RULES OF THE MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB

All of the document titled the ‘Rules of the Melbourne Football Club’ and dated May 1859 being the first known written rules of Australian rules football which is held in the archives of the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC).

The ‘Rules of the Melbourne Football Club’ is of historical significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

Criterion A
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.
Criterion H
Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Victoria’s history.

The ‘Rules of the Melbourne Football Club’ is historically significant as the founding document of the modern code of Australian rules football. The document represents an important moment in the transition of the sport from casual and sometimes confusing matches to an agreed approach to play. This led to the development of a uniquely Australian form of football, which became a key part of Victoria’s social and cultural life. The rules enabled the rapid spread of the sport through Melbourne, Victoria and eventually to other parts of Australia and were fundamental to its enormous popularity. They include important elements of the code that are still seen today, such as the protected status of a player who marks the ball. They are important as an early example of a successful, uniform set of football rules. [Criterion A]

The ‘Rules of the Melbourne Football Club’ is significant for its association with the Melbourne Football Club. The Melbourne Football Club was one of the earliest Australian rules football clubs, and is the oldest continuously operating club in the State. Its foundation committee members produced the rules that codified the sport and were enormously effective at communicating and publicising them. The rules were then taken up by multiple clubs, becoming the recognised football code across the colony and evolving into the modern game of Australian rules football. [Criterion H]