Introduction: New Perspectives on the History of Australian Rules Football

Australian Rules football, more colloquially known as ‘Aussie Rules’, is a unique sport that was first codified in Melbourne in 1859. The game quickly spread to all colonies (later states and territories) of Australia. Despite wide press coverage the sport attracted only sporadic academic attention until 2000 when the first doctoral dissertations on the history of the code were completed. New research on Australian Rules football examines the origins of the game, generates biographical profiles of those who helped shape (or suppress) coverage of the sport (with a notably crucial role played by the press and later, radio), and exposes the development of fierce rivalries between states, as well as between towns in rural areas. The ever-present ‘fan culture’ of Australian Rules football (be it evident in cartophilia, or in different aspects of how support for women’s football has manifested itself with the recent emergence of a semi-professional national women’s league), is also an ongoing area of scholarship within the code that is explored.