When did Tom Wills invent the Australian Football League rules?

Answer 1

Wills first mentioned formation of various sporting bodies in a letter published in Bell's Life (a sporting newspaper) in July 1858. In May 1859 he and six others including J.B. Thompson, W.J.Hammersley and Tom Smith met initially in the Parade Hotel and the first set of ten simple rules were written. He was also on the committee when the Melbourne Football club was formed a few days prior to the rules meetings. Controversy surrounds the influence of the Indigenous game, commonly known as Marn Grook, on Wills development of football. He grew up amongst the Djab Wurrung people of the Grampians region in Western Victoria. The Djab Wurrung played a game which, according to a few people, includes football-like aspects. The influence of the Indigenous game on Australian Rules Football is topically a subject of fierce debate.

However, forms of football quite akin to the rules drawn up by the seven men, had been around for perhaps 10 years before the formalization of Wills and his team.