Chelsea Roffey
LEADING sports and social commentator John Harms will talk on the debate surrounding the origins of Australian football at the Sydney AFL History Committee annual lecture this Friday, August 15.
Harms, who wrote two chapters in The Australian Game of Football Since 1858, published by the AFL to celebrate the game’s 150th anniversary, is a columnist for The Age and regularly appears on the ABC’s Offsiders program. He is also co-editor of The Footy Almanac, with Paul Daffey, which is released annually.
His talk will share research into the oldest surviving football players, as well as discussing the codification of the game and influences from indigenous Australia, Ireland and other codes.
Harms said while The Australian Game of Football focussed on the August 7, 1858 match between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar as a symbolic starting point, the game’s origins raised many topics for debate.
“Historians and the AFL would agree that there was other football being played at that time but that point is the point that is seen to mark for the sake of commemoration, the start of football,” Harms said.
“It’s interesting also to think, well, was there other football played even before colonisation?”
He said the topic of the origins of Australian football was a magnificent issue to teach people about the concept of history.
“It is so inexact, and yet some voices are strong and others are not so strong, and who knows exactly what was going on back then,” he said.
“But my own view is that there were a whole series of influences and that it’s very difficult to have any definitive position on it.”
Harms’ presentation will lead into a panel of football personalities including Sydney Swans Chairman Richard Colless, former Swans player/captain/coach/board member Rick Quade and actor Rhys Muldoon, who will outline what the spirit and history of the game means to them.
“The game is so entrenched in the culture and the community that someone like me has grown up with football,” he said.
“This is a common experience to so many Australians, both, these days, boys and girls, men and women. And that’s the important part of why footy’s been so important to Australian culture, is because women have always been interested and involved.”
The nature of the game – a team sport that enables its athletes to demonstrate individual skills – was the secret to its longevity.
“You can take the spectacular mark and kick the miracle goal but it all happens within the context of the team environment as well, so it’s just a fantastic team sport, which gives footballers the opportunity to show what skills they have,” Harms said.
“Because we’ve grown up with it, it’s part of us. We are of it, and it is of us.”
The Sydney AFL History Committee lecture is held in memory of former St Kilda player Ralph Robertson, who moved to Sydney where he captained NSW 12 times between 1904 and 1914. Robertson was tragically killed while fighting in World War I.
Master of Ceremonies is former Carlton, North Melbourne, Collingwood and Sydney player Craig Davis.
The public is invited to attend this year’s lecture at Club Swans, 28 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, starting at 7pm. Admission is free.
