History

There are rumours of a competition near the River Clyde during the early 20th Century, famously referred to in A Game of their Own, where a number of expatriate Australians were based in Scotland either as ship workers or soldiers. Had this league existed, it died out around the time of the First World War.

An 'Edinburgh Australians Club' existed in the years between 1870 and the first world war as large numbers of Australians were studying in Glasgow and Edinburgh, including some who had played Australian rules football with clubs in the Victorian Football Association, and at one time four Australian test cricketers.

Arthur Shrewsbury, organiser of a tour of Scottish and English rugby players who had toured Australia in 1888 playing under both rugby rules and Australian rules football, suggested that the Edinburgh Australians team at Edinburgh University should travel down to England to meet the Australian team in a series of demonstration matches in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Unfortunately his bold plan did not eventuate as the authorities in Australia aborted the venture and a possible expansion of Australian Rules in the UK was lost.

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, including the Essendon Bombers.

Between 1870 and World War I, many overseas students studied medicine at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities and in some years there were over 200 Australians enrolled at Edinburgh alone. They formed their own Edinburgh Australians Club with their own plush premises at 12 Archibald Place. (At one stage their cricket team had four Australian Test players).

On 12 June 1888, while Shrewsbury's Australian tour was in progress, the Edinburgh Australians travelled down to London to play an Australian Rules game against London University at Balham, a match which drew considerable praise in UK newspapers such as the Times and the Scotsman.

Champion Australian Rules players who were members of the Edinburgh Australians Club were Victorian premiership players RH Morrison, AB Timms and GF Read (Geelong); Colin Campbell and 'Gus' Kearney ( Essendon). Testimony to the existence of the Edinburgh Australians Club are early records and photographs in the University’s Student magazine and the perpetual Cup which the Australians donated to record champion athletes and which is still on display at the University.

Modern era

During the 1990s the Caledonian Sharks were set up by John Boland, but eventually folded. The first lasting Scottish club of the modern era was known as the Edinburgh Puffins in 2003 with informal matches held, and invitationals against clubs from the British Australian Rules Football League. The inaugural SARFL season was held in 2004. The Puffins name instead conferred upon the Scottish national team.

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 (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".

 

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