Rushworth Football Club probably had its origins prior to 1882, which is generally acknowledged as the year that the club was formally established. Footy had been first codified by Tom Wills in 1858, with the Melbourne Football Club being the first club to be established in the same year. There was great interest in the new football code, which eventually spread across the southern states.
One of Rushworth’s great rivals in the early days, Murchison Football Club, was formed in 1879. There is a good chance that informal local games would have been played against Rushy – the nearest neighbour of any size – around that time. Alf Raglus, in his centenary history of RFC, reports on one such match in 1881, played on the Murchison cricket ground near Reed’s Glasgow Arms Hotel –
“The ground chosen was covered with stumps, logs and nasty holes, and was not at all adaptable for the rough and tumble game of football. It was decided that both teams put up with this so the public could see the game. Also the inner man might be refreshed. This applied to players as well as spectators.”
It would be fair to say that the inner man (and woman) has had a fair amount of refreshment while watching and discussing Rushworth footy over the ensuing 125 years!
There were no umpires in the first half, with the result that there were a number of “disputes”. Despite the codification of the game, it is likely that it more resembled rugby league than Aussie Rules in the early days. Murchison ended up winning the game 1.8.14 to 1.7.13. Who won the fights was not recorded.
Perhaps the interest generated by this game led to the meeting held on 20 April the following year at Phillips’ Criterion Hotel, “for the purpose of forming a football club”. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a follow-up report of the meeting in The Waranga Chronicle & Goulburn Advertiser. Nor do there seem to be any reports of games played later in the year, although matches may well have been played against places that were very close geographically such as Whroo and Wanalta.
One of the significant issues that restricted the growth of the game in country areas in the early days was transport. This delayed the formation of leagues over an extended area. Transport from Rushworth to other larger Goulburn Valley towns was improved when the railway was extended from Murchison East in 1890, but it was another 18 years before the club joined the GVFA.
