The privates and others of the garrison have lately been amusing themselves more than usual in the ordinary practice of foot-ball, in the Barrack Square, and a healthful exercise is foot-ball. [i]
Football probably came to Australia in several forms, but
traditional English football involved 200 or more players. In the earliest days
of Sydney, there just weren’t enough people to provide two teams of proper size
without involving both soldiers and convicts, and that sort of mixing would
have caused brawls, so we can probably rule out the supersized form of the
game.
By the time of the 1829 game mentioned above, team sizes
were probably smaller, the population was assuredly larger, and the Sydney
garrison was almost certainly playing a more controllable form of football on
the barrack square. This was, said the Sydney Monitor, an old Leicestershire
custom. On the other hand, they may have been playing Gaelic football (the
ancestor of ‘Aussie Rules’), given the way it was described in the Sydney
Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser:
Some of the military have been amusing themselves for several days past in the Barrack-square at the game of foot ball. The 57th and 39th are Irish regiments, and shew considerable ability in the practice of one of their national recreations. [ii]
The problem with any sport, according to the officious voice
of Public Morality was that it encouraged Sabbath-breakers. Somebody writing as
‘Bog Trotter’, objected to this evil in a letter to the Sydney Herald in 1832:
The constables appear to have been very busy of late, in picking up drunkards, and pouncing upon the canine race. I could wish it were possible to give them the meed of praise for their vigilance in some other points that require superintendence. [iii]
To be precise, Bog Trotter was worried about a large group
of youngsters playing football in Hyde Park during the time set aside for
Divine Service on the previous Sunday. Still, it took a while for football of
any sort to take off, and the cause lies in the patent laws of England. In the
mid-1850s, the first patents on cylinder lawn mowers (the sort we amateurs call
“push mowers”) had expired, and other makers could enter the game.
Before the emergence of the lawn mower, the grass was usually
kept down by grazing animals with no manners, beasts which left their dung
where it dropped. Mowers only leave grass clippings, and those could be raked,
or they would be blown away by the wind.
It would be uncouth of me to discuss in detail the problems faced (as one might say) by players engaged in tackles and rucks on a pitch strewn with cowpats, but the reader can probably join the dots, and guess why, in the year 1859 ± 2, all of the football codes played in Australia, as well as lawn tennis and other lawn sports suddenly came into wider popularity. Blame the lawn mower!
In Melbourne on a Saturday afternoon in August 1858, a
football match had been arranged at Richmond Park between the Church of England
and Scotch Schools, but the Church of England School team did not appear upon
the ground, and an impromptu game was organised among several members of the
Melbourne Cricket Club and others who were present. The game lasted several
hours, said The Argus:
Football seems to be coming into fashion in Melbourne, and as it is a most manly and amusing game we hope that it may continue to grow in favor until it becomes as popular as cricket…[iv]
The writer referred those doubting the value of the game to “that
most readable work, Tom Brown’s
School-days”. Clearly, the game was some form of Rugby, but ‘Aussie Rules’
was growing, slowly, in a fluid way, as the commentary on the Athletic Sports
Committee’s Challenge Cup was between the South Yarra and Carlton Clubs. South
Yarra won by two goals, the only goals kicked during the match:
The Carlton Club ascribe their defeat to the fact that they were obliged to play with the oval, or Rugby ball, while they had always been accustomed to a round ball; and they complain that their opponents would not allow a round ball to be introduced even after they had won the first goal. [v]
The round ball bit may be confusing, but Gaelic football,
one of the ancestors of ‘Rules’, uses a spherical ball. In Sydney, they mostly
played Rugby, Twopeny said, but Victoria had invented a set of rules for
herself—a kind of compound between the Rugby Union and Association [soccer],
and in the south, that was the preferred game.
Some measure of the popularity of the game may be gathered from the fact, that the member who has sat in the last three parliaments for the most important working-man’s constituency, owes his seat entirely to his prowess on behalf of the local football club. In no other way has he, or does he pretend to have the slightest qualifications…[vi]
A 19th century Australian Rules footballer.
Another way: use the index!
[i] The Australian
(Sydney), 24 July 1829, 3, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/36863890
[ii] The Sydney Gazette
and New South Wales Advertiser, 25 July 1829, 2, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2192983
[iii] The Sydney
Herald, 30 July 1832, 1S, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/28654101
[iv] The Argus
(Melbourne), 16 August 1858, 7, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/7299303
[v] The Argus
(Melbourne), 11 September 1865, 5, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/5778216
[vi] Richard Twopeny, Town
Life in Australia, ‘Amusements’.
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