ON MAY 17, 1859 – 160 years ago – four influential sporting identities gathered in a hotel near the Melbourne Cricket Ground and wrote the first official rules of Australian Football. 

One of the chief footy law-makers, champion sportsman Tom Wills, had been determined to create "a game of our own", and had helped get the then-oblong ball rolling the previous July by writing a letter that was published in Bell's Life magazine, in which he called for the establishment of a "foot-ball club" to keep cricketers fit in winter.

From left, William Hammersley, publican James ‘Jerry’ Bryant (standing), James Thompson, Thomas Smith and Tom Wills (standing). Cartoon by Mark Knight

A month later, in August 1858, Wills umpired the first organised match of this distinctly new game between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, each fielding 40 players and playing with a round ball over an 800-metre stretch of the Richmond Paddock (now Yarra Park).

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-05-17/the-very-first-football-club-when-the-australian-game-was-born-160-years-ago

4 hours ago, DV8 said:

ON MAY 17, 1859 – 160 years ago – four influential sporting identities gathered in a hotel near the Melbourne Cricket Ground and wrote the first official rules of Australian Football. 

One of the chief footy law-makers, champion sportsman Tom Wills, had been determined to create "a game of our own", and had helped get the then-oblong ball rolling the previous July by writing a letter that was published in Bell's Life magazine, in which he called for the establishment of a "foot-ball club" to keep cricketers fit in winter.

From left, William Hammersley, publican James ‘Jerry’ Bryant (standing), James Thompson, Thomas Smith and Tom Wills (standing). Cartoon by Mark Knight

A month later, in August 1858, Wills umpired the first organised match of this distinctly new game between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, each fielding 40 players and playing with a round ball over an 800-metre stretch of the Richmond Paddock (now Yarra Park).

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-05-17/the-very-first-football-club-when-the-australian-game-was-born-160-years-ago

Fake News alert!

The first organised match of this distinctly new game ( except it was nothing like Australian Football)was not played between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch, but  between Melbourne Grammar and (the then) St Kilda Grammar School. Source: MCC library and documents found at Melbourne Grammar School relating to the date of the St Kilda match.