Query Examples of code switching clubs?

[SgtSchulz]

The only example I can think of straight away is Unions from the WAFL that switched from Rugby Union to Australian Rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle_Football_Club_(1881–1899)

I wonder how many clubs here and overseas have done the same?

 

[Obi fella]

The only example I can think of straight away is Unions from the WAFL that switched from Rugby Union to Australian Rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle_Football_Club_(1881–1899)

I wonder how many clubs here and overseas have done the same?

Interesting. Research time!

 

[fabulousphil]

AFAIK a few rugby clubs switched from Australian Rules to rugby in NZ in the 1860'70 and 80's.

My guess would be a few clubs in Queensland and NSW would done the same, i believe the University rugby club in Sydney (1865) played rules at one stage

 

[Engimal]

Wow, that's awesome. I'd never heard of this happening before.

 

[tandino]

Manningham FC played Union before breaking away with a number of Northern English clubs to form what is now Rugby League in 1895, subsequently leaving Rugby League and joining the Football League in 1903 as Bradford City AFC.

I would have thought that a number of other clubs around the world would have had similar stories to tell, especially in the early days.

 

[blueycarlton]

Waratah a Rugby Union club in Sydney, played Carlton at both Rugby and Australian Football in Sydney on June 23, 25, 1877, and also in Melbourne on the MCG June 29, and July 01 1878.
The Leader newspaper September 03 1881 reported that the Waratah Rugby club had a meeting of members and reformed into an Australian Football club and played in the NSW Football Association.
Blueseum (www.blueseum.org) has details of these matches.

 

[Heardy_101]

I can imagine a lot of early English Rugby clubs would have switched to soccer or vice versa.

QLD and NSW would be good examples too, given the NSWRL didn't officially start until 1908 (meaning the VFL had a good 10 year start on them) I'm guessing a lot of local RLCs in QLD and NSW, particularly country ones, would have started off as Aussie Rules clubs before code switching.

 

[fumbler]

Edmonton Eskimos.
https://stats.cfldb.ca/team/edmonton-rugby-football-club/

 

[Subprime]

Edmonton Eskimos.
https://stats.cfldb.ca/team/edmonton-rugby-football-club/

Is this more a name change than a code change?

I think Canadian football called their game 'rugby' well into the 20th century even though they had diverged from RU, along with American football, quite early on in their history.

 

[giggler99]

My local junior footy club has just folded and has now turned in to a Rugby league club, does that count?

 

[fumbler]

Is this more a name change than a code change?

I think Canadian football called their game 'rugby' well into the 20th century even though they had diverged from RU, along with American football, quite early on in their history.

So they played Rugby Union as a Union club until the Union changed it's name to CFL, how does it not count?

 

[Subprime]

So they played Rugby Union as a Union club until the Union changed it's name to CFL, how does it not count?

I've only read the wiki history of Canadian football so its hard to tell when some changes to the game occured, but for a long time after they diverged from pure Rugby Union there are RU references. For example, by 1903 they were playing a game with a line of scrimmage and 3 downs and yet the 'Ontario Rugby Football Union' was competing for the Grey Cup, which is Canadian football's main prize, until 1954.

 

[killer]

organised football in Darwin was proceeded by a game of rugby

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/154554408

 

[The_Wookie]

The only example I can think of straight away is Unions from the WAFL that switched from Rugby Union to Australian Rules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle_Football_Club_(1881–1899)

Of the early clubs in the WAFA, all but one of the founding clubs was a Rugby club at some point.

• 1868 - September 19. A team representing the second battalion of the 14th Foot (Buckinghamshire) Regiment played a "very spirit match" against a team of locals on the Bishops collegiate School Grounds near Mt Eliza, in Perth. This game was apparently under neither Victorian or rugby union rules but an older British system of the best of three goals, regardless of time taken.
• 1876 - Several matches between the boys schools of Perth and Fremantle are played, although no match reports survive to indicate the style, one of the participants was recorded as Walter Hartnell James, later to be secretary of the WAFA but known to be playing Rugby until prior to the establishment of the WAFA.
  
• 1877 - The new Governor, Harry Ord organises rugby matches using balls he imported at his own expense.
  
• 1881 - May 28. High school Football club adopts the laws of rugby.
• 1882 - Several rugby matches are played leading to the formation of five clubs - Perth, Rovers, Fremantle, Unions and the Fearnoughts. It was noted however that Unions had already opted for Victorian rules, and the Perth club would also experiment with the Victorian game shortly after.
• 1883 - Harry herbet and William Augustus attempt to start a new club, Swans, in Fremantle. It is ultimately unsuccessful and they kept playing rugby in Fremantle. They'd learnt Victorian rules at Prince Alfred College in Adelaide.
• 1885 - Fremantle adopts the Victorian Rules. Matches are played on the Barrack Green.
  
• 1885 - April 27. Hugh Dixon places an advertisement in the Western Australian calling for a meeting to form a Victorian rules club in Perth. Before this could happen, Rovers switched to Victorian Rules.
• 1885 - May 2. Victorians is formed. They would later be known as West Perth.
  
• 1885 - May 8. A meeting at the Criterion Hotel sees the formation of the West Australian Football Association with four clubs.
  
• 1886 - Unions, the first club to switch to Victorian Rules, joins the WAFA.

In South Australia, the code was English Football, and it wasnt unusual for teams to have completely different rules. Adelaide refused to play under the Kensington rules and tried reverting to Rugby in a one off game before the Asscoiation adopted Melbourne Rules almost in their entirety in 1877.

• 1847. John Acraman arrives in Adelaide with five round footballs.
• 1854. Acraman erects the first set of goalposts in Adelaide. Matches are played between St Peters College old boiys, and played between the Frome Road and City Bridges under Harrow Rules.
• 1860. Henry Harrison makes a promotion visit for Victorian Rules to Adelaide
• 1860 - April 26. John Acraman, William Fullarton and Robert Cussen meet at the Globe Inn in Adelaide to form a local football club. It was known as the Adelaide Football Club. The club was more or less an association than one homogenous club - pklayers formed north and south of the River torrens, while a third group was known as the Collegians.
• 1873 - March 10. Adelaide, Kensington and Port Adelaide meet at the Prince Alfred Hotel to draw up a standard code. Rules were drawn up similar to the English Football Association and were known as Kensington Rules.
• 1876 - July 8. Newly formed South Adelaide played Adelaide in a game of Rugby Union
• 1877 - April 30. The South Australian Football Association was formed. Represented were South Park, Willunga, Port Adelaide, Adelaide, North Adelaide, Prince Alfred College, Gawler, Kapunda, Bankers, Woodville, South Adelaide and Victorian.The meeting adopted the Melbourne Rules.

Sources
- Behind the Play...A History of Football in Western Australia from 1868, Anthony Barker
- The South Australian Football Story, Bernard Whimpress

 

[The_Wookie]

Waratah a Rugby Union club in Sydney, played Carlton at both Rugby and Australian Football in Sydney on June 23, 25, 1877, and also in Melbourne on the MCG June 29, and July 01 1878.
The Leader newspaper September 03 1881 reported that the Waratah Rugby club had a meeting of members and reformed into an Australian Football club and played in the NSW Football Association.
Blueseum (www.blueseum.org) has details of these matches.

England came over and did a tour of Melbourne, Adelaide and New Zealand. They played Carlton in 1888.