It is home to the longest running Australian rules fixture outside Australia, the match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities which has been contested annually since 1923.

All other current competitions originated in 1989 with the founding of what is now AFL London, the longest running Australian rules football league in Europe.

Writing to Wills in 1871, Thompson recalled that "the Rugby, Eton, Harrow, and Winchester rules at that time (I think in 1859) came under our consideration, ... we all but unanimously agreed that regulations which suited schoolboys ... would not be patiently tolerated by grown men.

[3] He wrote to his brother Horace: "Rugby was not a game for us, we wanted a winter pastime but men could be harmed if thrown on the ground so we thought differently.

Between 1870 and World War I many overseas students studied medicine in Scotland, and some went down to England to play the Australian Rules teams in that country.

[6] In 1883, during a visit to Australia, English journalist and rugby player Richard Twopeny wrote of the game: A good football match in Melbourne is one of the sights of the world...

English football officials expressed their insult at the suggestion that they "abandon their rules to oblige an Antipodean game".

[8] Nevertheless when first proposing a football tour of Australia and New Zealand in March 1887, James Lillywhite, Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury posited that the best way to ensure the success of the venture would be to play under the Australian rules where the sport was most popular.

[citation needed] Australian rules football was played by a British representative rugby team which toured Australia in 1888.

[14] They attended a social function with the Southern Tasmanian Football Association, before going to New Zealand for a series of rugby matches.

The 1888 tour had been organised by the English cricketer Arthur Shrewsbury but his involvement with Australian Rules football did not end there.

He planned to have an Australian team sent to the United Kingdom to play a series of demonstration matches and to that end he looked to Scotland where he had identified possible opponents.

Shrewsbury's plans are outlined in his correspondence with Alfred Shaw and Turner, the Nottingham Cricket Club Secretary.

In 1894, a dramatic costume football match was played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground involving prominent English celebrities Jennie Lee, Wallace Brownlow and Harry Musgrove.

[21][22][23] In 1914, H C A Harrison reported that the game was being played regularly at both Oxford and Cambridge universities[24] though few records exist of contests between 1911 and 1921.

[citation needed] Over the years, some distinguished Australians to have played in the match include Mike Fitzpatrick, Chris Maxwell, Joe Santamaria, Sir Rod Eddington and Andrew Michelmore.

[37] In November of the same year, a game was played in Sussex between No.11 Personnel despatch and Reception centre team based in Brighton vs RAAF Headquarters from London.

[38] Teams representing RAAF, Headquarters vs Sunderland, met in Hyde Park in 1944 in front of a sizeable crowd.

[40] In 1948 Australia's champion axemen team announced its plans to introduce Australian rules football into England.

After some time finding its roots, the Australian National Football League (UK) was formed which by 1970 had six teams, Victorians; Rest of Australia; Portsmouth Naval Base; Plymouth Naval Base; London Gaelic Football Club and Hampstead Rugby Club with matches played in the summer.

[52] In 1972, the first exhibition match of the VFL was played at The Oval in London as part of the Carlton Football Club 1972 preseason World Tour.

However the arrival of the spectacle of elite level VFL also saw the end of the game at the grassroots in England with no further organised competition.

With a large number of ex-patriate Australians, interest in the game grew and small crowds of up to 10,000 were in attendance for the event in some years.

Highlights during this time included large crowds for the Australian Football League's West Coast Eagles v. Collingwood in 1997 with an attendance of 14,000 and the match between Richmond and Essendon in 2002 which drew 13,000.

[55][56] Despite the lack of AFL support, local BARFL Grand Finals become a large event attracting attendances in the thousands, including a record crowd of 1,500 in 1999.

[citation needed] In 2002 a national team represented Great Britain at the Australian Football International Cup for the first time, finishing the tournament in 6th place.

[57] In July 2007, the AFL announced that the annual London exhibition match was likely to be abandoned for the year, after only the Western Bulldogs had expressed interest.

In a first in 2007, the GB Bulldogs including several past and future England players, soundly defeated Ireland in Dublin 11.15(81) to 2.9(21).

AFL International Census figures indicate over 3,600 participants[58] Australian rules football is regularly shown on TNT Sports.

West Coast v. Fremantle (The Oval, London) AFL England currently manages four national teams.