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(詳細はMelbourne, Australia, and the first match identified as a direct precursor to the codification of Australian football was organised and umpired by Tom Wills and contested on 31 July 1858 between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, adjacent to the Melbourne Cricket Ground at the Richmond Paddock. The oldest surviving set of rules of Australian rules football were drawn up on 17 May 1859, three days after the formation of the Melbourne Football Club. The origins of Australian football before 1858 are still the subject of much debate, as there were a multitude of football games in Britain, Ireland and Australia whose rules influenced the early football games played in Melbourne. Teams would have to agree before each match which rules would be followed, and different aspects of association football, Gaelic football, rugby football,〔http://www.150years.com.au/history/historyarticle/tabid/11383/newsid/67490/default.aspx〕 Sheffield rules, Cambridge rules〔http://books.google.com.au/books?id=bZ1DMNm4PsoC&pg=PA113#v=onepage&q&f=false〕 Winchester College football and Harrow football〔http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44079/Australian-rules-football〕 were apparent in the early games. The earliest leagues were the South Australian National Football League at the time called the South Australian Football Association and the Victorian Football Association formed in 1877. The first intercolonial matches were played shortly after in 1879. The game was first known as Melbourne rules football then as the game spread thought the country it became known as Victorian rules football and then Australian rules football. By Federation in 1901, the game was the main winter sport in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, with the Victorian Football League, South Australian National Football League and the West Australian Football League operating as separate competitions. The game was played in New South Wales and Queensland but was second in popularity to rugby union as the main winter sport. In the 1990s, the VFL became the Australian Football League, a national body and the premier league in Australia and later became the de facto world governing body for the sport. ==Origins of the game== A letter by Tom Wills Wills was published in ''Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle'' on 10 July 1858,〔http://www.mcg.org.au/default.asp?pg=footballdisplay&articleid=37〕 calling for a "foot-ball club, a rifle club, or other athletic pursuits" to keep cricketers fit during winter. An experimental match was played at the Richmond Paddock (later known as Yarra Park next to the MCG) on 31 July 1858, very few details of the match have survived. On 7 August 1858, a famous match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College began, umpired by Wills and John Macadam. A second day of play took place on 21 August and a third and final day on 4 September. The two schools have competed annually ever since. However the rules used by the two teams in 1858 were not official since Wills had not yet begun to write them. H.C.A. Harrison Wills's cousin was instrumental in developing the game but not in the very early years. The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian football.〔http://150years.com.au/portals/0/flash/originschronology/index.html〕 They were drawn up at the Parade Hotel East Melbourne on 17 May by Wills, William Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith (some sources erroneously include H. C. A. Harrison). The 1859 rules, drawn up three days after the Melbourne club was officially founded did not include some elements that soon became important to the game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running. Melbourne's game was not immediately adopted by neighbouring clubs before each match the rules had to be agreed by the two teams involved. By 1866 however several other clubs had agreed to play by an updated version of Melbourne rules. The original handwritten rules dated May 1859 were signed by Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. Sewell, J. B. Thompson, Alex Bruce, T. Butterworth and Thomas Smith:
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