In 1858 Tom Wills and other members of the Melbourne Cricket Club devised the rules of the Melbourne Football Club, which became the codified rules of Australian Rules football.
Football was played on the MCG for the first time in 1859 and since the late nineteenth century the MCG has been the symbolic home of football, first in Victoria and, with the establishment of the Australian Football League, in Australia as a whole.
The Victorian Football League (VFL), which was founded in 1897, held its grand final for the first time at the MCG in 1902.
Aside from a period in World War II when the MCG was taken over for military purposes, and two grand finals at VFL Park Waverley when the MCG was being upgraded, every VFL and, later, Australian Football League, grand final since then has been played at the MCG.
Nowadays, there are approximately 45 home and away matches plus a few finals each season, including the grand final, with around 2-3 million people each year making the pilgrimage to watch their team search for the Holy Grail – the premiership.
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