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Collingwood's Dane Swan and supporters after the 2010 Toyota AFL Grand Final replay between the Collingwood Magpies and the St Kilda Saints at the MCG, Melbourne. Slattery Images
Ask any Victorian and there’s no doubt in their minds Australian Rules is their sport, lock, stock, and barrel. But it was Tom Wills, born in Queanbeyan NSW in 1835, who invented the sport in 1857.
A boarder at Rugby School in England from 14, Wills excelled at both rugby and cricket.
In his final year he captained both the first XV and first X1 and was rated one of the most promising cricketers in England.
When he left Rugby, Wills played a couple of county seasons with Kent, and returned home to find his Queanbeyan cricket mates were unfit.
So he devised a game that was a mixture of rugby, soccer, and Gaelic football, featuring marking, kicking, and tackling, with no off-side, to keep his colleagues active in the winter.
When Wills was appointed secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club in 1858 he pursued his hybrid game further, with his Picton NSW born cousin Henry Harrison.
The first “official” game was between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College with 40 aside. The goal-posts were half-a-mile apart, and the game lasted for five hours.
Little did Tom Wills think his roughly put together game would become Australia’s biggest sport. Undisputed.
Crowds in excess of 80,000 at the MCG have been surpassed 10 times this season. A record.
At the completion of the 24 rounds before the finals, 2.53 million had gone through the MCG gates alone. Another record..
In all, 26 games passed the 50,000 mark, 25 of them at the MCG. Both new records.
AFL is a phenomenal success story, and Melbourne couldn’t be a better city to be the code’s home.
Pro-rata to population, Melbourne is the best sporting spectator city on the planet. If the “G” could hold 150,000, there’d be 150,000 there for the decider on Saturday – rain, hail, or shine.
The MCG for cricket is another mind-blower with a potential 80,000-plus a day for an Ashes series; Melbourne Park, the permanent home of the Australian Tennis Open, is constantly booked out; and the Australian Formula One Championship enjoys big numbers
And let’s not forget the Melbourne Cup, the race that literally stops the nation.
.
This week is all about the lead-in to the big one. It’s a fascinating time to be in the southern capital.
Weather permitting, there will be 200,000 lining Melbourne inner-city streets tomorrow for the drive past of the Collingwood and Geelong teams – the atmosphere electric.
Don’t be surprised. There’s an old saying you’d get 20,000 to watch two flies crawl up a wall in Melbourne if it was promoted properly.
So take a bow Tom Wills and Henry Harrison. You gave NSW an original stake in the illustrious history of the VFL and AFL.
Not that any Victorian would give a continental.