The Melbourne Football Club published its first written rules for Australian rules football in 1859.
The rules were drafted by members of the newly established Melbourne Football Club, including Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith. They helped create a distinct football code suited to Melbourne’s conditions and playing culture.
The 1859 rules were short and less detailed than modern laws. They did not yet define every feature now associated with Australian football, and the game continued to evolve through later agreements between clubs. The Melbourne Football Club’s rules are nevertheless a major milestone because they provided one of the earliest written frameworks for the sport.
Australian rules football did not emerge from one single invention or one definitive match. It developed through experimentation, local matches and changing club regulations. The 1859 document is often cited as the first formal codification of the game, while the earliest recorded matches involving Melbourne took place around the same period.