1866: Club Formed
The Brisbane Football Club was formed at a meeting on 22 May 1866: the Brisbane Courier reported that "A meeting of gentlemen favorable to the formation of a Football Club in Brisbane was held on Tuesday, at Braysher's Metropolitan Hotel ... a committee was appointed to prepare a code of rules ... The prospects of the club must be certainly very encouraging to the promoters, as already more than twenty gentlemen have joined, and a large number of others have signified their wish to do so."
At a subsequent meeting on 31 May "About 20 members were present; and the first business transacted was the election of twelve new members ... The annual subscription was fixed at 5s ... The uniform chosen was a scarlet shirt, with a distinguishing color for the captain ... A resolution was passed authorising the printing of the rules, as well as the laws of football passed at a meeting of delegates of clubs held in Melbourne on the 8th ult., which latter, it was decided, should be the laws recognised by the Brisbane Club."
It is not recorded why the club chose to adopt the contemporary Melbourne, rather than the Sydney, version of football (the latter being based on Rugby school rules - Rugby football was not formally codified until 1871). It may have been simply the influence of the club chairman, David Watterston who, whilst born in Scotland, came to Victoria with his parents in 1853, where he was schooled before moving to Ipswich in 1860 then Brisbane in 1865, to work as a journalist with the Brisbane Courier. It may be significant that Watterston's adolescent years spent in Melbourne coincided with the period when the Melbourne game was being codified.
Read more about this topic: Brisbane Australian Football Club
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