Editing Australian rules football (section)

===First rules===
{{Further|Laws of Australian rules football#Melbourne Rules of 1859}}
A loosely organised Melbourne side, captained by Wills, played against other football enthusiasts in the winter and spring of 1858.{{sfn|Pennings|2012|p=15}} The following year, on 14 May, the [[Melbourne Football Club]] was officially established, making it one of the world's [[oldest football clubs]]. Three days later, Wills, Hammersley, Thompson and teacher [[Thomas H. Smith]] met near the MCG at the Parade Hotel, owned by Bryant, and drafted ten rules: [[Melbourne rules#Melbourne Rules of 1859|"The Rules of the Melbourne Football Club"]]. These are the laws from which Australian football evolved.{{sfn|Pennings|2012|p=11}} The club aimed to create a simple code suited to the hard playing surfaces around Melbourne, and to eliminate the roughest aspects of English school games—such as "hacking" (shin-kicking) in Rugby School football—to reduce the risk of injuries to working men.{{sfn|Hibbins|Ruddell|2009|pp=14–15}} In another significant departure from English public school football, the Melbourne rules omitted any [[offside (sport)|offside law]].{{sfn|Coventry|2015|p=2}} "The new code was as much a reaction against the school games as influenced by them", writes Mark Pennings.{{sfn|Pennings|2012|p=9}} The rules were distributed throughout the colony; Thompson in particular did much to promote the new code in his capacity as a journalist.{{sfn|Hibbins|Ruddell|2009|p=7}}