IN THE year of its 150th anniversary, Australian football has become embroiled in its own "culture wars".

Six months after Australia turned out the Howard government, supposedly ending the broader culture wars, the AFL's official history of the Australian game has sparked debate over football's origins.

At issue is the link between Australian football and a version of football played by indigenous Australians known as "marn grook", or game ball.

In the book commissioned by the AFL to commemorate the game's 150th year, The Australian Game of Football, historian Gillian Hibbins wrote that the notion that Australian football derived, even in part, from the game played by indigenous Australians, was nothing more than a "seductive myth".

This has drawn criticism from Age football writer and author Martin Flanagan, who was singled out by Ms Hibbins as a key proponent of the view that marn grook could have influenced the formation of the game.

He was joined yesterday by AFL Players Association president Brendon Gale, who said it was "regrettable" the AFL had chosen to use Ms Hibbins' essay as the sole version of the game's history.

He told The Age that there was a compelling argument that marn grook had a role in the origins of football, "among other influences".

"What's disappointing is that that association, despite the efforts the AFL goes to to celebrate indigenous players, that association has been reduced to nothing but a 'seductive myth'.

"I think she's entitled to her point of view, absolutely, she's a published historian. But I think the prominence that this has been given … with the imprimatur of the AFL, where there's no real opposing view provided, that's regrettable."

Gale also criticised comments last week by Ms Hibbins about Aboriginal player Adam Goodes, who also contributed a chapter to the official history. In his essay, the dual Brownlow Medallist wrote: "I know that when Aborigines play Australian football with a clear mind and total focus, we are born to play it."

In an appearance on Foxtel's Marngrook Footy Show last week, Ms Hibbins said: "I'm sorry to say that I think it's a racist comment … If you define racism as believing a race is superior in something, this is what he was doing," she said.

Goodes did not comment publicly yesterday, although Gale said he was bemused by the remarks.

"I think it's absurd," Gale said, "and I think on any reasonable interpretation of Adam's description of how he feels about the game, it's clearly not racist."

The AFL's corporate affairs manager, Brian Walsh, distanced the AFL from Ms Hibbins, stressing that she was not the league's official historian.

"We don't agree with her comments. We think it was a poor choice of words and her comments certainly don't reflect the views of the AFL," he said.

Ms Hibbins said she felt her comments had been misrepresented and now regrets her choice of words.

"I think it's been perceived in a way in which I did not intend," she said. "I certainly do not believe that Adam Goodes is a racist.

"I think he's a fantastic footballer, and I'm sure that he believes what he says — that Aboriginal footballers feel a brotherhood on the field and they feel a connection with the land."

In her history of the game, Ms Hibbins discounted the possibility that Tom Wills, who is widely credited as the driving force behind football's development, drew on the influence of indigenous people living in north-western Victoria, where he grew up, to form the rules.

"Understandably, the appealing idea that Australian football is a truly Australian native game recognising the indigenous people, rather than deriving solely from a colonial dependence upon the British background, has been uncritically embraced and accepted in some places … Sadly, this emotional belief lacks any intellectual credibility," Ms Hibbins wrote.

She argued that there was no historical evidence to support that connection.

Speaking to The Age yesterday, Ms Hibbins said her position was strengthened by the inherently racist attitudes held by white Australians at the time. "The mid 19th century whites were racist, and they took no notice of Aboriginal football, and they were relying on totally different football to form the rules," she said.

Flanagan said it was a pity Ms Hibbins' history has been officially adopted by the AFL.

"For 20 years, the AFL has successfully positioned itself as a national leader in the area of race relations, but it's now in a position where it's at odds with its official history," he said.

"Sydney and Essendon are playing for the Marn Grook Trophy in Sydney on Sunday night, but according to the official history, marn grook's no more relevant to the game than lacrosse."