Football in Australia before Codification, 1820–1860

Abstract

Though the focus of this article is Australia, it is intended as a contribution to the debate about what was happening in the UK and elsewhere before football was codified by the Football Association in 1863. There is mounting evidence that a football culture existed far beyond the public schools and universities and that small-sided predominantly kicking games, often for monetary or other rewards, were being played by migrants to Australia who drew on their British heritage. Not only that but the game was being presented and encouraged by public authorities who would not have countenanced doing so had there been a risk of a breakdown in public order or violence accompanying the games. The article provides support for the arguments developed by Adrian Harvey in the UK.

Ainda que o foco deste artigo seja a Austrália, ele é proposto como uma contribuição ao debate sobre o que acontecia no Reino Unido e alhures antes do futebol ter sido codificado pela Football Association, em 1863. Há cada vez mais evidências de que a cultura do futebol existia muito além das public schools e universidades e que pequenos jogos, predominantemente de chutes, geralmente por prêmios monetários ou diversos, eram jogados por emigrantes na Austrália, que se apoiavam em sua herança britânica. Além disso, o jogo era apresentado e incentivado pelas autoridades públicas, que não o teriam aprovado caso houvesse risco de ruptura na ordem pública ou se os jogos fossem acompanhados de violência. O artigo fornece uma base para os argumentos desenvolvidos por Adrian Harvey, no Reino Unido.

A pesar de que este artículo se centra en el caso de Australia, pretende ser una contribución al debate sobre qué estaba pasando en el Reino Unido y en otros sitios antes de que el fútbol fuera codificado por la Football Association en 1863. Cada vez hay más pruebas de que existía una cultura futbolística más allá de las public schools y las universidades, y que había inmigrantes en Australia que disputaban partidos en cancha pequeña, a menudo con remuneraciones en metálico o de otro tipo en juego, de acuerdo con sus tradiciones de origen británico. Es más, las autoridades apoyaban y difundían estos partidos, y no se habrían atrevido a hacerlo si hubieran comportado riesgos de alteración del orden público o de conductas violentas. El artículo se alinea con los argumentos desarrollados por Adrian Harvey en el Reino Unido.

Bien que cet article soit centré sur l'Australie, il a pour but de contribuer au débat sur ce qui se passait au Royaume-Uni et ailleurs avant que le football ne soit codifié par la ‘Football Association’ en 1863. Des sources de plus en plus nombreuses attestent qu'une culture de football existait bien avant les ‘publics schools’ et les universités. Ces jeux, principalement des « jeux au pied » de petite envergure, souvent motivés par des récompenses – monétaires ou autres – étaient pratiqués par des émigrants en Australie qui puisaient dans leur héritage britannique. Mais pas seulement, car le jeu était proposé et encouragé par les pouvoirs publics qui n'auraient pas approuvé cette pratique s'il y avait eu un risque de trouble à l'ordre public ou de violence autour des matches. Cet article appuie les arguments développés par Adrian Harvey au Royaume-Uni.

Obwohl der Fokus dieses Artikels auf Australien liegt, ist es als Beitrag zur Debatte über das gedacht, was sich in Großbritannien und anderswo zutrug, bevor Fußball von der Football Association im Jahre 1863 kodifiziert wurde. Es gibt zunehmend Anzeichen dafür, dass eine Fußballkultur weit über die öffentlichen Schulen und Universitäten hinaus existierte, und dass überwiegend klein bemessene Schießspiele, oft für Geld oder andere Belohnungen, von Australiens Zuwanderern praktiziert wurden, die sich auf ihr britisches Erbe stützten. Außerdem wurde das Spiel von der öffentlichen Hand vorgestellt und gefördert, die dies nicht gutgeheißen hätte, wenn die Gefahr eines Zusammenbruchs der öffentlichen Ordnung bestanden hätte, oder wenn die Spiele von Gewalt begleitet gewesen wären. Der Artikel untermauert die von Adrian Harvey in Großbritannien entwickelten Argumente.

本稿が取り上げるのはオーストラリアの事例であるが、しかしながら１８６３年にフットボール・アソシエーションがルールを成文化する以前に、イギリスやその他の地域で何が起こっていたのかという問題についての議論へ貢献することを意図している。パブリックスクールや大学のはるか外にもフットボール文化が存在したこと、そしてオーストラリアへの移民たちが英国の伝統に倣い、しばしば金銭その他の報酬をめぐって、少人数の二手に分かれてボールを主に蹴ることで進めるゲームを行っていたことを示す証拠はますます増えてきている。それだけでなく、こうしたゲームは公権力によって開催され推奨されてもいた。もし、これらのゲームが公的秩序を壊したり、ゲームに付随する暴力を生んだりする危険があるのであれば、公権力は決してそんなことはしなかっただろう。本稿は、アドリアン・ハーベイがイギリスについて行った議論を補強するものである。

虽然本文的重点是在澳大利亚，但其目的则是为了探讨1863足球协会成立之前足球在英国和其它地方发生的事情。有越来越多的证据表明，足球文化的存在远远超越了公立学校、大学和正在被那些吸收了他们的英国遗产的澳大利亚移民者常为金钱或其它报酬为目的所玩耍的小场地踢球比赛。不仅如此，甚至足球运动正在被那些将不会赞成比赛中伴随有破坏公共秩序或暴力危险的公共当局所鼓励。本文支持由艾德里安·哈维在英国所提出的论据。

Keywords::

• football
• Australian history
• history of football
• origins of football
• football culture

Notes

^1.Hornby, Uppies and Downies.

^2.Dunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players; Mason, Association Football and English Society.

^3.Harvey, Football: The First Hundred Years; Tranter, “The Chronology of Organised Sport in Nineteenth Century Scotland: A Regional Study: I – Patterns”; “The Chronology of Organised Sport in Nineteenth Century Scotland: A Regional Study: II – Causes.” Small-sided implies that the matches were between teams of up to say 15 players, rather than the hundreds who took part in the village folk games.

^4. Earlier versions of this paper have appeared in Hay, “Football in Australia in the 1850s,” Bulletin of Sport and Culture; “Football in Australia in the 1850s,” British Society of Sports History Bulletin. My thanks are due to the editors of both magazines for the permission to use that material here.

^5.Collins, “The Invention of Sporting Traditions.” There is now a large literature on the relative influence of individuals and groups (and historians) on the emergence of what became the Australian game from the late 1850s onwards. See, for example, de Moore, Tom Wills; Hess et al.,A National Game; Collins, “The Invention of Sporting Traditions”; and Pennings, Origins of Australian Football.

^6.Kitching, “‘Old Football and the ‘New’ Codes.”

^7.Bale, Imagined Olympians.

^8.Goldblatt, The Ball Is Round, 20–8.

^9.Harvey, Football: The First Hundred Years.

^10. The Castlemaine or Mount Alexander goldfield was about 70 miles from Ballarat. For the role of British troops in Australia prior to 1870, see Stanley, The Remote Garrison.

^11.Castlemaine Mail, September 22, 1855, as quoted in Fagan, The First Lions of Rugby, 197. Lieutenant William Paul led the Suffolk Regiment detachment during the battle in December 1854 and was seriously wounded but recovered to play in this game. Fagan, reading back from the 1860s' experience, argues that the game was a rugby hacking-style one, but there is no contemporary indication that this was so. Lewis, A Day at the Camp, 9, cites the Mount Alexander Mail of September 28, 1855, for this match. Lewis has some good information on the start of Melbourne Rules football in Castlemaine in 1859 through the Butterworth brothers, one of whom was a member of the Melbourne club.

^12.Hay, “‘Our Wicked Foreign Game ’.”

^13.Port Phillip Herald, March 30, 1850, 3. I owe this and several other references to Dr Tony Ward. See also Finn (Garryowen), The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, 762–3. The White Hart Inn was in Bourke Street in Melbourne. Trevor Ruddell kindly provided a copy of the relevant section of the Chronicles.

^14. The football match was played on the ground which was used by the Melbourne Cricket Club at that date, not the present Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). The club did not move to the site of the modern MCG until 1853 (Dunstan, The Paddock That Grew, 17).

^15.Supplement to the Argus, Tuesday, November 19, 1850, 15; South Australian, Thursday, December 5, 1850, 4. Nearly all of the following references taken from the contemporary press are drawn from the National Library of Australia's wonderful newspaper digitisation project. http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home. There were several Barrys in Melbourne in 1850. Mark Pennings indicated that the captain of one of the sides which played was David Barry, a publican at the Butchers' Arms in Elizabeth Street, citing Batchelder, “Football on the Header Melbourne Cricket Ground 1850” (Pennings, Origins of Australian Football, 12).

^16.Batchelder, “Football on the Header Melbourne Cricket Ground 1850.”

^17. It is not clear whether the entry fees mentioned in this and the next few games is per team or per individual. If the latter, it would have deterred the lower orders, and Garryowen suggested it was on this occasion.

^18. The advertisement appeared in TheArgus over several days. This one is taken from that of August 12, 1850, 3.

^19.The Argus, August 26, 1850, 2.

^20. Ibid., August 27, 1850, 2.

^21.Finn (Garryowen), The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, 667–8; 747–8. TheArgus, December 8, 1858, 3, carried advertisements for the sale of thoroughbred horses and cattle by Dalmahoy Campbell and Company.

^22.The Argus, August 13, 1851, 4; August 28, 1851, 2.

^23.Geelong Advertiser, August 30, 1851, 2.

^24.The Argus, August 29, 1851, 2.

^25.Finn (Garryowen), The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, 749.

^26.Geelong Advertiser, November 20, 1850, 2; Blainey, A Game of Our Own, 12. More than 6000 people attended the first day of the festival, among them 2000 children: “… they were regaled with buns and cakes, and … a variety of amusements, in the way of cricket, foot-ball, swings, &c., &c. had been provided for them” (Geelong Advertiser, November 20, 1850, 2).

^27.Geelong Advertiser, November 21, 1850, 2.

^28.Star, Ballarat, October 20, 1859, 1.

^29.South Australian Register, January 7, 1859, 1.

^30.Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser, August 24, 1859, 2.

^31.Port Phillip Herald, February 26, 1856; March 5, 1856, 8. See also Pennings, Origins of Australian Football, 12, who notes sporting events including football being advertised by the publican of Johnston's Hotel in Prahran in December 1854 in the Port Phillip Melbourne Herald.

^32.Warrnambool Examiner and Western Districts Advertiser, May 28, 1861, 2.

^33.Cole et al.,Birth of the Blues, 2–5.

^34.Warrnambool Examiner and Western Districts Advertiser, June 4, 1861, 2.

^35.The Argus, May 28, 1855, 2.

^36.Sydney Morning Herald, Monday May 18, 1846, 2.

^37.Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, July 25, 1829, 2; Sydney Monitor, July 25, 1829, 4; and Australian, July 24, 1829, 3.

^38.Sydney Morning Herald, December 28, 1850, 5.

^39. “Local Intelligence,”, Bathurst Free Press, October 19, 1850, 5.

^40. “Hunter River District News, Port Stephens,“ Maitland Mercury, April 6, 1853, 2; Sydney Morning Herald, April 7, 1853, 2.

^41.Empire, Sydney, June 12, 1854, 2

^42.Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, April 11, 1857, 3.

^43.Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, May 23, 1860, 1.

^44.Australian, June 27, 1844, 1.

^45. The author is not sure what football lamps were, but the name seems to have required no explanation (Sydney Morning Herald, March 17, 1855, 10).

^46.Australasian Chronicle, June 10, 1841, 2.

^47. For an account of Gipps's life and governorship of New South Wales, see McCulloch, “Sir George Gipps (1791–1847).”

^48.Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, July 31, 1830, 2.

^49.Moreton Bay Courier, January 20, 1849, 3. Reference kindly supplied by Ian Syson,

^50.Colonial Times, Hobart, December 20, 1850, 1.

^51. Ibid., Hobart, September 10, 1850, 3.

^52. Ibid., Hobart, October 24, 1851, 3.

^53. Richmond Jubilee, Hobart Courier, August 6, 1853, 4.

^54.Colonial Times, Hobart, August 13, 1853, 2.

^55. Sorell is north east of Hobart. Colonial Times, Hobart, September 15, 1853, 2.

^56. “Richmond Ploughing Match,” Hobart Courier, October 14, 1854, 4.

^57.Colonial Times, Hobart, October 28, 1854, 3.

^58.Cornwall Chronicle, Launceston, May 23, 1860, 7.

^59.Daly, Elysian Fields, 58, citing Southern Australian, March 17, 1843, 3. See also South Australian Register, March 18, 1843, 4.

^60.Daly, Elysian Fields, 60.

^61.Daly, Elysian Fields, 63, citing South Australian Register of July 25, 1908.

^62.http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/manning/sa/sport/footy.htm (accessed October 12, 2012).

^63.Daly, Elysian Fields, 60.

^64.http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/manning/sa/sport/footy.htm, accessed October 12, 2012.

^65. “Sir James Ross's Arctic Expedition,” Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, July 5, 1850, 4; Courier, Hobart, March 9, 1850, 2.

^66. Report from their own correspondent in Geelong (The Argus, December 13, 1855, 6); see also “New Year's Day – Grand Silver Cup Race and other Matches, Horse and Foot; Skittles, Cricket, Football, Banquet, Concert and Ball, Hawksburn, Enquire Johnston's Hotel, Prahran,” The Argus, January 1, 1855, 7.

^67. See, for example, Inquirer, Perth, October 9, 1850, 2; Maitland Mercury, NSW, April 6, 1850, 2; South Australian Register, May 9, 1850, 2; Cornwall Chronicle, Launceston, March 18, 1843, 2. Ian Syson has tagged several such references in his research.

^68. Many of these references were discovered thanks to Gillian Hibbins who pointed out a typo in an earlier version of this piece. She spotted “foothall” rather than “football”. Given the problems the Optical Character Recognition system has with “b” and “h” in early newspapers, I started searching for “foothall” and found several more examples of football games as a result.

^69.Geelong Advertiser and Squatters' Advocate, May 31, 1852, 2.

^70. Ibid., October 9, 1855, 3.

^71. Ibid., May 31, 1852, 2.

^72.Sydney Herald, Wednesday, May 27, 1840, 2.

^73. Oz Sports History website, http://www.ozsportshistory.com/melbournerules/irishpicnic.html (accessed June 1, 2013), citing Port Phillip Gazette, July 13, 1844.

^74.Finn (Garryowen), The Chronicles of Early Melbourne, 667–8. The Chronicles were originally published in 1888. Trevor Ruddell led me to this game.

^75. Letter to the editor from a member of the Sydney School of Arts, Colonist, Sydney, July 30, 1835, 4.

^76.Hobart Town Courier, September 23, 1836, 4.

^77.Hobart Courier, January 5, 1848, 2.

^78.Grow, “From Gum Trees to Goalposts,” 12; Blainey, A Game of Our Own, 3.

^79.Geelong Advertiser, April 21, 1859, 2.

^80.Brownhill, a later editor and historian of the Geelong Advertiser, made amends for his predecessor's facetiousness in a neat account of the life and contribution of William Stitt Jenkins, poet, environmentalist, social critic, agitator on behalf of the poor and philanthropist, in Brownhill, The History of Geelong and Corio Bay, 345–7.

^81.Geelong Advertiser, April 21, 1859, 2.

^82.South Australian Register, Adelaide, May 10, 1850, 4.

^83. Mark Pennings and Robert Pascoe are compiling a prosopography of the first generation of footballers involved with the code which became Australian (Rules) football (Pennings and Pascoe, “The Corio Oval Tribe”). See also Hay, “A Club Is Born.”

^84.Hibbins, “A Code of Our Own”; , “The Evolution of the Rules from 1859 to 1866”; “The Evolution of the Rules from 1872 to 1877.”

^85. See de Moore, Tom Wills (2011 ed.), 267–8.

^86. For a comprehensive account of the meetings and deliberations on the rules of game in England and Scotland see Brown, The Football Association. For Australia, see the references in note 84 and Hibbins, “Myth and History in Australian Rules Football.”

^87.Curry and Dunning, “The Problem with Revisionism.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roy Hay

Roy Hay is an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia and a partner in Sports and Editorial Services Australia. He and Bill Murray have just completed a work titled A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, to be published by Hardie Grant in May 2014.