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This is how the AFL website sees Australian Footballs early days [b]NO MENTION OF THE VFA[/b] A bloody disgrace no wonder I never followed a VFL team!Ive had to put up with distorted VFL views like having H Harrison as the real founder of our game and no mention of Tom Wills for a long time in fact the VFL HQ were called Henry Harrison House.
What happened between 1866 and 1896 NOTHING????
No mention of where any of the VFL clubs came from jeez must have been by magic! This is very poor version of our games history and it is sad that youngesters are being fed this crap from the AFL via the internet as the truth!
It looks as though the AFL/VFL are still smarting from the FACT that the VFA preceded them by 20 years and dared to take the mighty VFL on many times over the decades by their obvious twisting of historical truth.
[b]AFL History[/b]
In 1857, Tom Wills, one of the founders of Australian Football, returned to Australia after schooling in England where he was football captain of Rugby School and a brilliant cricketer. Initially, he advocated the winter game of football as a way of keeping cricketers fit during off-season.
The new game was devised by Wills, his cousin H.C.A. Harrison, W.J. Hammersley and J.B. Thompson. The Melbourne Football Club was formed on August 7, 1858 – the year of the code’s first recorded match between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School.
The game quickly blossomed. The Geelong Football Club was formed in 1859 and in 1866 an updated set of rules was put in place and competition started.
The Victorian Football League was established in 1896 and the following year the League’s first games were played among the foundation clubs – Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne.
In 1908, Richmond and University joined the competition. But after the 1914 season, University left the League. In 1925, Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs), Hawthorn and North Melbourne (now the Kangaroos) joined the VFL.
This line-up of 12 clubs would remain unchanged until 1987 when the competition expanded to include the West Coast Eagles and the Brisbane Bears. BY 1997, the competition comprised 16 clubs after Adelaide (in 1991), Fremantle (in 1995), and Port Adelaide (in 1997) joined the now Australian Football League and foundation club Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Bears to form the Brisbane Lions (after the 1996 season).[b][/b]
