PLAY ON:

150 Years of Australian Football

28 June 2008 - June 2009
Curated by Richard Breckon

The Play On exhibition celebrates 150 years since the first game of Australian Football was played, which will also be marked by a stamp issue on 29 July. Australia’s only indigenous football code was born in Victoria, spreading to South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. In New South Wales and Queensland, Rugby Union – and subsequently Rugby League – took a firm hold. Australia was divided into two 'football nations'.

By the 1880s, crowds of 15,000 to 20,000 were normal at matches in Melbourne. The strongest clubs attracted the biggest crowds and earned larger gate takings. With more income, stronger clubs could recruit the best players and provide their supporters with ever more victories.

In 1896, the strongest Victorian clubs decided their best interests would be served in a separate competition, leaving behind the weaker clubs in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). The Victorian Football League (VFL) was born made up of Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne. (Richmond and University joined the VFL in 1908; Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Footscray in 1925.)

The cult of the star player emerged. Roy Cazaly (South Melbourne) was perhaps the leading example; the call of his team-mates, "Up there, Cazaly", entered the Australian idiom.

During the 1950s Australian Football faced the impact of television – perhaps the most significant influence on the game in its 150-year history. Half of the Australian Football Hall of Fame Legends played in the 1950s and 1960s: John Coleman, Ron Barassi, Bob Skilton (his three Brownlow Medals are displayed in the Play On exhibition), Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer, John Nicholls, Ted Whitten, Darrel Baldock, Ian Stewart and Barrie Robran (SANFL).

Since the 1980s Australian Football has undergone a revolution – the VFL became the AFL and the all-Victorian competition of 12 teams was transformed into a national competition of 10 Victorian and six non-Victorian teams. Five of the six teams have won premierships and, indeed, Geelong’s 2007 premiership victory was the first by a Victorian team since 2000. Australian Football is truly becoming a national game.