Australian Football (Official title of the code)
Whether it is called Australian Football, Australian Rules Football, "Aussie Rules", the VFL, the AFL, Australia's only indigenous football code is officially entitled 'Australian football'.
It has never been officially referred to as 'Australian rules football'. Such terminology has only ever appeared in the form of football journalism, coined by different writers...
Yes, and Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia. Right?
I guess that the Australian Sports Commission, State Library of Victoria, Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Commonwealth Department of Communications, IT and Arts and even the Prime Minister of the whole freakin' country aren't 'official' enough for the AFL. In fact, everything they write is just 'football journalism'.
Can any historian give more background on the actual history of the various names, in particular when the terms 'Australian rules football' first appeared as distinct from 'Australian football'? Are there any references that put a lie to the claim that no 'official' (i.e. presumably stage-league or AFL-based) publication has ever referred to the game as 'Australian rules football'? Cheers.
