AUSSIES GOT THERE FiRST

Records of Australians playing a form of football date back to 1829, but of course football in its basic form has been played in England since the Romans invaded.

St Kilda might claim to have the earliest evidence of a match when the local Grammar School took on Melbourne GS in April 1858. 

A record of Aussie Rules football was written on the 7th August 1858 at Melbourne Cricket Ground, as it was then, between the boys from Melbourne Grammar School and their school rivals, Scotch College. Tom Wills, a local well known cricketer, wanted to encourage the young boys to keep fit in winter and this seemed a very good way of doing it. Wills had grown up amongst Aborigines and had seen their game played with a round ball, known as Marn Grook. Below is a game played in Richmond paddock in 1860 with the mob game in full swing.

The Scotch headmaster, Thomas Smith and John Macadam helped organise the game that had 40 a side, few rules, no boundaries and goals that were half a mile apart. The game latest over three days 7th August, 21 of August and the 4th of September and there were plenty of fights.

In the end the game was drawn1-1 and since then the two schools have competed for what might be regarded as the longest played continuous football match, with the Cordner-Egglestone Football Cup as the trophy. This picture shows a footy match at the MCG.

At the MCG, the cricketers established the ten simple rules for the game on the 17May 1859 and that year Castlemaine (remember the beer?), Geelong and Melbourne University became regular opponents. The English FA codified their "football" laws in 1863. In Australia, a Foot-ball Challenge cup was played for in 1861, a decade before the FA Cup was started.

Other references to Aussie Rules may be found on 12.2.16, 22.6.15 and 17.3.15 blogs.

Here is Wills and the chaps in play.