Relationship With Australian Rules Football
In the 1980s, some commentators, including Martin Flanagan, Jim Poulter and Col Hutchison postulated that Tom Wills could have been inspired by Marngrook.
The theory hinges on evidence which is circumstantial and anecdotal. The tribe was one that is believed to have played marngrook. However the relationship of the Wills family with local Djab Wurrung people is well documented.
Wills was raised in Victoria's western districts. As the only white child in the district, it is said that he was fluent in the local dialect and frequently played with local Aboriginal children on his father's property, Lexington, in outside of the town of Moyston. This story has been passed down through the generations of his family.
Col Hutchison, former historian for the AFL wrote in support of the theory postulated by Flanagan, and his account appears on an official AFL memorial to Tom Wills in Moyston erected in 1998.
| “ | While playing as a child with aboriginal children in this area he developed a game which he later utilised in the formation of Australian Football. | ” |
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—As written by Col Hutchison on the plaque at Moyston donated by the Australian Football League in 1998. |
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Sports historian Gillian Hibbins, who researched Marn Grook for the AFL's official account of the game's history published in 2008 for the game's 150th celebrations sternly rejects the theory, stating that Marn Grook was "defintely" played around Port Fairy as well as around the Melbourne area. However, Hibbins found no evidence that the game was played north of the Grampians or by the Djabwurrung people and the claim that Wills observed and possibly played the game is improbable.
- Understandably, the appealing idea that Australian Football is a truly Australian native game recognising the indigenous people, rather than deriving solely from a colonial dependence upon the British background, has been uncritically embraced and accepted. Sadly, this emotional belief lacks any intellectual credibility.
Hibbin's account was widely publicised causing significant controversy and offending prominent indigenous footballers who openly criticised the publication.
Read more about this topic: Marn Grook
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