Early years ofAustralian Rules Football in Victoria Champion clubs
Challenge Cups for Senior clubs.
1862 University 1863 Melbourne, Geelong 1864 Geelong 1865 Melbourne, University, South Yarra 1866 South Yarra 1870 Albert Park (disputed) 1871 Carlton
Premiership 1870 Melbourne 1871 Carlton 1872 Melbourne 1873 Carlton 1874 Carlton 1875 Carlton 1876 Melbourne
Following the establishment of the Victorian Football Association in 1877, the VFA announced a Premier team. This was usually the club with the highest number of wins but this was not always the case; if a high proportion of wins were against Junior clubs, this would count against the team. The following list shows the teams recognised as the top four VFA clubs from 1877–96 (in consecutive order). In 1888, the VFA published a list of the final four clubs at the end of what are now called home-and-away matches. However, the listings for 1877 to 1887 are based on various newspaper reports. Between 1897 and 1900, the top teams for both the VFA and VFL are listed:
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900 Leading goalkickers
1858–66 ?1867 12: L. N. Bell (Melbourne)1868–71 ?1872 6: J. Donovan (Carlton); C. Loughnan (Melbourne)1873 ?1874 10: W. Dedman (Carlton)1875 13: W. Dedman (Carlton)1876 18: W. Dedman (Carlton)1877 12: C. Baker (Melbourne)1878 ?1879 19: George Coulthard (Carlton)1880 33 (some scored on tour & interstate)Percy Douglass (Geelong); 21: George Coulthard (Carlton)1881 25: E. Brooks (Carlton)1882 29: Hugh McLean (Geelong)1883 29: Phil McShane (Geelong)1884 33: Phil McShane (Geelong)1885 38: G. Houston (Hotham)1886 51: Phil McShane (Geelong)1887 36: Tom McShane (Geelong)1888 50: "Dinny" McKay (South Melbourne)1889 40: Edgar Barrett (South Melbourne)1890 49: Jim Grace (Fitzroy)1891 37: Jim Grace (Fitzroy)1892 56: Albert Thurgood (Essendon)1893 64: Albert Thurgood (Essendon)1894 63: Albert Thurgood (Essendon)1895 42: Dave de Coite (Geelong)1896 ?1897 – VFA 38: Daly (Port Melbourne)1897 – VFL 27: E. James (Geelong)1898 – VFA ?1898 – VFL 31: Archie Smith (Collingwood)1899 – VFA 39: Daly (Footscray)1899 – VFL 32: E. James (Geelong)1900 – VFA 32: Daly (Footscray)1900 – VFL 26: Albert Thurgood (Essendon)
Australian rules football was first organised in Victoria in 1859 when its rules were codified by the Melbourne Football Club.
First rules: 1859
The original local football rules were drafted on 17 May 1859, in a meeting between four members of the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), which included Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith. The meeting was held at the Parade Hotel on the site of the present MCG Hotel. Wills, a renowned cricketer, was secretary of the MCC. He had attended Rugby School and was familiar with the argument between the proponents of allowing players to handle the ball (i.e., Rugby football) and those who wanted players to use their feet only, the style later adopted by the Football Association.
1859 – Geelong rules Below are the rules for Australian Rules Football, alleged to have been used by the Geelong Football Club in 1859. They were originally written down by hand. This is strange, as when Geelong formed in July 1859, they used the Melbourne rules. Graeme Atkinson, writing in Everything You Wanted Know About Australian Rules Football ... considers it likely that these Geelong rules were drawn up prior to the first rules of the Melbourne Football Club which were drafted on 17 May 1859.:
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 [18.3 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 when 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 is prohibited.
10. Before game captains coin 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.
It is usually agreed that it was Rule 8, which covers marking, is the one that differentiated the Australian game from any other set of football rules. Rule 9, which covers handballing, also defines a major feature of the Australian game. The lack of any offside rule is also considered a vital differentiation from other forms of football.
Reference to "the 'kick off' posts" in Rule 4 is important. These are obviously what are now known as behind posts and which have always been an important feature of the game. Until 1878, kicks between the goal-post and kick off posts were not recorded. However, after that date, behinds were noted but did not count towards the score.
Despite the fact that Tom Wills had helped referee the Melbourne Grammar v Scotch College game in 1858, Field Umpires did not become a regular feature of the game until 1872. Under Rule 11 the captains were usually responsible for adjudicating on infringements and disputations. Rule 12 does make provision for the appointment of two Umpires but these are really only goal umpires.
Of course, rules continued (and still continue) to evolve. More information on the features that make Australian Rules distinctive, is found under the heading: "Features of the Game" (below).
1860 rules Below are the rules as refined in 1860 by a meeting of the Melbourne Football Club but with some input from other existing clubs.
1. The distance between the goals and the goal posts shall be decided upon by the captains of the sides playing.
2. The captains on each side toss for choice of goal; the side losing the toss has the kick-off from the centre point between the goals.
3. A goal must be kicked fairly between the posts without touching either of them or any portion of the person of one of the opposite side. In case of the ball being forced between the goal posts in a scrimmage, a goal shall be awarded.
4. The game shall be played within a space of not more than 200 yds [182.9 metres] wide, the same to be measured equally on either side of a line drawn through the centre of the two goals; and the two posts, to be called kick-off posts, shall be erected at a distance of twenty yards [18.3 metres] on each side of the goal posts at both ends, and in a straight line with them.
5. In case the ball is kicked behind the goal, any one of the side behind whose goal it is kicked, may bring it twenty yards in front of any portion of the space between the "kick-off" posts, and shall kick it nearly as possible in line with the opposite goal.
6. Any player catching the ball directly from the foot may call "mark". He then has a free kick; no player from the opposite side being allowed to come inside the spot marked.
7. Tripping, holding and hacking are strictly prohibited. Pushing with the hands or body is allowed when any player is in rapid motion or in possession of the ball, except in the case provided for in Rule 6.
8. The ball may not be lifted from the ground in any circumstances, or taken in hand, except as provided for in Rule 6 (catch from the foot) or when on the pick-up. It shall not be run with in any case.
9. When a ball goes out of bounds (same being indicated by a row of posts) it shall be brought back to the point where it crossed the boundary line, and thrown in at right angles with that line.
10. The ball, while still in play, must under no circumstances, be thrown.
11. In case of a deliberate infringement of any of the above rules, by either side, the captain of the opposite side may claim that any one of his party may have a free kick from the place where the breach of the rules was made; the two captains in all cases, save where umpires are appointed, to be the sole judges of "infringements".
Until the 1980s, the earliest known rules were a printed set that came out of a meeting of delegates of the various clubs, held at the Freemason's Hotel, Melbourne on 8 May 1866. Copies [made at unknown date] of the 1859 set of rules and the 1860 rules, referred to above, both hand-written, have been unearthed in recent years.
Features of the game Kicking When the game was first played the types of kicks used were the punt kick, the place kick and the drop kick.
The punt kick is still an important part of the game.
The place kick, usually associated with rugby league, rugby union and gridiron was used in Aussie Rules for many years,Football: The Place Kick, The Age, (Tuesday, 8 August 1944), p.4; Beames, P., "Place Kick Out-Moded, The Age, (Thursday, 8 July 1948), p.8; Graham Succeeds with Place Kicks, The Argus, (Tuesday, 9 May 1944), p.9; Tony Sharpens up his Shock "Place", The Argus, (Wednesday, 11 May 1955), p.32; De Bolfo, Tony, "Placekick or drop punt? Den states his case", Carlton Football Club, 10 May 2012. particularly for kicking for goal. It was mainly favoured because of the distance the ball would travel after being place kicked. It was rarely used after the 1920s.
The drop kick was an important feature of the game for many decades mainly because of its accuracy, but it fell into disuse as the pace of the game speeded up and it was rarely used after the 1960s.
The stab kick (or stab pass) was devised in the early days of the 20th century, probably by Collingwood players during a 1902 tour of Tasmania, where weak opposition teams led Collingwood players to experiment. The stab's discovery is usually attributed to Dick Condon but Eddie Drohan, Charlie Pannam and Bob Rush would have also contributed."'The Stab Kick' – A Football Development", The Argus, (Monday 27 June 1910), p.6. (Some writers suggest that the Stab Pass was used even earlier and cite the Rev. A Brown who played for South Melbourne in the early 1880s. Nevertheless, it did not become a feature of the game until after Collingwood's 1902 Tasmanian tour.) The concentration on Collingwood and its players is not accidental, because the original Sherrin football, initially only used by Collingwood, was specifically designed to facilitate the stab-kick. Prior to the especially designed Sherrin football, the standard football was, essentially, a rugby ball.Sygall, D. & MacSmith, J., "Fitzroy ball of 1895 goes up for auction", The (Sydney) Sun-Herald, 5 December 2004. The stab pass also fell into disuse after the 1970s.
Bouncing the ball