'I have yet to find a game that carries as much pleasure, as much harmless excitement, and as much stimulus as the Australasian game of football... The game is Australian in its origin, Australian in its principle, and, I venture to say, essentially Australian in its development.' - Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, 1908From its humble origins 150 years ago to the multi-million dollar budgets of today's elite teams, Australian Rules football has become a major industry. A truly home-grown sport, it has become embedded into the culture of the nation.But how did it all begin, and what happened along the way to make the game the great spectacle that it is today? And at what cost? Have the grassroots levels of the code been obscured by the commercial interests of the AFL?With original research, and including several never-before-published images, this is the only comprehensive history of the evolution of the game from the nineteenth century to the present day. It describes, for the first time, how and why Australian Rules football came to dominate the national sporting landscape.