Marn Grook
Individual players who consistently exhibited outstanding skills, such as kicking or leaping higher than others to catch the ball, were often praised, but proficiency in the sport gave them no tribal influence.
Historical reports support it as a widespread activity across south-eastern Australia of the Djabwurrung and Jardwadjali people and other tribes in the Wimmera, Mallee and Millewa regions of western Victoria.
According to some accounts, the range extended to the Wurundjeri in the Yarra Valley, the Gunai people of Gippsland, and the Riverina in south-western New South Wales.
[8] Although the consensus among historians is that Marn Grook existed before European arrival, it is not clear how long the game had been played in Victoria or elsewhere on the Australian continent.
...This continues for hours and the natives never seem to tire of the exercise.The game was a favourite of the Wurundjeri-willam clan and the two teams were sometimes based on the traditional totemic moieties of Bunjil (eagle) and Waang (crow).
[16] An 1857 sketch found in 2007 describes an observation by Victorian scientist William Blandowski, of the Latjilatji people playing a football game near Merbein, on his expedition to the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers.
[18] James Dawson, in his 1881 book titled Australian Aborigines, described a game, which he referred to as 'football', where the players of two teams kick around a ball made of possum fur.
Howitt wrote:[21] This game of ball-playing was also practised among the Kurnai, the Wolgal (Tumut river people), the Wotjoballuk as well as by the Woiworung, and was probably known to most tribes of south-eastern Australia.
The mangurt was sent as a token of friendship from one to another.According to Howitt's historical field notes published in 1907 held in the AIATSIS Collection, an account from a Mukjarawaint man from the Grampians indicated that both men and women would play in the same teams.
"[24] By 1906, the name Marn Grook had entered the lexicon, several articles in newspapers of the time describe it as a near extinct pastime and provide details on the size (about 6 inches) of the ball.
[26] Since the 1980s, some commentators, including Martin Flanagan,[9][10] Jim Poulter and Col Hutchinson have postulated that Australian rules football pioneer Tom Wills could have been inspired by Marn Grook.
As the only white child in the district, it is said that he was fluent in the languages of the Djab wurrung and frequently played with local Aboriginal children on his father's property, Lexington, outside modern-day Moyston.
[29] Hibbin's account was widely publicised[29] causing significant controversy and offending prominent Indigenous footballers who openly criticised the publication.
[7] Professor Jenny Hocking of Monash University and Nell Reidy have also published eyewitness accounts of the game having been played in the area in which Tom Wills grew up.
[31] Melbourne Cricket Club researcher Trevor Ruddell wrote in 2013 that Marn Grook "has no causal link with, nor any documented influence upon, the early development of Australian football.
"[32] Chris Hallinan and Barry Judd describe the historical perspective of the history of Australian Rules as Anglo-centric, having been reluctant to acknowledge the Indigenous contribution.
