The origins of Australian Rules Football can be traced back to the 1850s in Melbourne. A game was organised by Tom Wills who suggested playing some sort of winter sport to keep cricketers fit in the off season. The first game of an early hybrid of Aussie Rules, was played on July 31, 1858 on Richmond Paddock.
The early game was influenced by winter sports games played in Britain at the time, namely Rugby and Soccer. Round Soccer balls were used in earlier games but the oval shape of the Rugby ball prevailed in the end. Because of the vast amount of land in Australia, the early grounds were often big and there were no limit to the number of players on the ground at one time. The shape of the ground was influenced by the parks and ovals in and around Melbourne.
In the 1880′s the game was now played on the same ovals as cricket so the shape moved from a rectangular field to a round one. The game of Australian Rules Football gave an alternative winter sport to playing Rugby, which left a lot of workers too injured to work on a Monday after playing it on a Saturday. The grounds in Australia were unturfed and rough compared to the lush green grass found in England at the time. Rugby also was still in its developmental state in regards to rules and was very liberal in regards to physical contact and player safety.
Rules for Australian football were drawn up and initially there were only 10 of them. Today there is a whole book full of rules and they are constantly being revised on a yearly basis by the A.F.L. Clubs were later formed and met weekly to discuss rule changes in pubs. Because the game originated in Melbourne, it was easy to get everyone together and change the rules. Early games did not have set scoring of goals and behinds, a set time of four quarters, or even an umpire bouncing the ball to start the game.
A lot of people assume that Gaelic football or even a similar game played by Australian Aboriginals was the precursor to Australian Rules Football. But there is simply not enough proof to warrant these claims. Their games are similar, and could go along way to explaining why the Irish and Aboriginals are great exponents of Australian Rules Football.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Great article Johnnytruent. A few points and questions however.
1) It would be great to see the original 10 rules.
2) I also always thought the Aboriginals ‘possum skin’ game had more ‘input’
3) I also thought that quite often the early games consisted of a blown up pig skin as the ball.
I know I would love more of these history posts…
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April 4th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Yeah it would be good to know what the original 10 rules were if anyone could follow this up.
‘A lot of people assume that Gaelic football or even a similar game played by Australian Aboriginals was the precursor to Australian Rules Football. But there is simply not enough proof to warrant these claims.’ From a few different sources that I have read this appears to be true
Early Rugby balls were made from leather and had a pigskin bladder and they were chosen as the balls used for Australian Rules Football games.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
I have found the original 10 rules and will post them in a new thread this week.
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