Melbourne Football
In 1857, Tom Wills, one of the founders of Australian Football, returned to Australia after schooling in England where he was football captain of Rugby School and a brilliant cricketer. Initially, he advocated the winter game of football as a way of keeping cricketers fit during off-season.
The new game was devised by Wills, his cousin H.C.A. Harrison, W.J. Hammersley and J.B. Thompson. The Melbourne Football Club was formed on August 7, 1858 – the year of the code’s first recorded match between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School.
The game quickly blossomed. The Geelong Football Club was formed in 1859 and in 1866 an updated set of rules was put in place and competition started.
The Victorian Football League was established in 1896 and the following year the League’s first games were played among the foundation clubs – Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne.
In 1908, Richmond and University joined the competition. But after the 1914 season, University left the League. In 1925, Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs), Hawthorn and North Melbourne (now the Kangaroos) joined the VFL.
This line-up of 12 clubs would remain unchanged until 1987 when the competition expanded to include the West Coast Eagles and the Brisbane Bears. BY 1997, the competition comprised 16 clubs after Adelaide (in 1991), Fremantle (in 1995), and Port Adelaide (in 1997) joined the now Australian Football League and foundation club Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Bears to form the Brisbane Lions (after the 1996 season).
The Australian Football League (AFL) is both the elite Australian national competition in the sport of Australian Rules Football and its highest governing body.
The AFL is the most attended professional sporting league in Australia: it is the most popular sport competition in terms of attendances and TV ratings of the nation. The previous three AFL Premiership Seasons have had a total regular season attendance of over six million (currently the 10th most attended professional sports league in the world) and the average attendance of over 36,000 (the second highest of any professional sports league in the world).
The 16 teams play against each other in 22 rounds between late March and early September in a non-divisional format. These matches are followed by a series of finals matches which culminate in the two best teams playing off for the Premiership in the AFL Grand Final, the best attended domestic club championship event in the world.
The AFL evolved from the Victorian domestic competition, known as the Victorian Football League (VFL), and became the Australian Football League in 1990. Over the past 25 years it has grown into a national competition with teams based in five of the six Australian states. Since the national competition, the AFL has gained considerable media and financial strength, as well as control over the game at most levels. The Victorian Football Association has since changed its name to the Victorian Football League.
The AFL Commission, which runs the league assumed the role of governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in Australia in 1993 when it dissolved the Australian National Football Council. It is now responsible for the Laws of Australian Football through the AFL Rules Committee (consisting of members from the AFL Players Association). The AFL also became the defacto world governing body in 2002 when it negotiated the disbanding of the International Australian Football Council. Since 2000, through the commission, the AFL has pushed for all affiliated leagues and bodies to co-brand with the league as well as refer to the sport as "AFL" in preference to its official name of "Australian Football".If you are travelling to Melbourne to watch an Australian rules football game check out our range of Melbourne accommodation.