Wills was a compulsive writer to the press on cricketing matters and in the late 1850s his letters sometimes appeared on a daily basis.
An agitator like his father, he used language "in the manner of a speaker declaiming forcefully from a platform".
On 10 July 1858, the Melbourne-based Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle published a letter by Wills that is regarded as a catalyst for a new style of football, known today as Australian rules football.
Titled "Winter Practice", it begins:
Now that cricket has been put aside for some few months to come, and cricketers have assumed somewhat of the chrysalis nature (for a time only 'tis true), but at length will again burst forth in all their varied hues, rather than allow this state of torpor to creep over them, and stifle their new supple limbs, why can they not, I say, form a foot-ball club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws?

In endeavouring to keep cricketers active during the off-season, Wills made the first public declaration of its kind in Australia: that football should be a regular and organised activity.
Around this time he helped to foster football in Melbourne's schools.
The local headmasters, his collaborators, were inspired in large part by descriptions of football in Thomas Hughes' novel Tom Brown's School Days (1857), an account of life at Rugby School under the headship of Thomas Arnold.
Due to similarities between their sporting careers at Rugby, Wills has been called the "real-life embodiment" of Tom Brown, the novel's fictitious hero.

Wills' letter was alluded to two weeks after its publication in an advertisement posted by his friend, professional cricketer and publican Jerry Bryant, for a "scratch match" held adjacent to the MCG at the Richmond Paddock.
The first of several kickabouts held that year involving Wills, Bryant and other Melbourne cricketers, it was described by one participant as "football Babel"; a "short code of rules" were to be drawn up afterwards, however this does not seem to have occurred.
Another landmark game, played without fixed rules over three Saturdays and co-umpired by Wills and teacher John Macadam, began on the same site on 7 August between forty Scotch College students and a like number from Melbourne Grammar.
The two schools have since competed annually.
Wills emerged as the standout figure in accounts of Melbourne football in 1858.
These early experimental games were more rugby-like than anything else—low-scoring, low-to-the-ground "gladiatorial" tussles.
The last recorded match of the year is the subject of the first known Australian football poem, published in Punch.
Wills, the only player named, is reified as "the Melbourne chief", leading his men to victory against a side from South Yarra.

Following a scratch match at the start of the 1859 football season, the Melbourne Football Club officially came into being on 14 May. Three days later, Wills and three other members—Hammersley, journalist J. B. Thompson and teacher Thomas H. Smith—met near the MCG at the Parade Hotel, owned by Bryant, to devise and codify the club's rules.
The men went over the rules of four English schools; Hammersley recalled Wills' preference for the Rugby game, but it was found to be confusing and too violent.
Subsequently, they rejected common features such as "hacking" (shin-kicking) and produced a signed document listing ten simple rules suited to grown men and Australian conditions.
Heading the list of signatories, Wills, too, saw the need for compromise.
He wrote to his brother Horace: "Rugby was not a game for us, we wanted a winter pastime but men could be harmed if thrown on the ground so we thought differently."
Thompson and Hammersley's promotion of the new code, together with Wills' star power, encouraged the spread of football throughout Victoria.
Wills was a compulsive writer to the press on cricketing matters and in the late 1850s his letters sometimes appeared on a daily basis. An agitator like his father, he used language "in the manner of a speaker declaiming forcefully from a platform". On 10 July 1858, the Melbourne-based Bell's Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle published a letter by Wills that is regarded as a catalyst for a new style of football, known today as Australian rules football. Titled "Winter Practice", it begins:
Now that cricket has been put aside for some few months to come, and cricketers have assumed somewhat of the chrysalis nature (for a time only 'tis true), but at length will again burst forth in all their varied hues, rather than allow this state of torpor to creep over them, and stifle their new supple limbs, why can they not, I say, form a foot-ball club, and form a committee of three or more to draw up a code of laws?
In endeavouring to keep cricketers active during the off-season, Wills made the first public declaration of its kind in Australia: that football should be a regular and organised activity. Around this time he helped to foster football in Melbourne's schools. The local headmasters, his collaborators, were inspired in large part by descriptions of football in Thomas Hughes' novel Tom Brown's School Days (1857), an account of life at Rugby School under the headship of Thomas Arnold. Due to similarities between their sporting careers at Rugby, Wills has been called the "real-life embodiment" of Tom Brown, the novel's fictitious hero.
Wills' letter was alluded to two weeks after its publication in an advertisement posted by his friend, professional cricketer and publican Jerry Bryant, for a "scratch match" held adjacent to the MCG at the Richmond Paddock. The first of several kickabouts held that year involving Wills, Bryant and other Melbourne cricketers, it was described by one participant as "football Babel"; a "short code of rules" were to be drawn up afterwards, however this does not seem to have occurred. Another landmark game, played without fixed rules over three Saturdays and co-umpired by Wills and teacher John Macadam, began on the same site on 7 August between forty Scotch College students and a like number from Melbourne Grammar. The two schools have since competed annually. Wills emerged as the standout figure in accounts of Melbourne football in 1858. These early experimental games were more rugby-like than anything else—low-scoring, low-to-the-ground "gladiatorial" tussles. The last recorded match of the year is the subject of the first known Australian football poem, published in Punch. Wills, the only player named, is reified as "the Melbourne chief", leading his men to victory against a side from South Yarra.
Following a scratch match at the start of the 1859 football season, the Melbourne Football Club officially came into being on 14 May. Three days later, Wills and three other members—Hammersley, journalist J. B. Thompson and teacher Thomas H. Smith—met near the MCG at the Parade Hotel, owned by Bryant, to devise and codify the club's rules. The men went over the rules of four English schools; Hammersley recalled Wills' preference for the Rugby game, but it was found to be confusing and too violent. Subsequently, they rejected common features such as "hacking" (shin-kicking) and produced a signed document listing ten simple rules suited to grown men and Australian conditions. Heading the list of signatories, Wills, too, saw the need for compromise. He wrote to his brother Horace: "Rugby was not a game for us, we wanted a winter pastime but men could be harmed if thrown on the ground so we thought differently." Thompson and Hammersley's promotion of the new code, together with Wills' star power, encouraged the spread of football throughout Victoria.
Tom Wills