It is believed the rule changes were made so other clubs (St Kilda and St Yarra) unhappy with the Melbourne Rules would play with them. They were further changed in order to have a match with South Yarra Football club on 9 July 1859. This may be the true start of the Melbourne football league, as it started an alliance between different clubs which came to compete against each other under common rules. Team list were published for this game. A follow up game occurred 23 July 1859, where a good report was written in papers afterwards.