HISTORY OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB: PART ONE -

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HISTORY OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB:

PART ONE - DREAMING by The Professor

Men and women first walked here in the Dreamtime when life was simple. In those days they ran, hunted and chased. The first sport in this place was played by the First Australians.

And when the new people came to begin the Port Phillip settlement the tradition continued as it does to this very day. Melbourne is known as the Sporting Capital of the World and its football club is not only the oldest but also the finest.

The Colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 around Sydney and gradually expanded to the north, the west and to the south into Port Phillip where John Batman landed at the mouth of the Yarra River in 1835. He set up camp near the site of Queens Bridge and declared "this will be the place for a village." The area came to be known as Melbourne.

By 1837 the Melbourne township was surveyed, the first land sales were held and, as the young settlement began to flourish, so did its sports. They raced horses at Batman Hill and the Melbourne Cricket Club was formed in 1838. The population found its amusement in a variety of games.

Melbourne had become a major administrative and commercial centre with a population of 23,000 by 1850. The new colony achieved separation from New South Wales in 1851 and immediately its development gained impetus with the discovery of gold in several outlying districts. The gold rush of the 1850's brought a booming economy and a rapidly expanding population that came from all parts of the globe to the fledgling colony. The Victorian landscape was changed for all time.

There is no definitive answer to the question of where and how the Australian game of football truly originated. Was it from games played by our first Australians or was it based on a sport with Anglo-Saxon roots? Or perhaps it came from some gold digging Irish migrant who remembered the Gaelic form of game played at home?

We do know however, that in 1858 the Honorary Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club, Thomas Wentworth Wills conceived a football game to keep cricketers fit in the winter. On 7 August 1858 a match was arranged between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College. It was played on parkland by the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In the following year, the Melbourne Football Club formed - its rules drafted by Wills' cousin H. C. A. Harrison who was to become the captain of the team. Soon, other clubs followed - Geelong, South Yarra and Richmond.

By 1864, a loose form of competition was under way including new clubs Carlton, South Melbourne and Royal Park. The dominant club remained Melbourne, which was known as the "Invincible Whites." The new game flourished with strong teams emerging in the gold field areas of Ballarat and Bendigo. Harrison remained a powerful figure as the game evolved and rules were established to govern the size of the field, the number of players, the distance of goalposts, reserve players and umpires.

Harrison retired as captain and player of the Melbourne Football Club in 1872 but he continued to be influential as an administrator. The game was growing in stature and importance in the Colony of Victoria and by the late 1870's, it was ready for a more formalised competition to emerge ...