Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's Early History. Volume 1 Amateur Heroes and the Rise of the Clubs, 1858 to 1876

This is volume 1 in a series of four volumes about the origins of Australian football as it evolved in Victoria between 1858 and 1896. This volume addresses its very beginnings as an amateur sport and the rise of the first clubs. Invented by a group of Melbourne cricketers and sports enthusiasts, Australian Rules football was developed through games played on Melbourne's park lands and was originally known as "Melbourne Football Club Rules". This formative period of the game saw the birth of the first 'amateur heroes' of the game. Players such as T.W. Wills, H.C.A. Harrison, Jack Conway, George O'Mullane and Robert Murray Smith emerged as warriors engaged in individual rugby-type scrimmages. The introduction of Challenge Cups was an important spur for this burgeoning sport. Intense competition and growing rivalries between clubs such as Melbourne, South Yarra, Royal Park, and Geelong began to flourish and the game developed as a result. By the 1870s the game "Victorian Rules" had become the most popular outdoor winter sport across the state. In subsequent decades, rapid growth in club football occurred and the game attracted increasing media attention.

Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's Early History. Volume 2 : A golden era begins : Football in 'Marvellous Melbourne', 1877 to 1885

This is the second volume of a five volume series that describes, assesses, and analyses football in Victoria during the nineteenth century. This volume looks at the cultural contexts of the sport in the late 1870s and early 1880s, describes the important matches played, and provides a full statistical account of this time period. This book is the first comprehensive discussion of the early period in Australian football's development.

Origins of Australian Football: Victoria's Early History. Volume 3: Covert 'Professionalism': The Power of the Wealthy Clubs 1886 to 1890

This volume continues the story of football in Marvellous Melbourne during the 1880s. At this time the VFA continued to expand as Melbourne’s boom continued apace. In 1886 Port Melbourne, Prahran, St Kilda, Footscray and South Williamstown joined the competition, and the Ballarat clubs Ballarat, Ballarat Imperial and South Ballarat were also contending for the VFA premiership. In 1886 matches were divided into four quarters, goal umpires waved two flags to announce a goal, and time clocks and bells were employed to mark the end of quarters. Victoria also played inter-colonial matches against New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia. VFA secretary T.S. Marshall was at the forefront of fighting the game’s turn towards professionalism, but although it was illegal to pay players, the practice continued. The period 1886 to 1890 also set the stage for the eventual formation of the Victorian Football League, for by the end of the 1880s the Victorian Football Association had become in effect a two-tier competition. The most popular clubs in the VFA, South Melbourne, Geelong, Carlton and Essendon collected the lion’s share of the gate money, which they used to build their wealth and entrench their position as the dominant Victorian teams. The lower tier clubs had to make do with paltry gate money and season fixtures that advantaged the strong clubs. In these fixtures the strong clubs elected to play each other first to increase their gate money, and only deemed to play the poorer clubs at the start of the season. This led to an increasing divide between the VFA’s rich and poor, and by 1890 South Williamstown and Prahran merged with Williamstown and St Kilda respectively, University dropped out of senior ranks, and the Ballarat clubs were excluded from competing for the VFA premiership, which left 12 senior clubs until Collingwood’s emergence in 1892. At this time, no team was as powerful as South Melbourne, which experienced the greatest success in the club’s VFA and VFL history when it collected triple premiership crowns in 1888, 1889, and 1890. South Melbourne was a most ambitious club and spearheaded the move towards professionalism, although this could not be made public. The fine teams it produced at this time contained some of the greatest players of the era, such as Peter Burns, “Sonny” Elms and “Dinny” McKay, and it looked after players with health insurance, jobs, inter-colonial trips, and other incentives. Geelong’s premiership in 1886 was perhaps its greatest triumph, but this success was followed by a premiership drought that would last for 39 years. Carlton remained one of Victorian football’s power clubs, and after securing the premiership in 1887 continued to compete for top honours. As always, the game became ever more popular and world record crowds of over 30,000 attended matches between South Melbourne, Carlton, Geelong and Essendon.

A tale of two footballs : the origins of Australian football and association football revisited

 Comparison of the origins of Australian football and Association football

Investigating motivation, attitudinal loyalty and attendance behaviour with fans of Australian football

The present study examined how individual difference factors contribute to attitudes and behaviour of spectators attending an Australian Football League game. The results revealed that four factors: Team Interest, Vicarious Achievement, Excitement and Player Interest were successful in predicting level of loyalty, while five factors: Vicarious Achievement, Player Interest, Entertainment Value, Drama and Socialization predicted game day attendance. This study illustrates the applicability of the Sport Interest Inventory developed in North America to understand motivational factors of Australian sports fans.

Confrontation and cooptation : a brief history of Australian political blogs

The history of political blogging in Australia does not entirely match the development of blogospheres in other countries. Even at its beginning, blogging was not an entirely alternative endeavour – one of the first news or political blogs was Margo Kingston’s Webdiary, hosted by the Sydney Morning Herald. In the United States, whose political blogosphere has been examined most comprehensively in the literature (see e.g. Adamic & Glance, 2005; Drezner & Farrell, 2008; Shaw & Benkler, 2012; Tremayne, 2007; Wallsten, 2008), blogging had a clear historical trajectory from alternative to mainstream medium. The Australian blogosphere, by contrast, has seen early and continued involvement from representatives of the mainstream media, blogging both for their employers and independently (Garden, 2010). Coupled with the incorporation of blog-like technologies into news websites, as well as with obvious differences in the size of the available talent pool and potential audience for political blogging in Australia, this recognition of blogging by the mainstream media may be one reason why, in political and news discussions at least, Australian bloggers did not bring about their own, local equivalents to the resignations of Dan Rather or Trent Lott in the U.S. –events which were commonly attributed in part to the work of bloggers (Simons, 2007). However, the acceptance of the blogging concept by the mainstream media has been accompanied by a comparative lack of acceptance towards individual bloggers. Analyses and commentary published by bloggers have been attacked by journalists, creating an at times antagonistic relationship between the mainstream media and bloggers (Flew & Wilson, 2010; Young, 2011). In this article, we examine the historical development of blogging in Australia, focussing primarily on political and news blogs. In particular, we review who the bloggers are and how the connections between different blogs and other titles have changed over the past decade. The paper tracks the evolution of individual and group blogs, independent and mainstream media-hosted opinion sites, and the gradual convergence of these platforms and their associated contributing authors. We conclude by examining the current state of the Australian blogosphere and its likely future development, taking into account the rise of social media, and in particular Twitter, as additional spaces for public commentary.

Best management practices for sustainable and safe playing surface of Australian Football League sports fields

In 2002, AFL Queensland and the Brisbane Lions Football Club approached the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (Queensland) for advice on improving their Premier League sports fields. They were concerned about player safety and dissatisfaction with playing surfaces, particularly uneven turf cover and variable under-foot conditions. They wanted to get the best from new investments in ground maintenance equipment and irrigation infrastructure. Their sports fields were representative of community-standard, multi-use venues throughout Australia; generally ‘natural’ soil fields, with low maintenance budgets, managed by volunteers. Improvements such as reconstruction, drainage, or regular re-turfing are generally not affordable. Our project aimed to: (a) Review current world practice and performance benchmarks; (b) Demonstrate best-practice management for community-standard fields; (c) Adapt relevant methods for surface performance testing; (d) Assess current soils, and investigate useful amendments; (e) Improve irrigation system performance; and (e) Build industry capacity and encourage patterns for ongoing learning. Most global sports field research focuses on elite, sand-based fields. We adjusted elite standards for surface performance (hardness, traction, soil moisture, evenness, sward cover/height) and maintenance programs, to suit community-standard fields with lesser input resources. In regularly auditing ground conditions across 12 AFLQ fields in SE QLD, we discovered surface hardness (measured by Clegg Hammer) was the No. 1 factor affecting player safety and surface performance. Other important indices were turf coverage and surface compaction (measured by penetrometer). AFLQ now runs regularly audits affiliated fields, and closes grounds with hardness readings greater than 190 Gmax. Aerating every two months was the primary mechanical practice improving surface condition and reducing hardness levels to < 110 Gmax on the renovated project fields. With irrigation installation, these fields now record surface conditions comparable to elite fields. These improvements encouraged many other sporting organisations to seek advice / assistance from the project team. AFLQ have since substantially invested in an expanded ground improvement program, to cater for this substantially increased demand. In auditing irrigation systems across project fields, we identified low maintenance (with < 65% of sprinklers operating optimally) as a major problem. Retrofitting better nozzles and adjusting sprinklers improved irrigation distribution uniformity to 75-80%. Research showed that reducing irrigation frequency to weekly, and preparedness to withhold irrigation longer after rain, reduced irrigation requirement by 30-50%, compared to industry benchmarks of 5-6 ML/ha/annum. Project team consultation with regulatory authorities enhanced irrigation efficiency under imposed regional water restrictions. Laboratory studies showed incorporated biosolids / composts, or topdressed crumb rubber, improved compaction resistance of soils. Field evaluations confirmed compost incorporation significantly reduced surface hardness of high wear areas in dry conditions, whilst crumb rubber assisted turf persistence into early winter. Neither amendment was a panacea for poor agronomic practices. Under the auspices of the project Trade Mark Sureplay®, we published > 80 articles, and held > 100 extension activities involving > 2,000 participants. Sureplay® has developed a multi-level curator training structure and resource materials, subject to commercial implementation. The partnerships with industry bodies (particularly AFLQ), frequent extension activities, and engagement with government/regulatory sectors have been very successful, and are encouraged for any future work. Specific aspects of sports field management for further research include: (a) Understanding of factors affecting turf wear resistance and recovery, to improve turf persistence under wear; (b) Simple tests for pinpointing areas of fields with high hardness risk; and (c) Evaluation of new irrigation infrastructure, ‘water-saving’ devices, and irrigation protocols, in improving water use and turf cover outcomes.

Brand value in the context of Australian Football League clubs

This conceptual paper focuses on brand value for non-traditional products, and particularly, brand value in relation to Australian Football League Clubs, and its measurement. The concept of brand value has been addressed by a plethora of definitions and models in the literature, many of which focus on the measurement of brand value within traditional product industries. These models are often contingent on the intrinsic utility of the product itself, yet within non-traditional product areas, the product and the brand may be two distinct entities which should be differentiated in order to facilitate an accurate measurement of consumer-based brand value. To date, there has been limited research in this area and the general aim of this paper is to reveal the gaps in the current literature by providing an extension of traditional brand valuation theory to a non-traditional field. This paper illustrates its points with reference to a relevant model associated with “traditional” brand theories, and shows how it can be applied to the area of Australian Football League Clubs. This paper argues for the configuration of a more holistic model of brand value, including the antecedents and consequences of the value ascribed to brands by consumers, in order to encourage future research in brand equity based on the total utility derived from Australian Football League Clubs’ brands.

Descriptive epidemiology of Australian football injuries presenting to sports medicine clinics

Sports injury prevention has been the focus of a number of recent public health initiatives due to the acknowledgement that sports injuries are a significant public health problem in Australia Whilst Australian football is one of the most popular participation sports in the country, only very limited data is available about football injuries The majority of sports injury data available for this sport is from hospital emergency departments and elite-level injury surveillance Overall there is a paucity of data from treatment settings other than hospitals In particular, there is a lack of information about the injuries sustained by community-level, junior and recreational Australian football participants. One good potential source of football injury data is sports medicine clinics. Analysis of injury presentations to sports medicine clinics was undertaken to provide a detailed description of the epidemiology of Australian football injuries that present to this treatment setting and to determine the implications for injury prevention in this sport. In addition, the data from sports medicine clinics was compared with existing sources of Australian football injury data to determine how representative sports medicine clinic data is of other football injury data sources and to provide recommendations for future injury surveillance n Australian football. The results contained in this thesis show that Australian football is the sport most associated with injury presentation at sports medicine clinics. The majority of injured Australian football players presenting to sports medicine clinics are community-level or junior participants which suggests that sports medicine clinics are a good source of information on the injuries sustained by sub-elite football participants. Competition is the most common context in which Australian football players presenting to sports medicine clinics are injured. The major causes of injuries to Australian football players are being struck by another player, collisions and overuse. Injuries to Australian football players predominantly involve the lower limb. Adult players, players who stopped participating immediately after noticing their injury and players with overuse injuries are the most likely to sustain a more severe injury (i.e. more than four weeks before a full return to football participation and a moderate/significant amount of treatment expected). The least experienced players (five or less years of participation) are more likely to require a significant amount of treatment than the more experienced players. The prevention of lower limb injuries, injuries caused by body contact and injuries caused by overuse should be a priority for injury prevention research in Australian football due to the predominance of these injury types in the pattern of Australian football injuries Additionally, adult players, as a group, should be a focus of injury prevention activities in Australian football due to the association between age and injury severity. Overall, the pattern of Australian football injuries presenting to sports medicine clinics appears to be different than reported by club-based and hospital emergency department injury surveillance activities. However, detailed comparison of sports medicine clinic Australian football data with other sources of Australian football injury data is difficult due to the variable methods of collecting and reporting injury information used by hospital emergency department and club-based injury surveillance activities. The development of a standardised method for collecting and reporting injury data in Australian football is strongly recommended to overcome the existing limitations of data collection in this sport. In summary, sports medicine clinics provide a rich source of Australian football injury data, especially from the community and junior levels of participation. The inclusion of sports medicine clinic data provides a broader epidemiological picture of Australian football injuries. This broader understanding of the pattern of Australian football injuries provides a better basis for the development of injury prevention measures in this sport.

Professional identity in the global sports entertainment industry : regulating the body, mind and soul of Australian Football League footballers

In this article we discuss the ways in which the professional identity of Australian Football League (AFL) footballers — in a physical, high body contact sport — is shaped by concerns to develop different aspects of the body, mind and soul of the young men who want to become AFL footballers. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s later work on the care of the self we argue that narratives of identity necessarily involve a struggle for the body, mind and soul of these young men. Foucault’s work enables us to identify and analyse how relations of power, forms of regulation and arts of governing interact in ongoing attempts to develop the professional footballer. The article explores these issues via an analysis of the rationalities and techniques that inform talent identification and player management practices; and risk management in relation to these practices and processes in the AFL.

'Matching' the club to the sponsor : perceptions of Australian Football League club sponsorship managers

Corporate organisations spend significant amounts of money on sponsorship in an attempt to achieve distinct marketing and overall business objectives. There is strong support within the literature that a corporate organisation will be more attracted to sponsoring a sport organisation when there is a ‘match’ between the characteristics of the organisations. This capacity to ‘match’ characteristics has been investigated predominantly from the corporate sponsors’ perspective. The focus of this research is to identify this organisational ‘match’ from an Australian Football League (AFL) sponsorship manager’s perspective. A series of semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the sponsorship/marketing managers from seven Melbourne-based AFL clubs. Arising from this, the importance of ‘organisation match’ as a precursor for sponsorship was determined. Results indicate that AFL sponsorship managers believe that presenting their team as an organisational ‘match’ with a potential sponsor is extremely important, providing scope for better synergies and greater strategic partnerships. This is strongly aligned through the off-field culture that the team portrays as well as the on-field success that the team has. Sponsors seeking sport organisations that have clearly defined and communicated images and brands can therefore attain a source of competitive advantage in competitive sponsorship markets.

Separate and invisible : a carceral history of Australian islands

This article examines the history of four islands used for incarceration in Australia: the ‘secondary punishment’ of convicts on Norfolk Island; the management and quarantine of indigenous people on Palm Island; the quarantine of all new migrants and visitors on Bruny Island; and the incarceration of enemy aliens on Rottnest Island. Incarceration has been used throughout Australia’s history as a method of social and political control, targeting categories of people perceived to pose a threat to the racial composition, social cohesion, or national security of the Australian community. By providing a space both separate and invisible to the community, Australia’s carceral islands served as a solution to a recurring problem for a young nation apprehensive about the composition, durability and security of its community. The human consequences of incarceration could be devastating.