SpareTowel
Senior List
- Jul 25, 2011
- 193
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- AFL Club
- Fremantle
This is what I've been able to find after combing Trove. If anyone has found an older source that notes a resemblance, or claims an influence, between the two codes, then I'd love to see it.
The first person I can find who notes a similarity between the Australian and Gaelic codes is an Australian rugby footballer, on visit to Great Britain, in 1911. He "saw a good deal of the Gaelic game, which is very similar to Australian rules, the main differences being that a Soccer ball is used, the ball must be bounced every three yards, and a cross-bar is used on the goal posts."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129932444
The next example I found, published just over a week later, leads me to believe that similarities between the two codes were observed earlier than 1911. It's a letter to the editor, and notes that "Reference has been made at times in sporting papers and magazines to the similarity of Australian rules football to the Gaelic game as generally played in Ireland." The writer goes on to say that Catholic schoolboys in Australia "should be induced to visit Ireland, and there demonstrate how Australia is akin to Ireland in the football world ... The Australian game is open, free, and scientific, and is deserving of all the sentiment that may be accorded a national sport."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105016951
Another early find, from 1912: "The Gaelic game of Ireland, in some features, resembles the Australian game. It is played 17 aside, and goals and points are scored, as are goals and behinds in Australia, though in the Gaelic game a goal counts only 3 points."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122761285
The first person I can find who links the Gaelic game to the origins of Australian football is an Irish sportswriter who witnessed an exhibition game of Australian football in London, 1917: "Once upon a time some young immigrants met in Australia and fell to talking of the games they used to play at home. They were all fond of football, and they agreed that it would be a good scheme to get up a match. But a difficulty arose, because they had been players under different rules - some Rugby, some Association, and some Gaelic. Discussion and experiment followed, and resulted in the evolution of what was a compromise between the three original games, with some entirely new features of its own."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120292632
There's a fairly long dry spell after this. Then there's this 1924 letter to the Editor of a Sydney newspaper: "... the great, scientific Australian game is based on Gaelic lines (as, for instance, hurling and "soccer"), inasmuch as it is not hampered by any off-side rule or the rough and unsightly scrimmage: it is a bright and open, fast game."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115296635
The great Jack Worrall writes in 1926: "I have always understood that there is a great resemblance between our game and the Irish one - which is called Gaelic - it appears that the similarity is remarkable, the principal difference being that they play with a round ball, while the ball we use is allied to the one played in the Rugby code." The next part is illuminating: "The evolution of all games is interesting, and none more so than ours. I was speaking to the father of the game (Mr. H. C. A. Harrison) last Saturday, and the news that our code somewhat resembled the Irish one rather surprised him. The desire of Mr. Harrison and his cousin T. W. Wills was to improve upon Rugby, and that they succeeded is a matter of history. But when our game was in its infancy the desire was for a round ball - why, I know not - but as it was not procurable they got a Rugby one instead."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142160505
In a 1939 article titled "Types of Football We Know Little About: Not Australian Rules Gone Wrong: Rules of the Gaelic Code in Ireland": "It is not generally known in Australia that there is established in Ireland a special brand of football known as the Gaelic game. It was popular in Dublin 400 years ago - 40 or 50 players a side. Modernised, it is fashioned on the Rugby principles, has since broadened out, and as played now is in some respects akin to the Australian game."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127604633
By the 1940s, it seems the idea that Australian football is an offshoot of Gaelic football, or a hybrid of Gaelic and Rugby, had gained currency, however I don't think it was the pervasive meme that it is today. I'll end with this beauty from a 1951 article titled "Can We Talk of a National Culture?":
"Australian Rules is the biggest crowd-drawer in the Commonwealth, outstripping by a vast margin even Test cricket matches. The game was created by an Englishman, H. C. Harrison, who came to Australia with a determination to Australianise himself in every way. He made a hotch-potch of the best features of Rugby, Soccer, American grid-iron and Gaelic football. Australia was a land of wide open spaces - therefore the game must have a very big playing field. Kangaroos were one of our fauna - so springing and jumping should be a feature of the game."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98349926
The first person I can find who notes a similarity between the Australian and Gaelic codes is an Australian rugby footballer, on visit to Great Britain, in 1911. He "saw a good deal of the Gaelic game, which is very similar to Australian rules, the main differences being that a Soccer ball is used, the ball must be bounced every three yards, and a cross-bar is used on the goal posts."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129932444
The next example I found, published just over a week later, leads me to believe that similarities between the two codes were observed earlier than 1911. It's a letter to the editor, and notes that "Reference has been made at times in sporting papers and magazines to the similarity of Australian rules football to the Gaelic game as generally played in Ireland." The writer goes on to say that Catholic schoolboys in Australia "should be induced to visit Ireland, and there demonstrate how Australia is akin to Ireland in the football world ... The Australian game is open, free, and scientific, and is deserving of all the sentiment that may be accorded a national sport."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article105016951
Another early find, from 1912: "The Gaelic game of Ireland, in some features, resembles the Australian game. It is played 17 aside, and goals and points are scored, as are goals and behinds in Australia, though in the Gaelic game a goal counts only 3 points."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122761285
The first person I can find who links the Gaelic game to the origins of Australian football is an Irish sportswriter who witnessed an exhibition game of Australian football in London, 1917: "Once upon a time some young immigrants met in Australia and fell to talking of the games they used to play at home. They were all fond of football, and they agreed that it would be a good scheme to get up a match. But a difficulty arose, because they had been players under different rules - some Rugby, some Association, and some Gaelic. Discussion and experiment followed, and resulted in the evolution of what was a compromise between the three original games, with some entirely new features of its own."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120292632
There's a fairly long dry spell after this. Then there's this 1924 letter to the Editor of a Sydney newspaper: "... the great, scientific Australian game is based on Gaelic lines (as, for instance, hurling and "soccer"), inasmuch as it is not hampered by any off-side rule or the rough and unsightly scrimmage: it is a bright and open, fast game."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article115296635
The great Jack Worrall writes in 1926: "I have always understood that there is a great resemblance between our game and the Irish one - which is called Gaelic - it appears that the similarity is remarkable, the principal difference being that they play with a round ball, while the ball we use is allied to the one played in the Rugby code." The next part is illuminating: "The evolution of all games is interesting, and none more so than ours. I was speaking to the father of the game (Mr. H. C. A. Harrison) last Saturday, and the news that our code somewhat resembled the Irish one rather surprised him. The desire of Mr. Harrison and his cousin T. W. Wills was to improve upon Rugby, and that they succeeded is a matter of history. But when our game was in its infancy the desire was for a round ball - why, I know not - but as it was not procurable they got a Rugby one instead."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142160505
In a 1939 article titled "Types of Football We Know Little About: Not Australian Rules Gone Wrong: Rules of the Gaelic Code in Ireland": "It is not generally known in Australia that there is established in Ireland a special brand of football known as the Gaelic game. It was popular in Dublin 400 years ago - 40 or 50 players a side. Modernised, it is fashioned on the Rugby principles, has since broadened out, and as played now is in some respects akin to the Australian game."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127604633
By the 1940s, it seems the idea that Australian football is an offshoot of Gaelic football, or a hybrid of Gaelic and Rugby, had gained currency, however I don't think it was the pervasive meme that it is today. I'll end with this beauty from a 1951 article titled "Can We Talk of a National Culture?":
"Australian Rules is the biggest crowd-drawer in the Commonwealth, outstripping by a vast margin even Test cricket matches. The game was created by an Englishman, H. C. Harrison, who came to Australia with a determination to Australianise himself in every way. He made a hotch-potch of the best features of Rugby, Soccer, American grid-iron and Gaelic football. Australia was a land of wide open spaces - therefore the game must have a very big playing field. Kangaroos were one of our fauna - so springing and jumping should be a feature of the game."
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article98349926
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