Great minds think alike. I've done similar databases for myself since around FM13 based on the same premise, that in Melbourne it was Association Football that was taken up as the football played rather than Wills and his associates coming up with their own rules, Australian Rules football. Though to be fair, it really should be known as, and was for a length of time, as Victorian Rules. Being from Sydney, Aussie rules was known in my childhood as that odd game they play down south. It is also interesting to note that Wills attended Rugby school in England and thought that the tackling in Rugby wouldn't suit the harder grounds in Melbourne, in part why he sought to come up with something different.
To give some context for those who aren't Australian, we are unique, I think, in that we have 4 professional football codes, Assoc football, Australia rules football, Rugby League and Rugby Union. Despite its name Australian rules is not really a national code of football as in NSW and Qld it is Rugby League that is the dominant code. Aussie rules is dominant in Vic, Tas, SA, WA and NT. Assoc football is probably more evenly spread across all States and Territories but it isn't the dominant code in any of them. As with Rugby League, Rugby Union is primarily NSW and Qld based, but at club level is rather minor. Rugby League came about in 1908 for the same reasons as it did in England in 1895 and quickly supplanted Rugby Union as the dominant code in NSW and Qld . For the reasons above I maintain that it is cricket that it our national sport.
However it was Assoc football that was the first code to have a national competition with the National Soccer League starting in 1977. The current AFL and NRL competitions for Aussie rules and Rugby League, grew from the Melbourne based VFL and Sydney based NSWRL competitions respectively, expansion taking place from the 1980s as TV revenue started to flood the codes. If you look at the current comps and wonder why there is a preponderance of Melbourne/Sydney clubs in each, this is why.
If not for the influx of European migration after WWII and those people wanting to play football and forming their own clubs, I'm not sure the code would be where it is at today. It won't happen in my lifetime but I do hope that one day it does become the pre eminent code in Australia. The success of the Womens World Cup held here and in NZ last winter shows that people do want to watch the game. The matches were well attended and TV ratings were astronomical, especially for the Matildas. it's just a matter of translating that to club football.
Back on topic, an excellent database which I can't wait to get stuck into. Great work, mate.