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I am a lecturer in Visual Arts at QUT. I have also researched the history of footy in the nineteenth century.

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At 7:08pm on October 1, 2008, Chris Wills said…: Hello Mark, Thanks for those comments, what I mean by football is not soccer or rugby in there purist forms but what Wills,Thompson and Hammersley agreed on at the Parade Hotel in East Melbourne in the Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 that was derived from some of Tom Wills ideas he had gained from rugby at while he attended Ruby School in the UK.

The Geelong Football Club founding I will have to be investigated further but I have been a supporter of the club and spent a bit of time there over the years since attending school there but I can have always read articles about the club saying that Tom Wills was instrumental in establishing the club. Might go through some of the archives at the GFC and the Geelong Advertiser.

If you walk into the members area you will see a large portrait of Tom Wills hanging on the wall but I vaguely recall a name plate saying that he help establish the club.(but I may be wrong)

Thanks Mark I will try to get back to you on this as soon as I can. What ever the outcome I don't mind as long as its accurate.

Regards
Chris

The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian football. The ten simple rules were drawn up on 17 May in a meeting was chaired by Wills and in attendance were journalists W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson. The meeting was held at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne hosted by owner and Melbourne Cricket Club member Jerry Bryant. The publican was a friend of Tom Wills with a personal interest in introducing football to Melbourne's schools. Bryant had played a role in organising early football matches at the nearby Richmond Park and his son was one of the first players. The rules were signed by Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. Sewell, J. B. Thompson, Alex Bruce, T. Butterworth and Thomas H. Smith. Importantly, the rules were widely publicised and distributed.

At 2:57pm on October 1, 2008, Chris Wills said…: Hello Mark, appreciate your comments.

I have read that the Scotch V Melbourne Grammar match may not have been the very first game but I did mentioned recorded game as all previous games have not been recorded as far as I know.

Tom Wills being the first person to establish Australian Rules Football is hard to dispute as well as he did write the famous letter dated 10 July 1858 to Bell's Life in Victoria in an attempt to stimulate interest in the sport of football to enable the cricketers to maintain their fitness during the off season. Now I am not aware of any one earlier having mentioned establishing the game of football in Australia. Wills also chaired a meeting On 17 May 1859, of the Melbourne Football Club which wrote down the sport's rules for the first time. His intentions were clear when he is recorded during this meeting to have made the famous declaration "We shall have a game of our own".

Tom Wills I believe is one of the co founders of the Geelong Football Club.

If you can prove me wrong on an of these areas please do so as I don't mind.

Thanks

Regards
Chris

At 4:02pm on July 22, 2008, Angelina Russo said…: Hi Mark
What would be really helpful would be if as you collect image references you are able to put them into endnote. That way we have a standard way of tracking the images in the future.
I'd have a chat with SLSA. As the the images are over 50 years old they are probably out of copyright so long as we credit them properly. BTW -I'll send the endnote database to your work email!