History - Articles
This section encompasses articles from scholarly and academic journals about the general history of Australian Rules football. It includes any works with a variety of elements which do not allow them to be placed in one of the other categories used in Reading the Game.
Adair, Daryl, ‘A National Game at Last? Australian Rules Football in the 1990s’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 13, no. 1, November 1996, pp. 129-138.
Allen, David, ‘'The Anzac Match in London in 1916: Australian Football's Greatest Exhibition'’, The Yorker, vol. no. 25, no. Autumn, 2000, pp. 4-5.
Allen, David, ‘University Football Club, 1908-1914: A Hidden VFL Treasure - Amateurs and the First MCG Co-Tenants’, The Yorker, no. 22, Winter 1999, pp. 2-5.
Alomes, Stephen, ‘Australian Football the International Game? The Danish Australian Football League and the Internationalisation of Australian Football’, 1989-1996’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 3, no. 2, May 1997, pp. 3-17.
Bartop, Paul, ‘The VFA and the Search for an Identity’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 2, no. 2, 1986, pp. 74-87.
This work outlines the history of the Victorian Football Association and its struggle to maintain a distinct and separate identity as a major football competition in the face of competition from the Victorian Football League. TH.
Batchelder, Alf, ‘The First Football Matches on the Melbourne Cricket Ground’, The Yorker, no. 18, 1998, pp. 2-13.
Blair, Dale J., ‘Did the Dons Play Dead?’, Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin, no. 30, 1999, pp. pp. 1-15.
Blair, Dale J., ‘"The Greater Game”: Australian Football and the Army at Home and on the Front During World War I’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 11, no. 2, May 1995, pp. 91-102.
Bloch, Fred, ‘Amateur Aussie Rules: Sudden Death in Adelaide’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 15, no. 2, 1999, pp. 55-72.
Burke, Peter, ‘Harry and the Galahs: Remembering the Meeting of Two Football Codes Thirty Years On’, Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin, no. 29, 1998, pp. 9-17.
De Moore, Gregory, ‘Loving Aussie Rules in Sydney’, Bulletin of Sport and Culture, no. 22, June 2004, p. 3.
Gillett, R. A., ‘Where the Big Men Fly: An Early History of Australian Football in the Riverina’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 4, no. 2, May 1988, pp. 162-175.
This piece examines the development and popularity of Australian football in the Riverina region between 1880 and 1914. It also explores the social backgrounds of players and administrators of the time. TH.
Grow, Robin, ‘Nineteenth Century Football and the Melbourne Press’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 3, no. 1, 1986, pp. 23-37.
The development of press coverage of Australian Rules football during the late nineteenth century is examined, focusing specifically on the early media in Melbourne. Grow analyses the relationship between the popularity of football and the increasing circulation of newspapers, as well as the emergence of sports newspapers. TH.
Hallinan, Chris, Bruce, Toni and Coram, Stella, ‘Up Front and Beyond the Centre Line: Positional Segregation in the AFL’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, vol.??, no.??, 2000, pp.??
Hay, Roy, ‘The Origins of Football in the United Kingdom and Australia Revisited’, British Society of Sports History Bulletin, no. 28, Winter 2010, pp. 21-28.
Hess, Rob, ‘For the Love of Sensation: Case Studies in the Early Development of Women's Football in Victoria, 1921-1981’, Football Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2005, pp. 20-30.
Hess, Rob, ‘A Mania for Bicycles: The Impact of Cycling on Australian Rules Football'’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 14, no. 2, May 1998, pp. 3-24.
Hess, Rob, ‘Sport and the Chinese: Case Studies from Australian Rules Football in Victoria, 1882-1938’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 26, no. 2, November 2009, pp. 31-48.
Hess, Rob, ‘Women and Australian Rules Football in Colonial Melbourne’, International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 13, no. 3, December 1996, pp. 356-372.
Hibbins, G. M., ‘The Cambridge Connection: The Origin of Australian Rules Football’, International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 6, no. 2, 1989, pp.172-192.
Hogan, Tim, Hess, Rob, Wedgwood, Nikki, Warren, Ian and Nicholson, Matthew, ‘Women and Australian Rules Football: An Annotated Bibliography’, Football Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 2005, pp. 77-88.
MacIntyre, Clement, ‘The "Bouncing Game" in Fremantle: Australian Football and Community Identity in Western Australia, 1885–1900’, International Journal of the History of Sport, vol. 7, no. 1, May 1990, pp. 131-139.
Mandle, W.F., ‘Games People Played: Cricket and Football in England and Victoria in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Historical Studies, vol. 15, no. 60, April 1973, pp. 511-535.
McCaskie, Gregor, ‘Preserving League Football’s Heritage for the Next 100 Years’, Victorian Bulletin of Sport and Culture, no. 7, June 1996, pp. 8-10.
McCaskie, Gregor, ‘Towards Collaborative Management of League Football’s Cultural Heritage’, Bulletin of Sport and Culture, no. 15, July 1998, pp. 21-25.
McCoy, Brian, ‘The Hidden Culture of Indigenous Football’, Overland, no. 166, Autumn 2002, pp. 30-34.
McDonald, I., ‘VFL Park: Shrine or White Elephant?’, Pelops, no. 4, February 1983, pp. 34-41.
Examines whether the Victorian Football League could expand its ground at Waverley to stage the 1984
VFL Grand Final. McDonald describes the historical development of VFL Park and the dispute between the VFL and Melbourne Cricket Ground where the annual match is traditionally held. TH.
Nadel, Dave, ‘Aborigines and Australian Football: The Rise and Fall of the Purnim Bears’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 9, no. 2, May 1993, pp. 47-63.
A short history of an Aboriginal football team in country Victoria, raising several issues regarding race relations in Australian sport. TH.
Nadel, Dave, ‘No Football without Fans’, Bulletin of Sport and Culture, no. 10, March 1997, pp. 8-10.
O' Dwyer, B.W., ‘The Shaping of Victorian Rules Football: From the 1850s to 1890s’, Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 60, no. 1, March 1989, pp. 27-41.
Pascoe, Robert, ‘Historical Celebrations: The AFL Centenary Celebrations’, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 28?, no. 108?, April 1997, pp. 113-117.
Pascoe, Rob, ‘Understanding Colonial Australia through Football’, Victorian Historical Journal, vol. 74, no. 1, April 2003, pp. 80-96.
Sharp, M. P., ‘Australian Football in Sydney before 1914’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 4, no. 1, November 1987, pp. 27-45.
Investigates why Australian football did not develop as a major football code in Sydney. TH.
Stewart, Bob, ‘Athleticism Revisited: Sport, Character Building and Protestant School Education in Nineteenth Century Melbourne’, Sporting Traditions, vol. 9, no. 1, November 1992, pp. 35-50.
Walsh, Melissa, ‘Footy, Confession and Forgiveness - the Justin Charles Story’, Bulletin of Sport and Culture, no. 13, 1997, pp. 1, 5-7.
Walsh, Melissa, ‘The Void Is Bigger Than He Thought’, Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin, no. 25, December 1996, pp. 33-34.
Whimpress, Bernard, ‘AFL Hall of Fame - “See Victoria”’, Victorian Bulletin of Sport and Culture, no. 7, June 1996, pp. 5-8.
Whimpress, Bernard, ‘A Mad Game: The Crazy World of Footy Statistics’, Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin, no. 21, December 1994, pp. 38-48.
Wright, Russell, ‘Skin Taunts, Race Football’, Arena Magazine, no. 42, August-September 1999, pp. 18-19.