The Aborigines in Victoria did certainly play games of football, which differed
in name and form by region. Marngrook, the name now used for them all, was played
by the Gunditjmara people of western Victoria. The ball was made from a possum
skin filled with charcoal and tied up with sinews of kangaroo tail; in Gippsland,
the ball was a kangaroo's scrotum stuffed with grass. The players kicked the ball
and jumped high to catch it. The play was open and free-flowing, more party game
than desperate competition. There were no goals. An individual player who kicked
furthest or jumped highest or had most of the play would be declared the winner.
- John Hirst, historian, in The Monthly online
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