1869 match against New South Wales, he refused to play under him, or, indeed, anyone else. The Victorians condemned Wills and resolved to go on without him, after which he retracted his decision not to play. This was the last intercolonial played on the Domain and Victoria recovered from Wardill's diamond duck to win by 78 runs. Wills scalped 7 wickets in a single innings. After the intercolonial, Wills announced that he would not play for Victoria again, even if the colony wanted him. He planned to return to Cullin-la-ringo in early 1869, but his mother, still "very dissatisfied" with him, requested that he stay away from the station. The MCC took him back and he continued to act as a tutor with the club. Wills' former Aboriginal teammates, Mullagh and Cuzens, joined him at the MCC as paid bowlers. Wills' physical appearance had deteriorated; gaining weight, balding and generally unkempt, with "an alcoholic blush of his cheeks", he looked older than his years. Describing his body as "stiff" during a cricket match in 1870, he hinted, for the first time, that his talent was fading. Nevertheless, his reputation as Australia's preeminent cricketer remained intact, with one journalist writing: No-ball plot and downfall [[File:Tom Wills William Hammersley.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Hammersley (standing), ''The Australasians chief sportswriter, led a campaign to have Wills (seated) banned from intercolonial cricket.]] Hardly a year had passed since Wills' return to Australia in 1856 without public comment on his suspect bowling action. Such comments increased as he aged and turned professional, and by 1870, many former allies that had once colluded to protect him, including journalists and officials, accused him of deliberately throwing. Wills' fame and influence helped make him a "convenient caricature" of the cricketing villain, one that, his critics urged, ought to be no-balled for the good of the game in the colonies. In February 1870 at the MCG, Wills captained Victoria to a 265-run win over a New South Wales side featuring Twopenny (Jarrawuk), an Aboriginal paceman allegedly recruited by Lawrence as a foil to Wills' "chucks". Comparing the two, the Melbourne press surmised: "Undoubtedly Wills throws sometimes, but there is some decency about it, some disguise." In March, Victoria trounced a Tasmanian XVI in Launceston under Wills' leadership, though not without criticism of his bowling action. Amid accusations that Wills had incited a "plague" of throwing in Australia, one-time ally Hammersley, now Melbourne's foremost sportswriter,