Gillian Hibbins
The Origin of Australian Rules Football
Gillian Hibbins explained that the gold rushes brought thousands of young men to the colony of Victoria in the 1850s, many of whom must have had experience of football in England where games were played but only with rules agreed before each game. It was the publican at the hotel in Wellington Parade, Jerry Bryant, who provided a football and inspired six pick-up games to be played in the spring of 1858 near the MCG. These were chaotic and it was agreed that rules were necessary.
In May 1858 about fifty young men formed the Melbourne Football Club and three days afterwards at the Parade Hotel, on 17 May, a committee of four wrote 10 rules which formed the basis for the code we now have. They were journalists James Thompson and William Hammersley, who had been at Cambridge University, teacher Tom Smith, who had attended Dublin University and young cricketer Tom Wills who was keen to introduce Rugby School football which he had learnt in England.
But the older men werenot keen on Rugby School’s rough play or offside rules. Ultimately they settled on simple rules which suited Victoria’s dry conditions.
Australian Football Rules are the oldest continuous national code in the world. They have, of course, changed and continue to change over the years.