I found this youtube video, which was an intro to a new Tom Wills documentary

Since he is the founder of Australian football and Melbourne football club, I thought it was appropriate to share this video with the Demonlanders.

Really good stuff! Great find 7Up! I'll be keeping an eye out for the full doco now.

Great Stuff Thanks 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op2qBvUreNo&feature=player_embedded

This one was a little more weird!!!! Still at the home of footy...

Excellent find indeed 7-UP!

Tommy Wills is about to be re-discovered as having the cultural status he deserves, not just in respect to footy, but as regards his relationship with indigenous Australians.

Martin Flanagan generously opened a painting exhibition I had earlier this year, with a series of Tom Wills related pieces, and spoke exclusively on Tommy and his historical impact. He also currently has a screenplay on the Tom Wills story being worked up by a film production company, and has written a terrific lyrical biography on him : 'The Call'. Martin also gave the John Button oration at Geelong footy club in 2011 on Tommy, and it's a great essay taster on him. You can find it online. Greg De Moore, a Sydney psychiatrist, wrote a biography : 'Tom Wills, his spectacular rise and tragic fall' about 5 years ago. Also a bloody good read.

So I reckon the Tom Wills story is about to have a rebirth, and not before time. He is a fascinating and enigmatic character, and embodies so much of how Australia sees itself.

As mentioned, I've done a series of TW pieces (of which my profile pic is one), and as an act of shameful self promotion, they can be viewed them on www.richardwebber.com.au or on Facebook as 'Richard Webber Artworks'. There's a triptych reconstruction of the Shaun Smith mark of the century on there as well, for a bit of nostalgic worth!

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Thanks for all the info on TW sources Webber, I'm going to hunt some of them down.

Really like your artwork too - very imaginative.

Nice...

Hopefully this documentary doesn't gloss over the fact, that aussie rules is an indigenous sport. That has been play here for over a thousand years.... Marnrook is the greatest game and thanks to Tom, it will continue to be played here.... Thanks Tom!!

here's another trailer

Since we're into shameless self-promotion, there's a piece I wrote about Wills in the Indigene series on Demonland a few years ago.

The life of Thomas Wentworth Wills (1835 - 1880), one of the Australian football's founding fathers and the country's indigenous people are closely intertwined. Their narratives are steeped in tragedy and despair and, in a way, it appears that fate conspired to bring them together in a dance of hopelessness and death.

Read more: INDIGENE - PART THREE

Thanks for linking to your piece WJ.

The connection of Tom Wills with Marngrook is an interesting one, and seems to make some commentators oddly adversarial.

The best evidence I've heard is through interviews with the Wills family. As much as he was was ostracised by his family later in his life, there was no contention from them as to whether he played Marngrook with the local Indigenes around Moyston or not. He did, which makes the comments of those who suggest there's no evidence of an influence on the original inception somewhat ignorant.

The fact that he knew and experienced the game brings it to bear on his part in the rule making.

I think his involvement in the promotion of indigenous cricketers, including the team that toured england, far exceeds folk legends around marngrook. The marngrook story is so good though it should be accepted as fact! His tragic decline in later years can inform a lot of welfare issues involving modern-day professional sport, not the least the insidious role of alcohol plays.