Tom Wills is widely credited with helping create the original rules of Australian rules football in 1859.
Wills was a leading Victorian cricketer and a founding figure of the Melbourne Football Club. He advocated a football code that could keep cricketers fit during winter and helped shape the early rules used by Melbourne players.
The first surviving written rules were drawn up in Melbourne in 1859. They were associated with Wills, W. J. Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith, so describing Wills as the sole inventor oversimplifies the history.
Australian rules football developed through later changes to playing practice and administration. Its early rules differed from modern AFL laws, including in areas such as match structure and team organisation.