Soon after, the Geelong Football Club was created, and many other Australian Rules Football clubs were formed in Victoria during the next decade. Melbourne and Geelong were founder members of the Australian Football League (AFL), giving them the world's oldest professional football teams. The VFA began holding annual meetings in 1877, three years after it first convened, and adopted a formal constitution and bylaws the following year. The first president of the VFA was William McClelland, who had been elected at the meeting held on 21 February 1878.
Australia's oldest football club remains FC Melbourne, which was founded in 1872. The club originally played in green and white stripes, but wore black and white stripes from 1880 to 1890. After 1890, they never returned to green and white stripes again.
In 1908, South Melbourne FC was established as a rival team to Melbourne FC, and they continue to play in the AFL today. The two clubs have never met in an official match, but there is always interest in whether or not they will come into contact with one another in the future.
Finally, Sydney University FC was founded in 1874. They also only ever wore black and white stripes, but changed their name to Sydney United in 1889 before reverting to their original name in 1895.
160 years The Melbourne Football Club is one of the world's oldest professional athletic clubs, going back to 1858. The beginnings of the club may be traced back to a letter sent by Tom Wills about 160 years ago. In this letter, Wills asks other members of the "Enterprising Society" to come and see him play football. He also mentions that he has been given leave from the government to study athletics.
They first entered the Victorian Football Association in 1877, after it became clear that the VFA would not have a team available for the upcoming season. The club went on to win the VFA premiership that year. They have remained in the league ever since, except for two seasons (1880-1882) when they competed in the New South Wales Football League.
In 1858, Thomas William Wills founded the "Enterprising Society", a social club for civil servants in the colonial government. One of its main activities was amateur sports - especially football. Tom Wills was the president of the society and a member of the British Empire team which played Australia in Melbourne in 1861. After the game, it was decided that the best football player should receive a free ticket for each of the following games against Victoria. This ticket distribution system gave birth to the concept of the finals series. The winner of the final series would be the champion of Australia.
In the winter and spring of 1858, Wills commanded a loosely organized Melbourne team that played against other football fans. The Melbourne Football Club was founded the following year, on May 14, becoming one of the world's oldest football clubs. Wills is believed to have been the first person to kick a ball in Australia.
Melbourne's first game was against Carlton on August 24, 1858. The match was intended as a trial for both teams but it turned out to be so rough that the Victorian Government banned sports on public grounds until 1864. In that same year, Melbourne played its first "international" game when they traveled to Tasmania to play the Tasmanian Tigers. The tourists won this match 2-0 with two goals from John Henry Parkes and one from William Wallace.
After this match, Melbourne withdrew from further international games because they could not afford to travel overseas. However, they did play several important Australian rules football matches during their early years. The club's first VFL (now AFL) season was in 1897. They defeated Richmond in the first VFL final by 8 points. Melbourne went on to win another seven flags in the next eight seasons under captain-coach Jack Worrall. After this success, other league teams began to emerge and by 1914, there were enough competitions for all clubs to qualify for the finals.
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