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Australian rules football was codified in 1859 by members of the Melbourne Football Club.The first rules were devised by the Australian-born Tom Wills, who was educated at Rugby School; Englishmen William Hammersley and J. B. Thompson, fellow students at Cambridge's Trinity College; and Irish Australian Thomas H. Smith, who played rugby football at Dublin University.
Australian rules football is known by several nicknames, including Aussie rules, football and footy. [9] In some regions, where other codes of football are more popular, the sport is most often called AFL after the Australian Football League, while the league itself also uses this name for local competitions in some areas. [10]
Australia is unique among major sporting markets in having four football codes competing for market share. The irony is that the two international games, football (soccer) and rugby union, are getting trounced by the two parochial codes, rugby league and Australian Football, which are both fast and furious, and both built on deep tribal roots.
During the early development of rugby football different schools used different rules, on many occasions agreeing upon them shortly before commencement of the game. [4] In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Rugby football spread to Australia and New Zealand, with games being played in the early-to-mid-nineteenth ...
In Australia, Australian rules football is the most popular spectator sport and the second most participated code of football.Since originating in Victoria in 1858 and spreading elsewhere from 1866, it has been played continuously in every Australian state since 1903 plus the two major territories since 1916.
A 1904 recollection of the Australian game in South Africa cites a book called "Martin's Australian Football Guide" that claims that on the goldfields early footballers of various nationalities would alternate between soccer, rugby and Australian rules, and this happened prior to the outbreak of the war, with Australians beating the other ...
The club adopted rugby rules in 1876. [16] [18] Australian football is thought to have been first organised in New Zealand around 1868. The Nelson Football Club was formed this year and played a hybrid version of Victorian and Association (soccer) rules in its first two seasons.
Samoa Rules is a game derived from Australian rules football that has also been played in Samoa. The game is played on rugby fields and each team consists of 15 players per side. Unlike Australian rules football, player movement is restricted to zones (similarly to Rec Footy). There is a line across the centre that backs and forwards can not cross.