Rugby School in England in the 1850s{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/17430437.2010.491265 | volume=13 | issue=6 | title=A tale of two footballs: the origins of Australian football and association football revisited | journal=Sport in Society | pages=952–969| year=2010 | last1=Hay | first1=Roy | s2cid=145104527 }} could have been inspired by indigenous Australian pastimes involving possum skin "ball" games (sometimes collectively labeled "Marn Grook").Gregory M de Moore. Victoria University. from Football Fever. Crossing Boundaries. Maribyrnong Press, 2005

Anecdotal evidence of such pastimes appears in the 1878 book, [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Aborigines_of_Victoria/Volume_1 The Aborigines of Victoria], in which Robert Brough Smyth relates that William Thomas, a Protector of Aborigines in Victoria, had witnessed Wurundjeri Aboriginal people east of Melbourne playing a "foot ball" game in 1841. The account appears to fit the general description of the traditional game of Marn Grook. This appears to be the earliest record of Europeans observing such pastimes. William Blandowski's 1857 sketch of indigenous Australians in Merbein clearly depicts children playing a form of "foot ball". Written record of such traditional pastimes is otherwise scant and as there is no known record of these pastimes in traditional Indigenous Australian art it is not possible to trace its history further.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}

James Dawson, in his 1881 book titled Australian Aborigines,{{efn|The full title of Dawson's book is Australian Aborigines : the languages and customs of several tribes of Aborigines in the western district of Victoria, Australia}} described a game, which he referred to as 'football', where the players of two teams kick around a ball made of possum fur.{{sfn|Dawson|1881|page=[https://archive.org/details/australianaborig81daws/page/n99 85]}}

{{blockquote|text=Each side endeavours to keep possession of the ball, which is tossed a short distance by hand, then kicked in any direction. The side which kicks it oftenest and furthest gains the game. The person who sends it the highest is considered the best player, and has the honour of burying it in the ground till required the next day. The sport is concluded with a shout of applause, and the best player is complimented on his skill. The game, which is somewhat similar to the white man's game of football, is very rough...|author=James Dawson|title=1881 book Australian Aborigines}}

In the appendix of Dawson's book, he lists the word Min'gorm for the game in the Aboriginal language Chaap Wuurong.{{sfn|Dawson|1881|page=[https://archive.org/details/australianaborig81daws/page/14 xv]}} of the Djab Wurrung people.

The Marn Grook connection is argued as follows. Wills arrived in Victoria's western district in 1842. As the only white child in the district, it is said that he was fluent in the local dialect and frequently played with local Aboriginal children on his father's property, Lexington, outside of the town of Moyston.{{cite press release |title=Minister opens show exhibition celebrating Aussie Rules' Koorie Heritage |date=25 September 2000 |publisher=Victoria Government |url=http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/MediaRelArc02.nsf/17ed9415cb17e3d34a25682500254734/67d1f54851b3304b4a256965007bb637!OpenDocument&Click= |access-date=4 June 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608031614/http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/MediaRelArc02.nsf/17ed9415cb17e3d34a25682500254734/67d1f54851b3304b4a256965007bb637%21OpenDocument%26Click%3D |archive-date=8 June 2008}} This story has been passed down through the generations of his family.{{citation needed|date=August 2021|reason=The following ref cannot be verified.}}{{cite web |title=AFL News |publisher=Real Footy |date=17 May 2011 |url=http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/buckleys-stories-make-a-great-journey/2009/05/08/1241727605504.html |access-date=2012-10-08}} {{dead link|date=August 2021}} The tribe was one that is believed to have played marngrook. However the relationship of the Wills family with local Djabwurrung people is well documented.

Jim Poulter has argued that there was a direct link between the Australian rules football and sports played by some members of the indigenous Australian population. Poulter argues that Tom Wills had knowledge of Aboriginal oral traditions and language. However, when the rules of Australian rules football were codified, the status of Aboriginal culture in Australia was such that Wills may have been disadvantaged had he mentioned any connection, and as such "had no reason to mention this in discussions".{{cite journal | last1 = Haya | first1 = Ray | year = 2010 | title = A tale of two footballs: the origins of Australian football and association football revisited | journal = Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics | volume = 13 | issue = 6| pages = 952–969 | doi = 10.1080/17430437.2010.491265 | s2cid = 145104527 }}

File:Tom wills monument moyston victoria.jpg

Col Hutchinson, 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[https://archive.today/20121215183951/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23413887-5013406,00.html AFL's native roots a 'seductive myth'] from theaustralian.com.au but was criticised by some indigenous Australians.[http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23701120-19742,00.html Goodes racist, says AFL historian]

The people of Melbourne regularly saw the first national people and the way they lived. First Nation people camped on the outskirts of towns. As the government released more land, they were pushed further away. Many people in society in the 1800s would have been familiar with the games they played. They were also familiar with the games other races who came and took/shared their country played.

{{See also|Relationship between Gaelic football and Australian rules football}}

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. The first record of an early version of Gaelic football is considered to be a game in 1670 in Meath (Irish county) where the match featured the catching and kicking of a ball.{{Cite web|title=Football – History and Evolution|url=https://www.gaa.ie/my-gaa/getting-involved/football-history-and-evolution |access-date=3 October 2021|website=GAA|date=15 December 2015 }}

It is notable that it was not until 1875 that a game of football was played under Association rules in Ireland.Martin Moore (2021) Early association football in Ireland: Embryonic diffusion outside Ulster, 1877–1882, Sport in History, DOI: 10.1080/17460263.2021.1873830 This suggests that reports of migrants from Ireland playing a form of football in Australia before that date, specifically Irish Catholics, were likely playing versions of Caid.

File:Children playing Gaelic football Ajax Ontario.jpg. There are striking similarities between Australian rules football and Gaelic football.]]

Both Irish and Irish Australian historians, including Patrick O'Farrell,{{cite book |page=187 |title=The Irish in Australia |author=Patrick O’Farrell |publisher=University of NSW}}{{Cite thesis |title=From 'Irish Exile' to 'Australian pagan': the Christian Brothers, Irish handball, and identity in early twentieth-century Australia |author= Rowan Patrick Light |year=2012 |publisher= University of Sydney }} Marcus De Búrca,Marcus De Búrca "The GAA: a history". Gill & Macmillan Chris McConville,{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} B. W. O'Dwyer{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} and Richard Davis{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} have supported the theory that Australian rules football and Gaelic Football have some common origins.

In a 1949 interview that appeared in the Daily News (Perth), Pat Rodriguez stated his belief that Gaelic football was "probably the father of the Australian rules code".{{cite news|date=22 March 1949|title=Irish Football Like Australian|volume=LXVII|page=14 (HOME)|newspaper=The Daily News|issue=23,071|location=Western Australia|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79821349 |via=Trove |access-date=3 October 2021}}

In 1982 John Daly stated his belief that the early games of Caid played by Irish immigrants provided the inspiration for the codification, and thus morphed into, Australian rules football.Roy Hay (2014) Football in Australia before Codification, 1820–1860, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 31:9, 1047-1061, DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2014.882326

B. W. O'Dwyer suggested that there is circumstantial evidence that traditional Irish games influenced the founders of Australian rules. 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..."

Australian historians, including Geoffrey Blainey, Leonie Sandercock and Ian Turner have specifically rejected any such connection,.See, for example: {{harvp|Davis|1991–1992|pp=49–50}} and {{harvp|O'Dwyer|1989}}.

Graeme 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.

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 claims that an interclub match occurred between Melbourne Cricketers and Geelong in 1858 under compromise rules.

The rules allegedly used by the Geelong Football Club in 1859 were originally written down by hand. A reprint of what were believed in 1923 to have been the Geelong's eleven 1859 rules appeared in the Geelong Advertiser courtesy of Fred Blackham from an old folded card, which appeared to differ only slightly from Melbourne Football Club's rules.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article166012753 |title=OLD TIME FOOTBALL |newspaper=Geelong Advertiser |issue=23,770 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=8 August 1923 |access-date=14 December 2021 |page=9 |via=Trove}} However, there is no original record 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.

In the 21st century the role played by Tom Wills in the establishment of the game is generally recognised as pivotal. However, in the latter part of the 19th century and much of the 20th, H.C.A. Harrison was accepted as "the father of Australian rules football". He was to become a vice-president of the Victorian Football Association and later the inaugural chairman of the Victorian Football League and was actively associated with the Melbourne Football Club until the late 1920s.Ross Hutchinson, 1998, "THE CLUBS. The Complete History of Every Club in the VFL/AFL", Penguin Books Australia Ltd.

Journalist Martin Flanagan postulates that the game's administrators engaged in historical revisionism of the story of Tom Wills involvement in the origins of football because he was a drunkard and because he committed suicide.Stated during an interview of Martin Flanagan by Mick O'Regan, ABC Radio National "The Sports Factor", first broadcast on 2 January 2009. The interview was supported by a complete transcript that appeared on the Radio National website during January 2009. In its official account of the game's history for its 150th celebrations, however the AFL downgraded Wills and H. C. A. Harrison as the fathers of Australian football, and does not recognise any connection to traditional indigenous games. This stance was not without controversy.

• History of Australian rules football
• History of Australian rules football in Victoria (1859-1900)
• List of Australian rules football clubs by date of establishment
• Australian rules football in Victoria

Books

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book

|last = Blainey

|first = Geoffrey

|author-link = Geoffrey Blainey

|title = A Game of Our Own: The Origins of Australian Football

|publisher = Black Inc.

|year = 2003

|isbn = 978-1-86395-347-4}}

• {{cite book |last=Dawson |first=James |date=1881 |title=Australian Aborigines: The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia |publisher=Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies |isbn=978-0-85575-118-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/australianaborig81daws |access-date=2019-03-05}}
• {{cite book

|last = Hess

|first = Rob

|title = A National Game: The History of Australian Rules Football

|publisher = Viking

|year = 2008

|isbn = 978-0-670-07089-3}}

• {{cite book

|last = Pennings

|first = Mark

|title = Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's Early History: Volume 1: Amateur Heroes and the Rise of Clubs, 1858 to 1876

|publisher = Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd

|year = 2012

|isbn = 9781921421471}}

• {{cite book

|last1 = Sandercock

|first1 = Leonie

|last2 = Turner

|first2 = Ian

|title = Up Where, Cazaly?: The Great Australian Game

|publisher = Granada

|year = 1982

|isbn = 978-0-586-08427-4}}

{{refend}}

Journals

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal

|first = Gillian

|last = Hibbins

|title = The Cambridge Connection: The Origin of Australian Rules Football

|journal = The International Journal of the History of Sport

|year = 1989

|volume = 6

|issue = 2

|doi=10.1080/09523368908713687

|pages=172–192}}

• {{cite journal

|first1 = Gillian

|last1 = Hibbins

|first2 = Trevor

|last2 = Ruddell

|title = "A Code of Our Own": Celebrating 150 Years of the Rules of Australian Football

|url = http://www.mcc.org.au/~/media/Files/Yorker-Issue%2039_Autumn2009_low-res.pdf

|journal = The Yorker

|year = 2009

|issue = 39 }}

{{refend}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Australian rules football}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian rules football, Origins of}}

Origins