Australian rules football in Scotland

David Watterston (pictured in 1898) instigated Australian rules football in Queensland in 1866

Scots were playing forms of football during the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s contributing to the early mix of rules played that eventually morphed into Australian rules.[1] Scots living in Melbourne and Victoria in the mid-19th century were greatly involved in the formation of the rules of the game, as well as the formation of a number of early clubs.

The very first competition and trophy in 1861 was the instigation of the Royal Caledonian Society and known as the Caledonian Challenge Cup.[2] Among the members was George Frederick Bowen who born in Sydney to Scottish immigrants who founded the Carlton Football Club.[3]

David Watterston of Balgone Barns, Haddingtonshire[4] learned the game upon migrating to Melbourne, but importantly was founder of the Brisbane Football Club which commenced Australian rules football in Queensland in 1866 the second British colony to take up the sport.

One club formed by Scots was the Essendon Football Club (participating in the elite Australian Football League) formed in 1872[5] which was founded by Robert McCracken, born in Ayrshire who emigrated at the age of 28.[6] The now-defunct Glasgow Redbacks wore black jumpers with a red diagonal stripe across the front, the same as worn by Essendon Football Club said to recognise the Scottish roots of Essendon.

As early as April 1888 students at Edinburgh University (mostly Australian) had formed a team. The team contested a match in England against London University on 14 April 1888.[7] Reports in July 1889 from Australia appear to indicate that the sport continued for a time in Edinburgh, but that the Edinburgh team "wiped out every competing team".[8] Records of any team beyond this appear not to have survived.

There are rumours of a competition near the River Clyde during the early 20th Century, referred to in Geoffrey Blainey's A Game of Our Own, where a number of expatriate Australians were based in Scotland either as Ship Workers or Soldiers. Had this league existed, and there is no proof it ever did, then it had died out around the time of the First World War.

During the 1990s the Caledonian Sharks were set up by John Boland, with the travelling restraints at the time club games lessened over the years until a period of inactivity until being adopted and rebranded as the Glasgow Sharks by Andrew Butler in 2003. The Edinburgh Puffins and modern SARFL came about through the work of Andrew Butler and Richard Prentice, former players with BARFL side, North London Lions. Butler and Prentice began plans for the SARFL in the winter of 2003. Intra city friendlies began in early 2003 and a combined rules match against Edinburgh Gaelic side Dunedin Connolleys. The Puffins made their debut in the 2003 Northern Cup tournament staged in St Helens. The side remained unbeaten against the then St Helens Miners and Wandsworth Demons. Later in 2003, the Puffins staged a home and away series against Oxford University winning both hard-fought games. The inaugural SARFL season was held in 2004 with a league consisting of two sides in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow. The Puffins name, originally conceived by inaugural Edinburgh Puffins coach Gavin England was subsequently conferred upon the Scottish national team. Later in 2010 the Scottish Puffins were rebranded as the Scottish Clansmen.

In 2006, Glasgow and Edinburgh considered competing in the BARFL Regional competition, though travel problems saw them continue an expanded SARFL local competition with the Glasgow Redbacks and Middlesbrough Hawks from northern England joining the league. The Hawks left the league in 2007 to join the northern division of Aussie Rules UK, and the Scottish league had difficulty in operating on more than a social match level in 2008.

The league was relaunched in 2009, with the Glasgow and Edinburgh playing bases consolidated to one club in each city. They were joined by a new club in Aberdeen, named the "Aberdingoes".

The following teams are active in Scotland:

[9]

ESPN (UK) and British Eurosport are the current holders of the British rights to the Australian Football League (AFL). ESPN shows three live games each round of the season including the playoffs and the AFL Grand Final. Eurosport shows one game a week but the coverage is delayed.

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  Paul Stewart with Port Adelaide in 2022
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  Brodie Smith playing for Adelaide in 2019
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  Aiden Bonar playing for Greater Western Sydney in 2019
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  Cameron Zurhaar playing for North Melbourne in 2018
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  Aidan Corr playing for Greater Western Sydney in 2017
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  Sam Docherty playing for Carlton in 2017
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  Rhys Palmer playing for Greater Western Sydney in 2012
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  Luke McGuane playing for Richmond in 2009
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  Thomas Leather playing cricket in 1936
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  Roy Cazaly taking a one handed mark for South Melbourne in 1920
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  Bruce Sloss of South Melboune in 1912
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  Ramsay Anderson of Essendon in 1911
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  Doug Fraser in 1910
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  Charlie Norris of Collingwood in 1910
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  Alick Ogilvie of Melbourne in 1908
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  Bill Proudfoot of Collingwood in 1906
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  Alex Lang of Carlton in 1906
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  Firth McCallum of Geelong in 1899
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  Stan Reid of Fitzroy in 1898

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  Janelle Cuthbertson playing for Fremantle in 2021
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  Kirsten McLeod playing for the Western Bulldogs in 2018