Hobart 1870 - Australia's Earliest Known Soccer Game?

Introduction

On Friday May 27, 1870, a notice was placed in the Tasmanian Times advertising a game of football.

The opposing sides represented a private, non-conformist secondary school in Hobart and a visiting military force on a lengthy stop-over on their return to the UK from New Zealand.

The first half of the notice is typical for football games mentioned in Tasmanian newspapers in those years. The two teams and location of the match are identified, and one squad of the players is listed, presumably belonging to whichever side told the newspaper about the game.

“HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL CLUB.

A match of Football has been arranged to be played on Saturday next between 20 of the High School Club and 20 of H.M. Irish Regiment (Royal Irish). The match will be played on the lower cricket ground in the Domain. The following are the names of the High School Club :—M. Coverdale,— Nairn, J. Stansfield, O. Thomas. W. Stewart, D. Stewart,—Norman, W. Geiss. J. Hall, C- Ford,— D'Emden, E. Hughes, C. Lovett, B. Wright, W. O'Reilly, P. Archer,—James. J. Hurst, G. Clerk, T. Taylor—Upmire.  T. O. Warner.”

The Tasmania Times, May 27 1870

(Yes. “Upmire”.)

The second half of the article, by contrast, was quite remarkable for its times.

There, in black and white were the rules under which the match would be played:

“The following rules will be strictly adhered to :—

1. The ball to be kicked (any height) between two goal posts.

2. No running with the ball except dribbling.

3. No holding, hacking, tripping or throwing of the ball.

4. The ball not to be handled except in the case of catch.

5. The ball when kicked out of bounds to be thrown in at the place it went out of play.

6. A free kick to be the penalty of violation of rules 2 and 3.

All other rules as in general game.”

The Tasmania Times, May 27 1870

The rules of football rarely made newsprint in 1860s, with one notable exception.

The newly (re-)formulated Melbourne Rules had been widely published in the newspapers of 1866, including in The Mercury in Hobart. But after the initial wave of publicity, the rules rarely seem to have appeared in newsprint before 1870. This was probably because rule booklets had been vigorously disseminated between clubs. The game was on the ground and well known.

The rules of Rugby, which had taken hold in Sydney, also seem to be rarely seen in newspapers, though an explanatory article appeared in Western Australia when a newspaper in Fremantle in 1868 cribbed the rules from Cassell’s Out Door Games to explain the game played by a different visiting regiment.

It was one thing to have well-known dominant rules, but another to apply them. The rules were often not strictly adhered to and often modified by agreement on the day of the game. Or not, as the two sides often entered the field with different rules in mind.

Sometimes a club created its own rules by adapting the existing rule books.  The Launceston Football Club, for instance, explicitly adopted Melbourne Rules in 1867, though was noted as doing so with modifications.

Launceston’s modifications never made newsprint. Neither did the rules drafted by Hobart Town when the club formed in 1866.

By contrast, the modifications of the “general game” were printed the day before High School and the 18^th Regiment took to the field.

Why now, and why these modifications? Why were they notable enough to be printed? And why were they seemingly extensive?

Look at the rule enforcing dribbling but banning carrying. The game, as played, clearly isn’t Rugby, nor Melbourne Rules with it’s run and bounce.

There was one game which involved dribbling of the ball, and banned all handling, except, in its earliest incarnation, catching.

It’s all a bit soccer-like, isn’t it?

Was someone trying to introduce soccer to Tasmania in 1870?

And why introduce soccer into Tasmania at that time?

Who were they?

And was it even feasible for the rules of soccer to have been known in Tasmania at the time?

If we can answer these questions, can we confirm High School and the 18^th Regiment played the earliest reported game of soccer played in Australia?

Over a series of blog posts, I'll try and tease out some of these questions.

Part 1: Introduction - Australia's Earliest Known Soccer Game?
Part 2: The Rules of the Game
Part 3: When Did The FA Rules Reach Australia?
Part 4: Game Day
Part 5: The Military Men and the "Upmire"
Part 6: Final Thought and Conclusions