Australian Football

The name of Thomas Wentworth Wills will forever be linked with the early evolution of the Australian game of football. Born in Molonglo Plains, New South Wales (the area is now located in the heart of Canberra), on 19 December 1835, he moved with his family to Lexington in western Victoria four years later. His early education took place at Brickwood's Academy in Melbourne, and when he was 14 he made the long journey by ship to England, where he was enrolled at Rugby school in the Midlands. Displaying an enormous aptitude for sport as well as academic pursuits, Wills achieved notoriety in both cricket and rugby, and after he left school spent four years playing amateur cricket at a very high level in southern England. He returned to Melbourne in 1856, and two years later, in July 1858, concocted the famous letter that is traditionally regarded as representing the genesis of the Australian code: 

Sir - Now that cricket has been put aside for some months to come, and cricketers have assumed somewhat of the chrysalis nature (for a time only 'tis sure), but at length will burst forth in all their varied hues, rather than allow this state of torpor to creep over them, and stifle their now supple limbs, why can they not, I say, form a foot-ball club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws? If a club of this sort were got up, it would be of vast benefit to any cricket ground to be trampled upon, and would make the turf quite firm and durable; besides which, it would keep those who are inclined to become stout from having joints encased in useless superabundant flesh. 

Wills then went on to suggest the formation of a rifle club as a possible alternative, but it was the football idea that proved more appealing, and later in the year the Melbourne Football Club, with Tom Wills as inaugural captain, was formed. Wills later also captained both Geelong, and the original Richmond Football Club (which bears no relation to the current club of that name). 

As a footballer, Wills was clearly highly proficient, frequently earning prominent mentions in dispatches in newspaper accounts of matches in which he participated. Although precise figures are hard to substantiate, he is reckoned to have played at least 170 matches for Geelong, 31 for Melbourne, and an unknown number with Richmond. He also enjoyed an illustrious career in cricket, which was always far and away his first sporting love. During the 1870s Tom Wills was beset by alcoholism and other personal problems. On 2 May 1880, in a state of acute depression, he stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. He was just 45 years of age.

The epitaph on his grave stone succinctly describes him as 'Founder of Australian Football and Champion Cricketer of his time'.

Author - John Devaney