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The Australian rules football schism (1938–1949) was a period of division in the rules and governance of Australian rules football, primarily in the sport's traditional heartland of Melbourne, and to lesser extents in North West Tasmania and parts of regional Victoria. The schism existed primarily between Melbourne's pre-eminent league, the Victorian Football League (VFL), and its secondary league, the Victorian Football Association (VFA). In the context of VFA history, this period is often referred to as the throw-pass era. The schism began in 1938, when the VFA introduced several rule changes, including legalising throwing of the football in general play. The changes helped to speed up the game, and promoted more run-and-carry play in an era which had previously been dominated by a long kicking style. Additionally, the VFA ended its player transfer agreement with the VFL, and aggressively recruited star players from the VFL. These changes gave the VFA for the first time in many years an on-field product which could compete with the VFL for public interest, and it made the 1940s one of the most successful periods in the VFA's history. By the mid-1940s, the VFA had copyrighted its rules, and was considered to be playing its own distinct code of Australian rules football. The VFA's actions created a division in the administrative structure of the sport in Victoria. Throughout the 1940s, the VFL and VFA worked towards ending the schism, as they both believed that a single controlling body playing under a uniform set of rules was in the best interests of football as a whole. Over several years, the VFL and VFA unsuccessfully negotiated options, including for the two competitions to be amalgamated into one. The schism ended after the 1949 season, when the VFA accepted the national standard rules, in exchange for receiving its own seat on the Australian National Football Council, which ultimately gave it a voice in the administration of the game at the national level. Although the throw-pass itself did not survive beyond the schism, other innovations from the throw-pass era helped to shape the national rules of the game. ==Background== Australian rules football had been played in Victoria since 1858, and was initially administered in an ''ad hoc'' manner by the active clubs, who agreed upon rules and administrative matters through informal meetings of club secretaries. In 1877, the Victorian Football Association (VFA) was established to provide formal and binding administration of the game in Victoria. By 1888, the VFA had brought a formal structure to its on-field competition, including the system under which the premiership was decided, and thus the VFA was serving as both the game's administrative body and as its top senior competition in Victoria. | bgcolor = #F9F9FF | align=right }} In October 1896, eight of the VFA's thirteen clubs seceded and established the Victorian Football League (VFL). The VFL comprised the strongest clubs in Melbourne, in large part because its clubs were based in the more densely populated inner suburbs where potential gate takings were higher, while the VFA's clubs were generally based further from the city centre; thus the VFL became the pre-eminent football competition and administrative body in Victoria. The strongest VFA clubs regularly sought admission to the more lucrative VFL, and four clubs gained admission over the following decades ( in 1908; and , and in 1925), on each occasion quelling a brief resurgence in the VFA's popularity. As a matter of comparison of the two competitions' strengths, the average home-and-away crowds in the 1937 season were around 14,300 in the VFL〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Attendances (1921–2014) )〕 and 2,400 in the VFA.〔 Both the VFL and VFA played all matches on Saturday afternoons at the time, so the two were in direct competition with each other for spectators. It was widely acknowledged that the VFL was the higher standard competition, and even the VFA executive was prepared to acknowledge that only a handful of VFA players had the ability to succeed as senior VFL players. The responsibility for administration of the game at the national level fell at this time to the Australian National Football Council (ANFC). Formed in 1906, the ANFC comprised one delegate from each state, and later added one from Canberra and one representing amateur football nationwide. The ANFC was the custodian of the official laws of the game, which all of its affiliated competitions were required to use. The council's purpose was to provide a united control structure for the sport, and to help to promote the interests of the game as a whole; as part of this, it took levies from the southern states and distributed grants to the northern states to help them develop the game in rugby territory. Victoria was represented on the ANFC by the VFL. The VFA was not part of the ANFC; but, it had a formal relationship with the VFL governed by an agreement signed between them in 1931, and the terms of that agreement indirectly brought the VFA under the ANFC's influence.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian rules football schism (1938–1949)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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