Football (Australian Rules)
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“VICTORIAN RULES OF FOOTBALL, AGREED TO AT MEETING OF DELEGATES OF CLUBS, HELD AT THE 
FREEMASONS’ HOTEL, MELBOURNE, 8th MAY, 1866” [Melbourne : Blundell and Ford, Printers. 1866]; small 
folding card, printed on all four surfaces on pinkish surfaced stock; reinforced at the spine with a strip of green 
linen and slightly discoloured by once-present adhesive tape. A manuscript notation to the front cover records the 
names of the delegates and their clubs: Harrison and Wardill for Melbourne; O’Mullane and Murray for South Yarra; 
James and Poser for Carlton; and Clark and Chadwick for Royal Park.
The internal pages list the eight rules agreed to, and the back cover provides definitions of a “Drop Kick”, a “Place 
Kick”, a “Punt”, and a “Scrummage”. Produced only eight years after the birth of the game; a magnificent recent find 
from the earliest days of Australian football history. We are aware of only one other example, held by the Australian 
Sports Museum at the M.C.G., which has the same green linen spine as the present example.��������������$2,000–3,000
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1893 VICTORIAN REPRESENTATIVE TEAM: Team photograph by Terence McGann of 3 Leigh Street, Adelaide; 
that year’s captain, Tom Banks, later captain of Fitzroy’s 1895 first ever VFA premiership winning team and son of an 
escaped African-American slave, can be seen left of centre, football in hand; dimensions 35 x 45cm.����������$500–750
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CARLTON - D. FRASER: Circa 1910 The Weekly Times “Victorian Footballers” postcard; VF.������������������������$400–500
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