page_title: Australian National Football Council
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Australian National Football Council / History / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: The front cover of the souvenir programme of the 1908 Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival. The carnival commemorating 50 years of Australian rules football, was held in Melbourne. All of its matches played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was the first Australian rules football interstate competition. It was unique; not only were there teams from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, there was also a team from New Zealand. Newby, H.D., A Profusely Illustrated Souvenir and Programme of the Australasian Football Jubilee Carnival, 1908, J.L. Anderson &amp; Sons, (Melbourne), 1908.
context_page_description: The Australian National Football Council was the national governing body for Australian rules football in Australia from 1906 until 1995. The council was a body of delegates representing each of the sport's individual state leagues which controlled football in their states. The council was the owner of the laws of the game and managed interstate administrative and football matters. Its function was superseded by the AFL Commission.
  The council underwent several name changes during its existence, and at different times it was also known as: the Australasian Football Council, the Australian Football Council, the National Football League and the National Australian Football Council.
context_section_description: Among its first orders of business, the Council arranged for the first Interstate Carnival to be held in Melbourne in 1908. Teams representing each state and New Zealand played several matches over a two-week period in August 1908, with Victoria emerging unbeaten as the champion state. Considered a great success, interstate carnivals were held approximately triennially (except during periods of war) until the 1970s, and were the main on-field events for which the council was directly responsible.
  In 1911, the SAFL was threatened with expulsion from the council for arranging matches with the unaffiliated VFA. The VFA and SAFL had an existing five-year arrangement for annual interstate matches when the council was established, and that agreement was allowed to stand but could not be renewed without permission; when the SAFL renewed the agreement in 1911, the council issued an ultimatum that the agreement be cancelled or the SAFL would be expelled from the council, and the SAFL acquiesced.
  The tenability of New Zealand's representation on the council quickly came into question. A New Zealand team had attended the 1908 Carnival and was the strongest of the three rugby territories, but its commitment to the code waned. No New Zealand delegates attended council meetings after 1910, and when New Zealand failed to provide details on how its 1912 propaganda funds were spent, no subsequent funds were provided in 1913. Motions to exclude New Zealand from the council were raised and defeated in 1910 and 1914. Ultimately, New Zealand withdrew itself from the council after World War I.
  In 1914, the Council held a conference with the New South Wales Rugby League, from which preliminary plans were drawn up for a hybrid between rugby league and Australian rules football known as universal football. It was thought that amalgamating with rugby league, rather than trying to supplant it, could be a more effective way to create a nationally popular sport which incorporated the best features of Australian rules football. Progress was made, but the escalation in 1915 of World War I put any efforts to amalgamate on hold; interest in the amalgamation waned after the war and efforts were not revived.
caption: The souvenir programme of the Council's inaugural Interstate Carnival in 1908
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