| As noted, Aussie Rules isn't rugby by a long shot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZYZcoAcU0 I'm saying I believe that Australian settlers were heavily influenced by many things that indigenous people did; what to eat, where to find good water, how to manage land, but they rarely acknowledged that influence. The original version of AFL played by English settlers was a great deal more like original Marn grook than 'modern' codified AFL - the playing area was larger and effectively unbounded (save by the need to score through designated goal areas, etc). Indigenous influence on AFL creation confirmed by historical transcripts, historian says Monash University historian Professor Jenny Hocking found transcripts placing Indigenous football, commonly known today as Marngrook, firmly in the Western district of Victoria where Australian rules founder Tom Wills grew up.
"We found in the State Library of Victoria records of a transcription of an interview with [Mukjarrawaint man] Johnny Connolly, who describes actually playing the game in the Grampians region as a child in the 1830s to 40s,"
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-13/historian-reveals-mar...> It doesn't seem likely. You're entitled to your opinion but I'd hazard a guess you never grew up playing barefoot football on stony ground with aboriginal teams whereas I did (40 years ago). Everybody seems to wear shoes now and many of the remote fields have grass now, with a few exceptions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UqL_M6_muU I don't put much stock in your opinion. |