Release of The Origins of Australian Football Vol.2
Mark Pennings has released his second volume of 'The Origins of Australian Football' series which covers the period between 1877 to 1885
The Geelong Cats are excited to hear the announcement of the second volume of Mark Pennings’ book series “The Origins of Australian Football” has been released.
Pennings’ critically acclaimed first volume covered the period from 1858-1876, and this new volume describes the next period in football history from 1877 to 1885.
As part of an ongoing history of the “Origins of Australian Football” that seeks to fill in the “missing years” of this great game, the second volume is called “A Golden Era Begins: Football in Marvellous Melbourne 1877 to 1885” and discusses the evolution of football, from the formation of the Victorian Football Association in 1877, to its development in other Australian colonies, and its growth into a major spectator sport in the mid-1880s at a time when Melbourne was experiencing an unparalleled boom.
In the late 1870s Geelong became the dominant football force and revolutionised the game by improving physical fitness and developing a scientific approach to tactics and strategy that transformed football into an attractive high marking, long kicking, fast and open game.
The “Pivots” as they were known at this time, maintained their pre-eminence in Victorian football for a decade, but South Melbourne challenged Geelong’s supremacy.
In 1879 the first Inter-Colonial football contest was held between Victoria and South Australia, and Victorian teams began to tour South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales to meet local combatants. This helped to foster the game throughout the continent.
As more working class people participated in football and attended its matches the sport became a truly mass cultural phenomenon with big games attracting attendances of up to 20,000. Football matches also began to move into cricket grounds and the revenue gained from admission charges contributed to the establishment of wealthy and powerful clubs such as Geelong, South Melbourne, Carlton and Essendon. New clubs such as Fitzroy and Richmond also joined an expanding senior football competition at this time. The 1880s was the golden era in the early days of football, and Pennings’ authoritative account presents another chapter that brings these missing years in Australian football history to light.
