The rise and fall of Tom Wills

Tom Wills (standing at back wearing a cap) with his aboriginal cricket team in 1866 outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Greg de Moore’s book on Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall, is a ripping yarn with lessons from a bygone era for sporting heroes of today.

Thomas Wentworth Wills (1835 – 1880) is described in the book’s subtitle as a “charmer, scoundrel and visionary sportsman”.

He was certainly all of those things; a fascinating man, a sporting hero laid to waste when his physical prowess failed him.

Wills was born on a sheep run south of Sydney to parents who were of convict stock. This made him a “native” and there was some division over the next century between native born and immigrants.

The family moved to Mount William in Western Victoria in 1840. That’s about 200km from where I used to live at Mount Gambier.

Young Tom grew up among shepherds and tribal Aborigines. He learnt to speak their language.

Tom was sent to Rugby School in England in 1850 for his education, around the era covered in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, the author of which Thomas Hughes attended Rugby from 1834 to 1842.

Tom Wills excelled at sports, but struggled academically. He rose to be school cricket captain and was an excellent athlete. He also excelled in the early days of rugby football, which bore little resemblance to the code today.

Tom showed no promise of entering Cambridge to study law as his father hoped, although he did represent the university at cricket. His father eventually lost patience and called him home.

His parents had moved to Geelong, just south of Melbourne and Tom’s father Horatio Wills won election to the Victorian Parliament.

While Tom had been in England the first inter-colonial cricket match was played between Victoria and New South Wales. The Victorians had lost.

As a former captain of Rugby School, Tom was in demand as a cricketer and won selection to represent Victoria in the second inter-colonial match.

Football did not exist in 1856 and cricket was the colony’s premier spectator sport. Most clubs had some professional players, although in the English tradition there was a social divide between amateurs and professionals.

Tom fought hard to retain amateur status over the years, but as he derived most of his living from cricket he was eventually regarded as a professional.

Tom took 10 wickets in a losing performance against New South Wales in the second game.

He was later elevated to captain and led Victoria to many famous victories. He was the best cricketer of his generation, renowned mainly as a fast bowler with useful variations and was handy with the bat.

Alcohol was a feature of the sport’s early days. Players took wine during breaks for refreshments. They also smoked pipes while fielding.

Tom was embroiled in many controversies. He had a knack for offending influential people through his combative nature, but won much popular support among spectators and professional players.

There were many spirited debates carried out through newspapers. In his later years, Tom’s bowling action was questioned and after he was “no balled” for throwing, his first-class career was effectively ended.

In between cricket seasons, Tom was basically bored. Along with several others he is credited with codifying the first rules of Australian football.

The rules were based on those learnt from Rugby and other English public schools, modified for Australian conditions.

The author de Moore dismisses a folk theory that Tom introduced rules from Aboriginal games he had observed in the Western District. All the available evidence suggests Tom adapted the Rugby rules.

Football was just a distraction however, and cricket was the main game.

Meanwhile, Tom’s father still wanted his son to pursue a respectable career.

In what appears to have been a concerted effort to remove Tom from the Melbourne sporting world, Horatio took his son with him to carve a station property from virgin bush in Central Queensland.

They took a steamer to Brisbane, bought supplies and wandered with bullock drays to their new property, which was beyond the edge of civilisation … like Boers on a trek or wagons moving west in the United States.

Shortly after they arrived at Cullin-La-Ringo, Tom left his father and most of the staff to buy supplies.

When he returned he found Horatio and 18 other settlers dead. They had been killed by local Aborigines.

Tom was in shock, of course, but stayed on the station for a couple of years. He worked hard, but didn’t make much progress in transforming the bush into a profitable enterprise.

He was lax with accounts and trustees overseeing the operation eventually dismissed him, with much money unaccounted for.

Tom returned to Melbourne and resumed his cricket career. He was still exulted and led Victoria again as captain until his skills waned.

He never took up a regular occupation, but made money from cricket where he could. This included leading a team of Western District Aborigines on matches throughout Victoria and New South Wales.

In his twilight playing years, after the throwing scandal, he played mostly for country clubs in Geelong and elsewhere, including against the visiting English team led by the legendary WG Grace.

He also continued to play football, mostly for Geelong, and umpired some early VFA matches at the South Melbourne ground, which he lived near for a couple of years.

Tragic demise of Tom Wills

What becomes evident through the book is the demise of a great man. Tom was a brilliant sportsman before it was common to earn a living from sport. He had little other talent.

He became an almost pathetic figure in his early 40s as he virtually begged for coaching jobs with various clubs.

Tom sank into alcoholism and when the money ran out to buy grog, he suffered tremors and hallucinations which led to his suicide.

By that time his family had pretty much disowned him. He was living with his defacto at Heidelberg on the outskirts of Melbourne.

If he had been born 15 years later Tom’s name would probably be etched forever in Australian sporting history, because he almost certainly would have played test cricket and top-level football, like Jack Worrall in the 1890s.

Could a tragic fall from grace occur to a sportsman today? Maybe Ben Cousins or Brendan Fevola could answer that.

The book is well written, with highlights of Tom’s life being introduced with dramatic effect; a ripping yarn.

Tom Wills: His Spectacular Rise and Tragic Fall
Author: Greg de Moore
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Publication date: July 2008