Australian rules football
Encyclopedia
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called
football, Aussie rules or footy (and in some regions called—erroneously—AFL, after the Australian Football League
, the only fully professional Australian rules football league) is a sport
played between two teams of 22 players (18 on the field, and four interchanges
) on either an Australian rules football ground
, a modified cricket field
or another modified sports venue.
The objective of the game is to score points by passing the ball through the opponent's goal.
The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the two major goal posts. The team with the higher total score at the end of the match wins unless either a draw
is declared or a tie-break
is used.
During most play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their body to move the ball. The primary methods are kicking
, handballing
and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled: for example, players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground
. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball
. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick
is paid. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark
, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick (with specific conditions), are awarded a free kick. Australian rules is a contact sport, in which players can tackle
using their hands or use their whole body to obstruct
opponents. Dangerous physical contact (such as pushing an opponent in the back
), interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties
or suspension
, depending on the seriousness of the infringement. Frequent physical contests, spectacular marking, fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring are the game's main attributes.
Details of the game's origins
in Australia are obscure and still the subject of much debate. Australian rules football became organised in Melbourne in May 1859, when the first laws of the game
were published by the Melbourne Football Club
.
Australian football is a major participation and spectator sport in Australia
. The sport is also played at amateur level in several countries
and in several variations
.
The most prestigious competition is the Australian Football League
(AFL), which culminates in the annual AFL Grand Final
– currently the highest attended club championship event in the world. Australian football is governed by the AFL Commission
, which also runs the AFL competition, and the rules of the game
are decided by the AFL's Laws of the Game Committee.
Both the ball and the field of play are elliptical in shape. No more than 18 players of each team are permitted to be on the field at any time.
Up to four interchange
(reserve) players may be swapped for those on the field at any time during the game. In Australian rules terminology, these players wait for substitution "on the bench"—an area with a row of seats on the sideline. Players must interchange through a designated interchange "gate" with strict penalties for too many players from one side on the field.
There is no offside rule
nor are there set positions in the rules; unlike many other forms of football, players from both teams may disperse across the whole field before the start of play. However, a typical on-field structure consists of six forwards, six defenders or "backmen" and six midfielders, usually two wingmen
, one centre
and three followers, including a ruckman
, ruck-rover and rover. Only four players from each team are allowed within the centre square (50 metres (54.7 yd)) at every centre bounce, which occurs at the commencement of each quarter, and to restart the game after a goal is scored. There are also other rules pertaining to allowed player positions during set plays (that is after a mark or free kick) and during kick-ins following the scoring of a behind.
A game consists of four quarters and a timekeeper officiates their duration. In professional Australian football, quarters are 20 minutes plus time on. Time on refers to clock being stopped when the ball is out of play, meaning that an average quarter could last for 27 to 31 minutes. At the end of each quarter, teams change their scoring end.
Games are officiated by umpire
s. Australian football begins after the first siren
, the umpire bounces the ball on the ground
(or throws it into the air if the condition of the ground is poor), and the two ruckmen
(typically the tallest players from each team), battle for the ball in the air on its way back down. This is known as the ball-up. Certain disputes during play may also be settled with a ball-up from the point of contention. If the ball ever goes out of bounds (beyond the oval boundary line around the edge of the field), a boundary umpire will stand with his back to the infield and return the ball into play with a throw-in, a high backwards toss back into the field of play.
The ball can be propelled in any direction by way of a foot, clenched fist (called a handball
or handpass) or open-hand tap but it cannot be thrown under any circumstances. Once a player takes possession of the ball he must dispose of it by either kicking or handballing it. Any other method of disposal is illegal and will result in a free kick to the opposing team. This is usually called "incorrect disposal", "dropping the ball" or "throwing". If the ball is not in the possession of one player it can be moved on with any part of the body.
A player may run with the ball but it must be bounced or touched on the ground
at least once every 15 metres. Opposition players may bump
or tackle
the player to obtain the ball and, when tackled, the player must dispose of the ball cleanly or risk being penalised for holding the ball
. The ball carrier may only be tackled between the shoulders and knees. If the opposition player forcefully contacts a player in the back whilst performing a tackle, the opposition player will be penalised for a push in the back
. If the opposition tackles the player with possession below the knees (a low tackle or a trip) or above the shoulders (a high tackle), the team with possession of the football gets a free kick.
If a player takes possession of the ball that has travelled more than 15 metres (16.4 yd) from another player's kick, by way of a catch, it is claimed as a mark
and that player is then awarded a free kick (meaning that the game stops while he prepares to kick from the point at which he marked). Alternatively, he may choose to "play on": forfeiting the set shot in the hope of pressing an advantage for his team (rather than allowing the opposition to reposition while he prepares for the free kick). Once a player has chosen to play on, normal play resumes and the player who took the mark is again able to be tackled.
There are different styles of kicking
depending on how the ball is held in the hand. The most common style of kicking seen in today's game, principally because of its superior accuracy, is the drop punt
(the ball is dropped from the hands down, almost to the ground, to be kicked so that the ball rotates in a reverse end over end motion as it travels through the air). Other commonly used kicks are the torpedo punt
(also known as the spiral, barrel, or screw punt; the ball is held at an angle and kicked, which makes the ball spiral in the air, like a rugby
throw, resulting in extra distance) and the checkside punt
or "banana", kicked across the ball on the outside of the foot is used to curve the ball (towards the right if kicked off the right foot) towards targets that are on an angle. There is also the "snap," which is almost the same as a checkside punt, except that it is kicked off the inside of the foot and curves in the opposite direction. It is also possible to kick the ball so that it bounces along the ground. This is known as a "grubber". Grubbers can bounce in a straight line, or curve to the left or right.
Apart from free kicks or when the ball is in the possession of an umpire for a ball up or throw in, the ball is always in dispute and any player from either side can take possession of the ball.
A goal, worth 6 points, is scored when the football is propelled through the goal posts at any height (including above the height of the posts) by way of a kick from the attacking team. It may fly through "on the full" (without touching the ground) or bounce through, but must not have been touched, on the way, by any player from either team. A goal cannot be scored from the foot of an opposition (defending) player.
A behind, worth 1 point, is scored when the ball passes between a goal post and a behind post at any height, or if the ball hits a goal post, or if any player sends the ball between the goal posts by touching it with any part of the body other than a foot. A behind is also awarded to the attacking team if the ball touches any part of an opposition player, including his foot, before passing between the goal posts. When an opposition player deliberately scores a behind for the attacking team (generally as a last resort, because of the risk of their scoring a goal) this is termed a rushed behind
. Before the start of the 2009 season, there was no additional penalty imposed for rushing a behind, compared to any other behind. However, for the start of the 2009 season a new rule was announced awarding a free kick against any player who deliberately rushes a behind.
The goal umpire
signals a goal with two hands raised at elbow height, a behind with one hand, and then confirms the signal with the other goal umpire by waving flags above his head.
The team that has scored the most points at the end of play wins the game. If the scores are level on points at the end of play, then the game is a draw; extra time applies only during finals matches in some competitions.
As an example of a score report, consider a match between and . Geelong's score of 14 goals and 14 behinds equates to 98 points. Hawthorn's score of 9 goals and 13 behinds equates to a 67 point tally. Geelong wins the match by a margin of 31 points. Such a result would be written as "Geelong 14.14 (98) defeated Hawthorn 9.13 (67)" and is said "Geelong: fourteen, fourteen, ninety-eight, defeated Hawthorn: nine, thirteen, sixty-seven". Additionally, it can be said that: "Geelong defeated Hawthorn by thirty-one points".
, the game is sometimes played in the wet season
(October to March). Pre-season competitions in southern Australia
usually begin in late February.
The AFL is recognised by the Australian Sports Commission
as being the National Sporting Organisation for Australian rules football. There are also seven state/territory-based organisations in Australia, most of which are now either owned by or affiliated to the AFL.
Most of these hold annual semi-professional club competitions while the others oversee more than one league. Local semi-professional or amateur organisations and competitions are often affiliated to their state organisations.
The AFL is the de facto
world governing body for Australian rules football. There are also a number of affiliated organisations governing amateur clubs and competitions around the world.
For almost all Australian rules club competitions the aim is to win the Premiership. The premiership is always decided by a finals series. The teams that occupy the highest positions on the ladder play off in a "semi-knockout" finals series. From the 1930s the finals series was usually contested by the top four teams (3rd versus 4th (First semifinal); 1st versus 2nd (Second semifinal); winner of First versus loser of Second (Preliminary final); the winner of Second versus winner of Preliminary playing in the Grand Final
for the premiership). Many leagues have adopted a final series involving 5, 6 or 8 teams with a variety of methods used to determine the winner. The AFL finals system
is contested by the top 8 teams.
Unlike many association football competitions there are usually no separate "league" and "cup" trophies. The team finishing first on the ladder is often referred to as a 'minor premier', although this bears little or no significance. In the AFL, this is the McClelland Trophy
and is considered a consolation prize. The team that finishes at the bottom of the ladder at the end of the season receives 'the wooden spoon
'.
It is uncommon for promotion and relegation
to occur in Australian football state level competitions although it is common among suburban leagues (such as the Eastern Football League
and Victorian Amateur Football Association in Melbourne).
As early as 1841, there is documented evidence of "foot-ball" being played in metropolitan and country Victoria as well as mention of early matches in Adelaide
(1843) and southern Van Diemen's Land
(Tasmania). While the exact rules being played in these matches are unknown they may have shared similarities and influences.
In 1858 English public school football games
began to be played in Melbourne and surrounding districts. The earliest known such match was played on 15 June 1858 between Scotch College
and Melbourne Grammar School
on the St Kilda foreshore.
A letter by Tom Wills
was published in Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle on 10 July 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club", or some other "athletic game", with a "code of laws" to keep cricketer
s fit during winter. This letter is regarded by many historians as being a catalyst for the development of a new code of football in 1859 today known as Australian football.
On 31 July, a knock-a-bout match at Yarra Park was played between a "St Kilda scratch team
" and "Melbourne scratch team". Trees were used for goal posts and there were no boundaries and the match lasted from 1pm until dark. There were no rules and fights frequently broke out. Melbourne being a relatively young city, the majority of the early players were migrants and the media of the time noted that participants of each nationality played the game their own distinctive way: the English played in a fashion that resembled rugby football
, the Scottish played recklessly, and the Irish played in a fashion that resembled the Irish sport of Gaelic football
.
Another significant milestone in the sport's development was a match between Melbourne Grammar School
and Scotch College
, which began on 7 August 1858 at Richmond Park, was umpired by Wills and Macadam, and which also involved Scotch College headmaster Thomas H. Smith
. A second day of play took place on 21 August and a third, and final, day on 4 September. While the full rules that were used is unknown, some details of the match survived. It was played with a round ball, the distance between the goals was approximately half a mile (approximately four times longer than the modern Melbourne Cricket Ground
playing surface), there were 40 players per side and one goal each side was scored with the game being declared a draw. The two schools have competed annually ever since for the Cordner-Eggleston Cup
.
and J. B. Thompson
. Accounts of the people directly involved differ. Some sources claim that Thomas H. Smith, Alex Bruce and or H. C. A. Harrison were also present. The meeting was held at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne hosted by owner and Melbourne Cricket Club member Jerry Bryant. The publican was a friend of Tom Wills with a personal interest in introducing football to Melbourne's schools. Bryant had played a role in organising early football matches at the nearby Richmond Park and his son was one of the first players. The rules were signed by Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. Sewell, J. B. Thompson, Alex Bruce, T. Butterworth and Thomas H. Smith. Importantly, the rules were widely publicised and distributed.
In 1859 several new football clubs formed including the Castlemaine Football Club
, Geelong Football Club
(which Wills directly helped to form) and the Melbourne University Football Club
. While many one-off matches are recorded to have taken place between several early teams from Melbourne's suburbs and country Victoria (such as the Ballarat and Geelong competitions), in the early days many had not yet formed clubs for regular competition.
The first ever trophy for Australian Football, the 1861 Challenge Cup
, was won in 1862 under Melbourne's rules by University over Melbourne. The competition continued into the 1860s with the addition of other teams from Melbourne's suburbs. Two further competitions, the South Yarra Challenge Cup (which had evolved from the Caledonian Games) and "Second Twenties" were held in the 1860s and 1870s.
Some rival rules eventually gave way to an acceptance of the Melbourne rules. In 1860, the Melbourne Football Club redrafted its rules following the input of several other clubs. The requirement to bounce the ball while running was introduced in a significant redraft of the Melbourne rules in 1866 by H.C.A. Harrison and his rules committee to satisfy the Geelong Football Club's own set of very different rules. Behind posts were introduced at this time are also believed to have come directly from the Geelong rules. The new rules became known as the Victorian rules, which became more widely adopted. In 1869, a 100-minute time limit was introduced to the game for the first time. Previous to this, winners were decided in a number of ways, but most commonly the first side to kick two goals.
The relationship with cricket primarily came out of co-existence and many of football's founders were cricketers. As a result, the sport shares some terminology (i.e. "umpires" and "boundary"). However cricket authorities did not initially allow football to be played on their grounds and in the early years football was played primarily in parks. The first football match played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
(MCG) was not until 1876. Cricket authorities soon saw the opportunity to capitalise on the rapid growth of Australian Football, however, and soon most grounds in Victoria were expanded to accommodate the dual purpose, a situation that continues to this day.
Football matches between 1859 and 1899 were played in a 20-per-side format.
Gradually the game—known at first as "Melbourne rules" became "Victorian rules" and then "Australian rules" or "Australasian rules" gained roots in other Australasian colonies, beginning with South Australia
(1860) Tasmania
(1864), Queensland
(1866), and New Zealand
(1871). In 1877, the sport's first governing bodies, the South Australian Football Association and the Victorian Football Association
were formed on 30 April and 17 May respectively. The game began to be played in New South Wales
in 1877, in Western Australia
in 1881 (During the 1880s
, young men sent to school in Adelaide brought the game home when they had finished their education—more came from the eastern states later in the WA gold rush) and the Australian Capital Territory
in 1911. By 1916, the game was first played in the Northern Territory
, establishing a permanent presence in all Australian states and mainland territories.
The South Australian National Football League
(SANFL), formerly named the South Australian Football Association, and the West Australian Football League
(WAFL), formerly named the Western Australian Football Association, were strong, separate competitions by the 1890s. However, late in the century the code began to decline in New South Wales and Queensland largely due to interstate rivalries
and the lack of strong local governing bodies. In the case of Sydney, denial of access to grounds and the loss of professional players to other football codes directly inhibited to the game's growth.
The first intercolonial match
had been played between Victoria and South Australia on 2 August 1879.
(VFL), was born as an eight-team competition. Popularity of the VFL grew rapidly and by 1925 with 12 teams, had become the most prominent league in the game and would dominate so many aspects of the sport from that point on.
Both World War I and World War II had a devastating effect on the sport of Australian football and on Australian sport in general. While scratch matches were played by Australian "diggers
" in remote locations around the world, the game lost many of its great players to wartime service. Some competitions never fully recovered. Between 1914 and 1915 talks were held for a proposed amalgamation with rugby league
, the predominant code of football in New South Wales and Queensland was considered and trialled. World War I saw the game in New Zealand go into recess for three quarters of a century. In Queensland, the state league went into recess for the duration of the war. VFL club University left the league and went into recess due to severe casualties. The WAFL lost two clubs and the SANFL was suspended for one year in 1916 due to heavy club losses. The ANZAC Day clash
is one example of how the war continues to be remembered in the football community.
The ANFC ran the Championship of Australia
, the first national club competition, which first ran in 1888 and saw clubs from different states compete on an even playing field. During this time, the Port Adelaide
won a record four national club championships. Although clubs from other states were at times invited, the final was almost always between the premiers from the two strongest state competitions of the time—South Australia and Victoria—and the majority of matches were played in Adelaide at the request of the SAFA/SAFL
. By the 1960s, as VFL clubs increasingly recruited the best players from other states, they began to dominate the competition and the last match was played in 1976, with North Adelaide being the last non-Victorian winner in 1972. Between 1977 and 1987, the Australian Football Council (AFC) in conjunction with the VFL ran a night series
, which invited clubs and representative sides from around the country to participate in the "National Football League" for the Wills Cup, however Victorian sides still dominated.
With the lack of international competition, representative matches between state teams were regarded with great importance. Originating from the early intercolonial matches, these tests continued well after Federation of Australia
in 1901 and the Australian Football Council co-ordinated regular interstate carnivals. In 1908, a Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival
was held to celebrate 50 years of Australian rules football. The carnival included teams representing Victoria, South Australia
, Queensland
, New South Wales
, Tasmania
, Western Australia
and New Zealand
. Again, due primarily to the VFL recruiting the best players, Victoria dominated interstate matches for three quarters of a century. Representative football was kept alive longer than the national club competition with the introduction of State of origin rules in 1977. The new rules mean that rather than representing the state of their adopted club, players would return to play for the state they were first recruited in. This instantly broke Victoria's stranglehold over state titles and Western Australia and South Australia began to win many of their games against Victoria. Both New South Wales and Tasmania scored surprise victories at home against Victoria in 1990.
In 1978, the term Barassi Line
was used to describe the football dichotomy that had emerged in Australia over three quarters of a century and also the first suggestion of regular interstate club competition or national league.
By 1980, the way the game was played had changed dramatically, with the phasing out of many of the game's kicking styles, changing rules and the influence of the handballing game and television.
In 1982, in a move that heralded big changes within the sport, one of the original VFL clubs, South Melbourne, relocated to the rugby league
stronghold of Sydney and became known as the Sydney Swans
as it was on verge of going out of business. In the late 1980s, due to the poor financial standing of many of the Victorian clubs, the VFL led to a more national competition; two more non-Victorian clubs, the West Coast Eagles
and the Brisbane Bears began playing in 1987. In their early years, the Sydney and Brisbane clubs continued to struggle both on and off-field before an eventual bailout by the league, which granted significant draft concessions and financial aid to keep them competitive. Each club was required to pay a licence fee which allowed the Victorian based clubs to survive.
The league changed its name to the Australian Football League
(AFL) following the 1989 season. In 1991, it gained its first South Australian team, Adelaide
, which paid five million dollars to enter the AFL. During the next five years, two more non-Victorian teams, Fremantle
and Port Adelaide
, joined the league. From 2011–2012 two new teams will be added to the competition. The Gold Coast Suns and the Greater Western Sydney Giants, with the former joining the competition in 2011 and the latter to compete in the 2012 fixture. The AFL, currently with 18 member clubs, 17 of which will compete in the 2011 season, is the sport's elite competition and the most powerful body and continues to seek further opportunities to expand into new markets.
Following the emergence of the Australian Football League, the SANFL, WAFL and other state leagues rapidly declined to a secondary status. Apart from these there are many semi-professional and amateur leagues around Australia, where they play a very important role in the community, and particularly so in rural areas. The VFA, still in existence a century after the original schism, merged with the former VFL reserves competition in 1998. The new entity adopted the VFL name and remained a primarily state based competition.
State of origin games also declined in importance, especially after an increasing number of withdrawals by AFL players. The AFL turned its focus for representation to an annual International Rules Series
against Ireland
in 1998 before abolishing State of Origin in 1999. The second-tier state and territorial leagues still contest interstate representative matches.
Although Tasmanian AFL Bid
has been ongoing, rather than pursue a national competition, the AFL's focus has become gaining marketshare in lucrative and broadcasting rights in the more populous Australian states and has advanced plans to create football franchises on the Gold Coast, Queensland
(Gold Coast Football Club) and in Greater Western Sydney
(Greater Western Sydney Football Club). The AFL regularly schedules pre-season exhibition matches in all Australian states and territories as part of the Regional Challenge.
Australian rules football is played at an amateur level in various countries
around the world. Over 30 countries are home to clubs or leagues who play regularly, with around 20 that have either affiliation or working agreements with the AFL. There have been several players in the VFL/AFL who were born outside Australia and since 1982, an increasing number of players have been recruited from outside Australia through initiatives such as the Irish experiment
and more recently, international scholarship programs.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the game spread with the Australian Diaspora
to areas such as New Zealand and South Africa; however this growth went into rapid decline following World War I. After World War II, the sport experienced a small amount of growth in the Pacific region, particularly in Nauru
, Papua New Guinea
and later New Zealand
.
Most of the current amateur clubs and leagues in existence have developed since the 1980s, when leagues began to be established in North America
, Europe
and Asia
. As the size of the Australian diaspora has increased, so has the number of clubs outside Australia. This expansion has been further aided by multiculturalism and assisted by exhibition matches
as well as exposure generated through players who have converted to and from other football codes
. In Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States there are many thousands of players.
The AFL became the de facto governing body when it pushed for the closure of the International Australian Football Council
in 2002. The Australian Football International Cup
is currently the highest level of senior international competition.
teams (mainly from Ireland), under various sets of hybrid, compromise rules known as International rules football
. In 1984, the first official representative matches of International Rules were played, and these were played annually each October between the AFL and the Gaelic Athletic Association
, also known as the GAA, between 1998 and 2006. These were part of the official International Rules Series
, which attracted large crowds and media interest in Ireland and Australia. In 2007 the international rules series was abandoned because of the aggression and the severity of the Australian team in the previous year, but in 2008, under new rules to protect the player with the ball, it resumed in Australia.
Australian football is a sport rich in tradition and Australian cultural references, especially surrounding the rituals of gameday for players, officials and supporters.
Australian football has attracted more overall interest among Australians (as measured by the Sweeney Sports report) than any other football code, and, when compared with all sports throughout the nation, has consistently ranked first in the winter reports, and most recently third behind cricket
and swimming
in summer.
In 2006, a total of 615,549 registered participants played Australian football in Australia. Participation increased 7.84% between 2005–06. The Australian Sports Commission
statistics show a 42% increase in the total number of participants over the 4 year period between 2001–2005.
Australian football is played in more than 30 countries around the world. In 2004, there were a total of over 25,000 participants outside of Australia. This has grown to about 35,000 people in 32 countries playing in structured competitions outside of Australia Australian rules is the national sport of Nauru
.
Many related games have emerged from football, mainly with variations of contact to encourage greater participation. These include Kick-to-kick
(and its variants such as "End to End Footy" and "Markers Up"), Auskick
, Rec Footy
, Women's Australian rules football
, 9-a-side Footy
, Masters Australian Football
, handball and longest-kick competitions. Players outside of Australia sometimes engage in related games on the available fields, like Metro Footy
(played on gridiron fields) and Samoa Rules
(played on rugby fields).
The selections have caused some controversy, mainly because of the predominance of VFL players at the expense of those who played in other leagues in the years before there was a national competition.
The elite Legend status was bestowed on 12 members of the Hall of Fame in 1996: Ron Barassi
, Haydn Bunton Senior, Roy Cazaly
, John Coleman, Jack Dyer
, Polly Farmer, Leigh Matthews
, John Nicholls, Bob Pratt
, Dick Reynolds
, Bob Skilton
and Ted Whitten
(see above list for further details).
The following ten members have been promoted to the status of "Legend" since 1996: Ian Stewart
(1997), Gordon Coventry
(1998), Peter Hudson
(1999), Kevin Bartlett (2000), Barrie Robran
(2001), Bill Hutchison (2003), Jock McHale
(2005), Darrel Baldock
(2006), Norm Smith
(2007), Alex Jesaulenko
(2008) and Kevin Murray (2010).
Names of Australian rules football
Australian rules football has had a number of different names throughout its history. The official name according to the sport's governing body, the Australian Football League, is Australian football...
football, Aussie rules or footy (and in some regions called—erroneously—AFL, after the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
, the only fully professional Australian rules football league) is a sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
played between two teams of 22 players (18 on the field, and four interchanges
Interchange (Australian rules football)
Interchange is the term used to describe a team position in Australian rules football, consisting of the players who are off the ground at any time...
) on either an Australian rules football ground
Australian rules football playing field
An Australian rules football playing field is a venue where the sport of Australian rules football is played.The playing field is typically a large oval-shaped grass surface . These fields may vary especially for variations of the game...
, a modified cricket field
Cricket field
A cricket field consists of a large circular or oval-shaped grassy ground on which the game of cricket is played. There are no fixed dimensions for the field but its diameter usually varies between 450 feet to 500 feet...
or another modified sports venue.
The objective of the game is to score points by passing the ball through the opponent's goal.
The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the two major goal posts. The team with the higher total score at the end of the match wins unless either a draw
Tie (draw)
To tie or draw is to finish a competition with identical or inconclusive results. The word "tie" is usually used in North America for sports such as American football. "Draw" is usually used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the Commonwealth of Nations and it is usually used for sports such as...
is declared or a tie-break
Tiebreaker
In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests.-In matches:In some situations, the tiebreaker may consist of another round of play...
is used.
During most play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their body to move the ball. The primary methods are kicking
Kick (football)
Kicking is a method used by many types of football, including:* Association football* Australian rules football* International rules football* American football* Canadian football* Gaelic football* Rugby league* Rugby union...
, handballing
Handball (Australian rules football)
Handball is a term in the sport of Australian rules football which describes a method of disposing of possession of the football by hand. It is the most frequently used alternative to kicking the ball...
and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled: for example, players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground
Running bounce
A running bounce, or simply bounce, is a skill in the sport of Australian rules football when a player, while running, bounces the ball on the ground and back to himself.-The Skill:...
. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball
Holding the ball
Holding the ball is a law in Australian Rules Football. It is necessary to prevent players from slowing down play. Instead of the umpire having to bounce the ball , it allows the defence a way to take possession directly from the attacking team.-Main Interpretation:The most basic description of...
. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick
Free kick (Australian rules football)
A free kick in Australian rules football is a penalty awarded by a field umpire to a player who has been infringed by an opponent or is the nearest player to a player from the opposite team who has broken a rule.-Protocol:...
is paid. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark
Mark (Australian football)
A mark is a skill in Australian rules football where a player cleanly catches a kicked ball that has travelled more than 15 metres without anyone else touching it or the ball hitting the ground....
, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick (with specific conditions), are awarded a free kick. Australian rules is a contact sport, in which players can tackle
Tackle (football move)
Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary purposes of tackling is to disposses an opponent of the ball, to stop the player from gaining ground towards goal or to stop them from carrying out what they intend....
using their hands or use their whole body to obstruct
Shepherding (Australian rules football)
Shepherding is a tactic and skill in Australian rules football, a team sport.Shepherding is the act of legally obstructing or preventing an opposing player from gaining possession of the ball or reaching the contest....
opponents. Dangerous physical contact (such as pushing an opponent in the back
Push in the back
A push in the back is a free kick awarded in Australian rules football against a player who illegally tackles or interferes with a player from behind. The rule is applied in two different circumstances: tackles and marking contests.-Push in the Back: Tackle:...
), interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties
50-metre penalty
In the sport of Australian Rules Football, the 50-metre penalty is applied by umpires to a number of different infractions when a free kick or mark has already been paid.Some leagues and competitions use a 25-metre penalty...
or suspension
Suspension (punishment)
Suspension is a form of punishment that people receive for violating rules and regulations.- Workplace :Suspension is a common practice in the workplace for being in violation of an organization's policy...
, depending on the seriousness of the infringement. Frequent physical contests, spectacular marking, fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring are the game's main attributes.
Details of the game's origins
Origins of Australian rules football
The origins of Australian rules football are obscure and still the subject of much debate.The earliest accounts of "foot-ball" games in Australia date back to July 1829 and the earliest accounts of clubs formed to play football date to the late 1850s. Football in the early years was played by a...
in Australia are obscure and still the subject of much debate. Australian rules football became organised in Melbourne in May 1859, when the first laws of the game
Laws of Australian football
The laws of Australian football describe the rules of the game of Australian rules football as they have evolved and adapted, with the same underlying core rules, since 1859....
were published by the Melbourne Football Club
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....
.
Australian football is a major participation and spectator sport in Australia
Australian rules football in Australia
Australian rules football originated in Melbourne in 1858. It has continuously in every state and territory of Australia since 1915 and is particularly popular in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, where it is the most watched sport, and Northern Territory where it is the...
. The sport is also played at amateur level in several countries
Countries playing Australian rules football
Note: In order to be recognised as a true national team and not simply expatriates , the list is subject to International Cup eligibility rules....
and in several variations
Variations of Australian rules football
Variations of Australian rules football are games or activities based on or similar to the game of Australian rules football, in which the player uses common Australian rules football skills...
.
The most prestigious competition is the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
(AFL), which culminates in the annual AFL Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
– currently the highest attended club championship event in the world. Australian football is governed by the AFL Commission
AFL Commission
The AFL Commission is the official governing body of the Australian Football League , the elite national Australian rules football competition....
, which also runs the AFL competition, and the rules of the game
Laws of Australian football
The laws of Australian football describe the rules of the game of Australian rules football as they have evolved and adapted, with the same underlying core rules, since 1859....
are decided by the AFL's Laws of the Game Committee.
Rules of the game
Up to four interchange
Interchange (Australian rules football)
Interchange is the term used to describe a team position in Australian rules football, consisting of the players who are off the ground at any time...
(reserve) players may be swapped for those on the field at any time during the game. In Australian rules terminology, these players wait for substitution "on the bench"—an area with a row of seats on the sideline. Players must interchange through a designated interchange "gate" with strict penalties for too many players from one side on the field.
There is no offside rule
Offside (sport)
Offside is a rule used by several different team sports regulating aspects of player positioning. It is particularly used in field sports with rules deriving from the various codes of football, such as association football, rugby and field hockey, as well as in ice hockey.Offside rules are...
nor are there set positions in the rules; unlike many other forms of football, players from both teams may disperse across the whole field before the start of play. However, a typical on-field structure consists of six forwards, six defenders or "backmen" and six midfielders, usually two wingmen
Centre line
The Centre line refers to a set of positions on an Australian rules football field.It consists of 3 players, two on the wings , and one in the centre....
, one centre
Centre line
The Centre line refers to a set of positions on an Australian rules football field.It consists of 3 players, two on the wings , and one in the centre....
and three followers, including a ruckman
Ruckman (Australian rules football position)
In Australian rules football, a ruckman is typically a tall and athletic player who contests at centre bounces and stoppages . The ruckman is one of the most important players on the field...
, ruck-rover and rover. Only four players from each team are allowed within the centre square (50 metres (54.7 yd)) at every centre bounce, which occurs at the commencement of each quarter, and to restart the game after a goal is scored. There are also other rules pertaining to allowed player positions during set plays (that is after a mark or free kick) and during kick-ins following the scoring of a behind.
A game consists of four quarters and a timekeeper officiates their duration. In professional Australian football, quarters are 20 minutes plus time on. Time on refers to clock being stopped when the ball is out of play, meaning that an average quarter could last for 27 to 31 minutes. At the end of each quarter, teams change their scoring end.
Games are officiated by umpire
Umpire (Australian rules football)
An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football.-Origins:Unlike many other codes of football, where the official is called a referee, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket, which is played on the same types of fields and was an...
s. Australian football begins after the first siren
Siren (noisemaker)
A siren is a loud noise making device. Most modern ones are civil defense or air raid sirens, tornado sirens, or the sirens on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. There are two general types: pneumatic and electronic....
, the umpire bounces the ball on the ground
Ball-up
A ball-up in Australian rules football describes a method of restarting play at a neutral contest after a stoppage within the field of play. It is not to be confused with a boundary throw-in which occurs in most cases when the ball is forced out of bounds...
(or throws it into the air if the condition of the ground is poor), and the two ruckmen
Ruckman (Australian rules football position)
In Australian rules football, a ruckman is typically a tall and athletic player who contests at centre bounces and stoppages . The ruckman is one of the most important players on the field...
(typically the tallest players from each team), battle for the ball in the air on its way back down. This is known as the ball-up. Certain disputes during play may also be settled with a ball-up from the point of contention. If the ball ever goes out of bounds (beyond the oval boundary line around the edge of the field), a boundary umpire will stand with his back to the infield and return the ball into play with a throw-in, a high backwards toss back into the field of play.
The ball can be propelled in any direction by way of a foot, clenched fist (called a handball
Handball (Australian rules football)
Handball is a term in the sport of Australian rules football which describes a method of disposing of possession of the football by hand. It is the most frequently used alternative to kicking the ball...
or handpass) or open-hand tap but it cannot be thrown under any circumstances. Once a player takes possession of the ball he must dispose of it by either kicking or handballing it. Any other method of disposal is illegal and will result in a free kick to the opposing team. This is usually called "incorrect disposal", "dropping the ball" or "throwing". If the ball is not in the possession of one player it can be moved on with any part of the body.
A player may run with the ball but it must be bounced or touched on the ground
Running bounce
A running bounce, or simply bounce, is a skill in the sport of Australian rules football when a player, while running, bounces the ball on the ground and back to himself.-The Skill:...
at least once every 15 metres. Opposition players may bump
Shepherding (Australian rules football)
Shepherding is a tactic and skill in Australian rules football, a team sport.Shepherding is the act of legally obstructing or preventing an opposing player from gaining possession of the ball or reaching the contest....
or tackle
Tackle (football move)
Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary purposes of tackling is to disposses an opponent of the ball, to stop the player from gaining ground towards goal or to stop them from carrying out what they intend....
the player to obtain the ball and, when tackled, the player must dispose of the ball cleanly or risk being penalised for holding the ball
Holding the ball
Holding the ball is a law in Australian Rules Football. It is necessary to prevent players from slowing down play. Instead of the umpire having to bounce the ball , it allows the defence a way to take possession directly from the attacking team.-Main Interpretation:The most basic description of...
. The ball carrier may only be tackled between the shoulders and knees. If the opposition player forcefully contacts a player in the back whilst performing a tackle, the opposition player will be penalised for a push in the back
Push in the back
A push in the back is a free kick awarded in Australian rules football against a player who illegally tackles or interferes with a player from behind. The rule is applied in two different circumstances: tackles and marking contests.-Push in the Back: Tackle:...
. If the opposition tackles the player with possession below the knees (a low tackle or a trip) or above the shoulders (a high tackle), the team with possession of the football gets a free kick.
If a player takes possession of the ball that has travelled more than 15 metres (16.4 yd) from another player's kick, by way of a catch, it is claimed as a mark
Mark (Australian football)
A mark is a skill in Australian rules football where a player cleanly catches a kicked ball that has travelled more than 15 metres without anyone else touching it or the ball hitting the ground....
and that player is then awarded a free kick (meaning that the game stops while he prepares to kick from the point at which he marked). Alternatively, he may choose to "play on": forfeiting the set shot in the hope of pressing an advantage for his team (rather than allowing the opposition to reposition while he prepares for the free kick). Once a player has chosen to play on, normal play resumes and the player who took the mark is again able to be tackled.
There are different styles of kicking
Kick (football)
Kicking is a method used by many types of football, including:* Association football* Australian rules football* International rules football* American football* Canadian football* Gaelic football* Rugby league* Rugby union...
depending on how the ball is held in the hand. The most common style of kicking seen in today's game, principally because of its superior accuracy, is the drop punt
Drop punt
A drop punt is a type of kick in various codes of football.It is the primary method of disposing the ball by foot in Australian rules football and the name describes its technique. The ball is held vertically, and dropped and kicked before it hits the ground, resulting in the ball spinning...
(the ball is dropped from the hands down, almost to the ground, to be kicked so that the ball rotates in a reverse end over end motion as it travels through the air). Other commonly used kicks are the torpedo punt
Torpedo punt
The torpedo punt, similar to a punt in American Football, is a kicking technique implemented in Rugby League, Rugby Union and Australian rules football to enhance the distance the ball is kicked....
(also known as the spiral, barrel, or screw punt; the ball is held at an angle and kicked, which makes the ball spiral in the air, like a rugby
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
throw, resulting in extra distance) and the checkside punt
Checkside punt
Is like a banana kick but the opposite way, the checkside punt is a kicking style used in Australian Rules and rugby league football. When kicked, it bends away from the body and is usually used when a set shot for goal is lined up on a narrow angle....
or "banana", kicked across the ball on the outside of the foot is used to curve the ball (towards the right if kicked off the right foot) towards targets that are on an angle. There is also the "snap," which is almost the same as a checkside punt, except that it is kicked off the inside of the foot and curves in the opposite direction. It is also possible to kick the ball so that it bounces along the ground. This is known as a "grubber". Grubbers can bounce in a straight line, or curve to the left or right.
Apart from free kicks or when the ball is in the possession of an umpire for a ball up or throw in, the ball is always in dispute and any player from either side can take possession of the ball.
A goal, worth 6 points, is scored when the football is propelled through the goal posts at any height (including above the height of the posts) by way of a kick from the attacking team. It may fly through "on the full" (without touching the ground) or bounce through, but must not have been touched, on the way, by any player from either team. A goal cannot be scored from the foot of an opposition (defending) player.
A behind, worth 1 point, is scored when the ball passes between a goal post and a behind post at any height, or if the ball hits a goal post, or if any player sends the ball between the goal posts by touching it with any part of the body other than a foot. A behind is also awarded to the attacking team if the ball touches any part of an opposition player, including his foot, before passing between the goal posts. When an opposition player deliberately scores a behind for the attacking team (generally as a last resort, because of the risk of their scoring a goal) this is termed a rushed behind
Rushed behind
In Australian rules football, a rushed behind occurs when the ball passes through the goalposts and was last touched by a defending player. It is similar to an own goal in other sports....
. Before the start of the 2009 season, there was no additional penalty imposed for rushing a behind, compared to any other behind. However, for the start of the 2009 season a new rule was announced awarding a free kick against any player who deliberately rushes a behind.
The goal umpire
Umpire (Australian rules football)
An umpire is an official in the sport of Australian rules football.-Origins:Unlike many other codes of football, where the official is called a referee, in Australian Football, the officials borrow their title from the game of cricket, which is played on the same types of fields and was an...
signals a goal with two hands raised at elbow height, a behind with one hand, and then confirms the signal with the other goal umpire by waving flags above his head.
The team that has scored the most points at the end of play wins the game. If the scores are level on points at the end of play, then the game is a draw; extra time applies only during finals matches in some competitions.
As an example of a score report, consider a match between and . Geelong's score of 14 goals and 14 behinds equates to 98 points. Hawthorn's score of 9 goals and 13 behinds equates to a 67 point tally. Geelong wins the match by a margin of 31 points. Such a result would be written as "Geelong 14.14 (98) defeated Hawthorn 9.13 (67)" and is said "Geelong: fourteen, fourteen, ninety-eight, defeated Hawthorn: nine, thirteen, sixty-seven". Additionally, it can be said that: "Geelong defeated Hawthorn by thirty-one points".
Structure and competitions
The football season, proper, is from March to August (early autumn to late winter in Australia) with finals being held in September and October. In the tropicsTropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
, the game is sometimes played in the wet season
Wet season
The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...
(October to March). Pre-season competitions in southern Australia
Southern Australia
The term southern Australia is generally considered to include the States and territories of Australia of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory...
usually begin in late February.
The AFL is recognised by the Australian Sports Commission
Australian Sports Commission
The Australian Sports Commission is the governing body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in Australia. It is an agency of the Government of Australia within the portfolio of Health and Ageing...
as being the National Sporting Organisation for Australian rules football. There are also seven state/territory-based organisations in Australia, most of which are now either owned by or affiliated to the AFL.
Most of these hold annual semi-professional club competitions while the others oversee more than one league. Local semi-professional or amateur organisations and competitions are often affiliated to their state organisations.
The AFL is the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
world governing body for Australian rules football. There are also a number of affiliated organisations governing amateur clubs and competitions around the world.
For almost all Australian rules club competitions the aim is to win the Premiership. The premiership is always decided by a finals series. The teams that occupy the highest positions on the ladder play off in a "semi-knockout" finals series. From the 1930s the finals series was usually contested by the top four teams (3rd versus 4th (First semifinal); 1st versus 2nd (Second semifinal); winner of First versus loser of Second (Preliminary final); the winner of Second versus winner of Preliminary playing in the Grand Final
Grand Final
Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sport term used to describe a match that decides a league champion.It originated in Victoria and South Australia and has become specifically significant Australian culture...
for the premiership). Many leagues have adopted a final series involving 5, 6 or 8 teams with a variety of methods used to determine the winner. The AFL finals system
AFL finals system
The current AFL finals system was devised by the Australian Football League in 2000 as its end-of-season championship playoff tournament. It is a revision of the McIntyre Final Eight System, used by the AFL from 1994 to 1999, designed to address several perceived issues with that system...
is contested by the top 8 teams.
Unlike many association football competitions there are usually no separate "league" and "cup" trophies. The team finishing first on the ladder is often referred to as a 'minor premier', although this bears little or no significance. In the AFL, this is the McClelland Trophy
McClelland Trophy
The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy, currently awarded to the minor premiers in the Australian Football League each year...
and is considered a consolation prize. The team that finishes at the bottom of the ladder at the end of the season receives 'the wooden spoon
Wooden spoon (award)
A wooden spoon is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events...
'.
It is uncommon for promotion and relegation
Promotion and relegation
In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...
to occur in Australian football state level competitions although it is common among suburban leagues (such as the Eastern Football League
Eastern Football League (Australia)
The Eastern Football League is an Australian rules football League, based in the eastern suburbs of metropolitan Melbourne....
and Victorian Amateur Football Association in Melbourne).
Origins
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
(1843) and southern Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
(Tasmania). While the exact rules being played in these matches are unknown they may have shared similarities and influences.
In 1858 English public school football games
English public school football games
During the early modern era students, former students and teachers at English public schools developed and wrote down the first codes of football, most notably the Eton College...
began to be played in Melbourne and surrounding districts. The earliest known such match was played on 15 June 1858 between Scotch College
Scotch College, Melbourne
Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
and Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in South Yarra and Caulfield, suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
on the St Kilda foreshore.
A letter by Tom Wills
Tom Wills
Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills was an Australian all-round sportsman, umpire, coach and administrator who is credited with being a catalyst towards the invention of Australian rules football....
was published in Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle on 10 July 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club", or some other "athletic game", with a "code of laws" to keep cricketer
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
s fit during winter. This letter is regarded by many historians as being a catalyst for the development of a new code of football in 1859 today known as Australian football.
On 31 July, a knock-a-bout match at Yarra Park was played between a "St Kilda scratch team
Scratch team
A scratch team is a team, usually in sport, brought together on a temporary basis, composed of players who normally play for different sides. A game played between two scratch teams may be called a scratch match....
" and "Melbourne scratch team". Trees were used for goal posts and there were no boundaries and the match lasted from 1pm until dark. There were no rules and fights frequently broke out. Melbourne being a relatively young city, the majority of the early players were migrants and the media of the time noted that participants of each nationality played the game their own distinctive way: the English played in a fashion that resembled rugby football
Rugby football
Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
, the Scottish played recklessly, and the Irish played in a fashion that resembled the Irish sport of Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
.
Another significant milestone in the sport's development was a match between Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School
Melbourne Grammar School is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school predominantly for boys, located in South Yarra and Caulfield, suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
and Scotch College
Scotch College, Melbourne
Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, which began on 7 August 1858 at Richmond Park, was umpired by Wills and Macadam, and which also involved Scotch College headmaster Thomas H. Smith
Thomas H. Smith
Thomas Henry Smith was an Irish Australian who had a clear role in the origins of Australian football by being one of the first people to introduce school football games to Australian public schools in 1858 and as one of the founders of the Melbourne Football Club.Smith was a founding member and...
. A second day of play took place on 21 August and a third, and final, day on 4 September. While the full rules that were used is unknown, some details of the match survived. It was played with a round ball, the distance between the goals was approximately half a mile (approximately four times longer than the modern Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
playing surface), there were 40 players per side and one goal each side was scored with the game being declared a draw. The two schools have competed annually ever since for the Cordner-Eggleston Cup
Cordner-Eggleston Cup
The Cordner-Eggleston Cup is the current name of a historic private school Australian rules football competition which has been played annually between Melbourne Grammar School and the Scotch College since 1858....
.
First rules
The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859http://www.melbourneday.com.au/assets/images/mfcrules.pdf are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian football. The ten simple rules were drawn up on 17 May in a meeting was chaired by Wills and in attendance were journalists W. J. HammersleyWilliam Hammersley
William Josiah Sumner Hammersley was a prominent sports journalist for Bell's Life in Victoria and later The Australasian , one of the four men credited with setting down the original rules of the Australian rules football.-Life:He was educated at Aldenham School...
and J. B. Thompson
J. B. Thompson
James Bogne "J. B." Thompson was one of the creators of the original laws of Australian rules football, one of the founders and the inaugural secretary of the Melbourne Football Club, a cricketer for both Victoria and the Melbourne Cricket Club , and a journalist for Melbourne newspaper, The...
. Accounts of the people directly involved differ. Some sources claim that Thomas H. Smith, Alex Bruce and or H. C. A. Harrison were also present. The meeting was held at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne hosted by owner and Melbourne Cricket Club member Jerry Bryant. The publican was a friend of Tom Wills with a personal interest in introducing football to Melbourne's schools. Bryant had played a role in organising early football matches at the nearby Richmond Park and his son was one of the first players. The rules were signed by Tom Wills, William Hammersley, J. Sewell, J. B. Thompson, Alex Bruce, T. Butterworth and Thomas H. Smith. Importantly, the rules were widely publicised and distributed.
Early competition in Victoria
Castlemaine Football Club
Castlemaine Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia and is currently a member of the Bendigo Football League.The club is notable for several reasons...
, Geelong Football Club
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also...
(which Wills directly helped to form) and the Melbourne University Football Club
Melbourne University Football Club
Melbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University is an Australian rules football club.The club achieved prominence by being a member of the game's most elite competition in the early 20th century, the Victorian Football League between 1908 and 1914.Although there are no records...
. While many one-off matches are recorded to have taken place between several early teams from Melbourne's suburbs and country Victoria (such as the Ballarat and Geelong competitions), in the early days many had not yet formed clubs for regular competition.
The first ever trophy for Australian Football, the 1861 Challenge Cup
Challenge Cup (Australia)
The Challenge Cup was a football competition played in Melbourne, Australia between 1862 and the 1870s under a number of different club rules including the Melbourne Rules ....
, was won in 1862 under Melbourne's rules by University over Melbourne. The competition continued into the 1860s with the addition of other teams from Melbourne's suburbs. Two further competitions, the South Yarra Challenge Cup (which had evolved from the Caledonian Games) and "Second Twenties" were held in the 1860s and 1870s.
Some rival rules eventually gave way to an acceptance of the Melbourne rules. In 1860, the Melbourne Football Club redrafted its rules following the input of several other clubs. The requirement to bounce the ball while running was introduced in a significant redraft of the Melbourne rules in 1866 by H.C.A. Harrison and his rules committee to satisfy the Geelong Football Club's own set of very different rules. Behind posts were introduced at this time are also believed to have come directly from the Geelong rules. The new rules became known as the Victorian rules, which became more widely adopted. In 1869, a 100-minute time limit was introduced to the game for the first time. Previous to this, winners were decided in a number of ways, but most commonly the first side to kick two goals.
The relationship with cricket primarily came out of co-existence and many of football's founders were cricketers. As a result, the sport shares some terminology (i.e. "umpires" and "boundary"). However cricket authorities did not initially allow football to be played on their grounds and in the early years football was played primarily in parks. The first football match played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
(MCG) was not until 1876. Cricket authorities soon saw the opportunity to capitalise on the rapid growth of Australian Football, however, and soon most grounds in Victoria were expanded to accommodate the dual purpose, a situation that continues to this day.
Football matches between 1859 and 1899 were played in a 20-per-side format.
Spread to other colonies
Australian rules football in South Australia
Australian rules football in South Australia has a history dating back to 1843, and it has long been the most popular sport in the state.-History:see South Australian National Football League for a more detailed history of the SANFL competition...
(1860) Tasmania
Australian rules football in Tasmania
Australian rules football in Tasmania known as Football officially and locally has a history dating back to the 1860s, with the state having the distinction of being the first place outside of Victoria to play the sport....
(1864), Queensland
Australian rules football in Queensland
Australian rules football in Queensland has a history which dates back to the 1860s. By the 1880s it was the most prominent football code in the state, but was overtaken by rugby league by 1908...
(1866), and New Zealand
Australian rules football in New Zealand
Australian rules football in New Zealand is currently a minority sport in a nation where rugby union is the national sport and predominant football code...
(1871). In 1877, the sport's first governing bodies, the South Australian Football Association and the Victorian Football Association
Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association , taking its new name as from the 1996 season, is the premier Australian rules football league in Victoria The Victorian Football League (VFL) which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association...
were formed on 30 April and 17 May respectively. The game began to be played in New South Wales
Australian rules football in New South Wales
Australian rules football in New South Wales has been played since the 1870s, however it has a troubled history in the state, traditionally lags in popularity as a winter sport behind the rugby football codes....
in 1877, in Western Australia
Australian rules football in Western Australia
Australian rules football in Western Australia is the most popular sport in the state.-Early Beginnings:Organised football in the Perth/Fremantle region of Western Australia dates back to 1881. Back then though rugby union was the dominant football code...
in 1881 (During the 1880s
Australian rules football in Western Australia
Australian rules football in Western Australia is the most popular sport in the state.-Early Beginnings:Organised football in the Perth/Fremantle region of Western Australia dates back to 1881. Back then though rugby union was the dominant football code...
, young men sent to school in Adelaide brought the game home when they had finished their education—more came from the eastern states later in the WA gold rush) and the Australian Capital Territory
Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory
Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory has a history dating back to the formation of the territory in the 1910s.Traditionally, Canberra was considered to be one of the points which define the Barassi Line, however the popularity of Australian rules football suffered...
in 1911. By 1916, the game was first played in the Northern Territory
Australian rules football in the Northern Territory
Australian rules football in the Northern Territory has a history dating back to the 1910s and is the most popular sport in the territory, particularly with indigenous Australian communities in Darwin, Alice Springs and the Tiwi Islands....
, establishing a permanent presence in all Australian states and mainland territories.
The South Australian National Football League
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in South Australia....
(SANFL), formerly named the South Australian Football Association, and the West Australian Football League
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the second-most popular in the state, behind the nation-wide Australian Football League...
(WAFL), formerly named the Western Australian Football Association, were strong, separate competitions by the 1890s. However, late in the century the code began to decline in New South Wales and Queensland largely due to interstate rivalries
Australian regional rivalries
Australian regional rivalries refers to the rivalries between Australian cities or regions.-Sydney - Melbourne rivalry:There has been a long standing rivalry between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in Australia...
and the lack of strong local governing bodies. In the case of Sydney, denial of access to grounds and the loss of professional players to other football codes directly inhibited to the game's growth.
The first intercolonial match
Interstate matches in Australian rules football
Australian rules football matches between teams representing Australian colonies/states and territories have been held since 1879. For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition and international matches meant that football games between state representative teams were...
had been played between Victoria and South Australia on 2 August 1879.
Emergence of the VFL
In 1896, delegates from the stronger and wealthier VFA clubs—Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and South Melbourne—met to form a breakaway competition and in 1897, the Victorian Football LeagueAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
(VFL), was born as an eight-team competition. Popularity of the VFL grew rapidly and by 1925 with 12 teams, had become the most prominent league in the game and would dominate so many aspects of the sport from that point on.
Effects of the two world wars
Digger (soldier)
Digger is an Australian and New Zealand military slang term for soldiers from Australia and New Zealand. It originated during World War I.- Origin :...
" in remote locations around the world, the game lost many of its great players to wartime service. Some competitions never fully recovered. Between 1914 and 1915 talks were held for a proposed amalgamation with rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
, the predominant code of football in New South Wales and Queensland was considered and trialled. World War I saw the game in New Zealand go into recess for three quarters of a century. In Queensland, the state league went into recess for the duration of the war. VFL club University left the league and went into recess due to severe casualties. The WAFL lost two clubs and the SANFL was suspended for one year in 1916 due to heavy club losses. The ANZAC Day clash
The ANZAC Day clash
The Anzac Day clash is an annual Australian rules football match between Australian Football League teams Collingwood and Essendon, held on Anzac Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground .-Early history of Australian rules on Anzac Day:...
is one example of how the war continues to be remembered in the football community.
Interstate football and the Australian National Football Council
The Australian National Football Council's primary role was to govern the game at national level to facilitate interstate representative and club competition.The ANFC ran the Championship of Australia
Championship of Australia
The Championship of Australia was the name given to an Australian rules football tournament which was contested between football clubs from the Victorian, South Australian and West Australian football leagues. The Championship took place three times in the 19th century and then from 1907 to 1914...
, the first national club competition, which first ran in 1888 and saw clubs from different states compete on an even playing field. During this time, the Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide Football Club
The Port Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, which plays in the Australian Football League and the South Australian National Football League...
won a record four national club championships. Although clubs from other states were at times invited, the final was almost always between the premiers from the two strongest state competitions of the time—South Australia and Victoria—and the majority of matches were played in Adelaide at the request of the SAFA/SAFL
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in South Australia....
. By the 1960s, as VFL clubs increasingly recruited the best players from other states, they began to dominate the competition and the last match was played in 1976, with North Adelaide being the last non-Victorian winner in 1972. Between 1977 and 1987, the Australian Football Council (AFC) in conjunction with the VFL ran a night series
Australian Football League pre-season competition
The Australian Football League pre-season competition, which is known at present as the NAB Cup, is a competition held before the beginning of the Australian Football League premiership season...
, which invited clubs and representative sides from around the country to participate in the "National Football League" for the Wills Cup, however Victorian sides still dominated.
With the lack of international competition, representative matches between state teams were regarded with great importance. Originating from the early intercolonial matches, these tests continued well after Federation of Australia
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia formed one nation...
in 1901 and the Australian Football Council co-ordinated regular interstate carnivals. In 1908, a Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival
1908 Melbourne Carnival
The 1908 Melbourne Carnival was the inaugural Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition. It was known at the time as the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival as it commemorated 50 years of Australian rules football.-Teams:The Victorian team was...
was held to celebrate 50 years of Australian rules football. The carnival included teams representing Victoria, South Australia
Australian rules football in South Australia
Australian rules football in South Australia has a history dating back to 1843, and it has long been the most popular sport in the state.-History:see South Australian National Football League for a more detailed history of the SANFL competition...
, Queensland
Australian rules football in Queensland
Australian rules football in Queensland has a history which dates back to the 1860s. By the 1880s it was the most prominent football code in the state, but was overtaken by rugby league by 1908...
, New South Wales
Australian rules football in New South Wales
Australian rules football in New South Wales has been played since the 1870s, however it has a troubled history in the state, traditionally lags in popularity as a winter sport behind the rugby football codes....
, Tasmania
Australian rules football in Tasmania
Australian rules football in Tasmania known as Football officially and locally has a history dating back to the 1860s, with the state having the distinction of being the first place outside of Victoria to play the sport....
, Western Australia
Australian rules football in Western Australia
Australian rules football in Western Australia is the most popular sport in the state.-Early Beginnings:Organised football in the Perth/Fremantle region of Western Australia dates back to 1881. Back then though rugby union was the dominant football code...
and New Zealand
Australian rules football in New Zealand
Australian rules football in New Zealand is currently a minority sport in a nation where rugby union is the national sport and predominant football code...
. Again, due primarily to the VFL recruiting the best players, Victoria dominated interstate matches for three quarters of a century. Representative football was kept alive longer than the national club competition with the introduction of State of origin rules in 1977. The new rules mean that rather than representing the state of their adopted club, players would return to play for the state they were first recruited in. This instantly broke Victoria's stranglehold over state titles and Western Australia and South Australia began to win many of their games against Victoria. Both New South Wales and Tasmania scored surprise victories at home against Victoria in 1990.
Towards a national club competition
Barassi Line
The Barassi Line was first suggested by Professor Ian Turner in his 1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture to refer to a dividing line in Australia that divides areas where Australian rules is the dominant winter code of football from those where rugby football codes are most popular...
was used to describe the football dichotomy that had emerged in Australia over three quarters of a century and also the first suggestion of regular interstate club competition or national league.
By 1980, the way the game was played had changed dramatically, with the phasing out of many of the game's kicking styles, changing rules and the influence of the handballing game and television.
In 1982, in a move that heralded big changes within the sport, one of the original VFL clubs, South Melbourne, relocated to the rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
stronghold of Sydney and became known as the Sydney Swans
Sydney Swans
The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...
as it was on verge of going out of business. In the late 1980s, due to the poor financial standing of many of the Victorian clubs, the VFL led to a more national competition; two more non-Victorian clubs, the West Coast Eagles
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League. The club is based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 and played its first games in the 1987 season. Its current home ground is Subiaco Oval...
and the Brisbane Bears began playing in 1987. In their early years, the Sydney and Brisbane clubs continued to struggle both on and off-field before an eventual bailout by the league, which granted significant draft concessions and financial aid to keep them competitive. Each club was required to pay a licence fee which allowed the Victorian based clubs to survive.
The league changed its name to the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
(AFL) following the 1989 season. In 1991, it gained its first South Australian team, Adelaide
Adelaide Crows
The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed The Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia, playing in the Australian Football League ....
, which paid five million dollars to enter the AFL. During the next five years, two more non-Victorian teams, Fremantle
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia...
and Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide Football Club
The Port Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, which plays in the Australian Football League and the South Australian National Football League...
, joined the league. From 2011–2012 two new teams will be added to the competition. The Gold Coast Suns and the Greater Western Sydney Giants, with the former joining the competition in 2011 and the latter to compete in the 2012 fixture. The AFL, currently with 18 member clubs, 17 of which will compete in the 2011 season, is the sport's elite competition and the most powerful body and continues to seek further opportunities to expand into new markets.
Following the emergence of the Australian Football League, the SANFL, WAFL and other state leagues rapidly declined to a secondary status. Apart from these there are many semi-professional and amateur leagues around Australia, where they play a very important role in the community, and particularly so in rural areas. The VFA, still in existence a century after the original schism, merged with the former VFL reserves competition in 1998. The new entity adopted the VFL name and remained a primarily state based competition.
State of origin games also declined in importance, especially after an increasing number of withdrawals by AFL players. The AFL turned its focus for representation to an annual International Rules Series
International Rules Series
The International Rules Series is a senior men's International rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team and the Ireland international rules football team...
against Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
in 1998 before abolishing State of Origin in 1999. The second-tier state and territorial leagues still contest interstate representative matches.
Although Tasmanian AFL Bid
Tasmanian AFL Bid
The bid to establish an Australian Football League team in the state of Tasmania has been ongoing, with fluctuating levels of support, since the then-Victorian Football League began its national expansion in the 1980s and 1990s....
has been ongoing, rather than pursue a national competition, the AFL's focus has become gaining marketshare in lucrative and broadcasting rights in the more populous Australian states and has advanced plans to create football franchises on the Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
(Gold Coast Football Club) and in Greater Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney
Greater Western Sydney is a term used to describe the western region of the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia. The University of Western Sydney defines Greater Western Sydney as comprising 14 local government areas...
(Greater Western Sydney Football Club). The AFL regularly schedules pre-season exhibition matches in all Australian states and territories as part of the Regional Challenge.
Australian football internationally
Countries playing Australian rules football
Note: In order to be recognised as a true national team and not simply expatriates , the list is subject to International Cup eligibility rules....
around the world. Over 30 countries are home to clubs or leagues who play regularly, with around 20 that have either affiliation or working agreements with the AFL. There have been several players in the VFL/AFL who were born outside Australia and since 1982, an increasing number of players have been recruited from outside Australia through initiatives such as the Irish experiment
Irish experiment
The Irish Experiment is the popular name for the interest, primarily from VFL/AFL clubs, in bringing Irish sportspeople to Australia to play Australian Rules Football professionally ....
and more recently, international scholarship programs.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the game spread with the Australian Diaspora
Australian diaspora
The term Australian diaspora may refer to the approximately 1,000,000 Australian citizens who today live outside Australia. This usage of the term includes the several hundred thousand people who spend some time in the United Kingdom and Europe but return to Australia...
to areas such as New Zealand and South Africa; however this growth went into rapid decline following World War I. After World War II, the sport experienced a small amount of growth in the Pacific region, particularly in Nauru
Australian rules football in Nauru
Australian rules football in Nauru dates back to the 1930s and quickly established itself, along with weightlifting as the national sport of the country.The overall participation rate of over 30% is the highest for the sport in the world.-Structure:...
, Papua New Guinea
Australian rules football in Papua New Guinea
Australian rules football in Papua New Guinea is a rapidly developing team sport which was initially introduced by Australian servicemen. The sport has a long and somewhat shaky history, but has recently achieved big strides in the Papua New Guinea community and is now the second most popular sport...
and later New Zealand
Australian rules football in New Zealand
Australian rules football in New Zealand is currently a minority sport in a nation where rugby union is the national sport and predominant football code...
.
Most of the current amateur clubs and leagues in existence have developed since the 1980s, when leagues began to be established in North America
Australian rules football in the Americas
Australian rules football has been played at an organised amateur level in the United States and Canada since around 1990. There have also been clubs formed for occasional play in Bermuda, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.-Argentina:...
, Europe
Australian rules football in Europe
Australian rules football is played in Europe at an amateur level in a number of countries. The oldest and largest leagues are those in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, each nation having a number of clubs and organised junior programs...
and Asia
Australian rules football in Asia
Australian rules football in Asia describes the minority sport of Australian rules football as it is watched and played in the Asia region.Australian rules football has been played as an organised sport in Asia since the late 1980s, with the foundation of teams in Japan based around universities in...
. As the size of the Australian diaspora has increased, so has the number of clubs outside Australia. This expansion has been further aided by multiculturalism and assisted by exhibition matches
Australian rules football exhibition matches
Australian rules football has been introduced to a wide range of places around Australia and the world since the code originated in Victoria in 1859....
as well as exposure generated through players who have converted to and from other football codes
Players who have converted from one football code to another
There are many players who have converted from one football code to another or even changed from other sports at a professional or representational level....
. In Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States there are many thousands of players.
The AFL became the de facto governing body when it pushed for the closure of the International Australian Football Council
International Australian Football Council
The International Australian Football Council was a body established in 1995 to govern the sport of Australian rules football internationally...
in 2002. The Australian Football International Cup
Australian Football International Cup
The Australian Football International Cup is an international sport competition in Australian rules football...
is currently the highest level of senior international competition.
International Rules Football
Since 1967 there have been many matches between Australian rules football teams (mainly from Australia) and Gaelic footballGaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
teams (mainly from Ireland), under various sets of hybrid, compromise rules known as International rules football
International rules football
International rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....
. In 1984, the first official representative matches of International Rules were played, and these were played annually each October between the AFL and the Gaelic Athletic Association
Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...
, also known as the GAA, between 1998 and 2006. These were part of the official International Rules Series
International Rules Series
The International Rules Series is a senior men's International rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team and the Ireland international rules football team...
, which attracted large crowds and media interest in Ireland and Australia. In 2007 the international rules series was abandoned because of the aggression and the severity of the Australian team in the previous year, but in 2008, under new rules to protect the player with the ball, it resumed in Australia.
Australian rules football culture
Australian football has attracted more overall interest among Australians (as measured by the Sweeney Sports report) than any other football code, and, when compared with all sports throughout the nation, has consistently ranked first in the winter reports, and most recently third behind cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
in summer.
In 2006, a total of 615,549 registered participants played Australian football in Australia. Participation increased 7.84% between 2005–06. The Australian Sports Commission
Australian Sports Commission
The Australian Sports Commission is the governing body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in Australia. It is an agency of the Government of Australia within the portfolio of Health and Ageing...
statistics show a 42% increase in the total number of participants over the 4 year period between 2001–2005.
Australian football is played in more than 30 countries around the world. In 2004, there were a total of over 25,000 participants outside of Australia. This has grown to about 35,000 people in 32 countries playing in structured competitions outside of Australia Australian rules is the national sport of Nauru
Nauru
Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
.
Many related games have emerged from football, mainly with variations of contact to encourage greater participation. These include Kick-to-kick
Kick-to-kick
Kick-to-kick is a pastime and well-known tradition of Australian rules football fans, and a recognised Australian term for kick and catch type games...
(and its variants such as "End to End Footy" and "Markers Up"), Auskick
Auskick
Auskick is a national program in Australia to develop and promote participation in Australian rules football by children. It has proven to be popular with both boys and girls....
, Rec Footy
Rec Footy
Recreational Football is a non-contact version of the Australian rules football game sanctioned by the Australian Football League...
, Women's Australian rules football
Women's Australian rules football
Women's Australian rules football is a fast growing sport played at senior level in Australia, United States, England, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. At junior level, it is also played in Papua New Guinea, Argentina and South Africa...
, 9-a-side Footy
9-a-side Footy
Nine-a-side footy is a sport based on Australian rules football played informally by Aussie Rules clubs but not yet an official sport in its own right....
, Masters Australian Football
Masters Australian Football
Masters Australian Football is a sport based on the game of Australian rules football for players aged 35 years and over. The sport first commenced officially on 21 September 1981, after being founded by John Hammer in 1980 in Nhill, Victoria.Modifications to the rules reduce the physical impact...
, handball and longest-kick competitions. Players outside of Australia sometimes engage in related games on the available fields, like Metro Footy
Metro Footy
Metro Footy is a modified version of Australian rules football rules played on gridiron football, rugby or Association football fields, predominantly in the United States of America...
(played on gridiron fields) and Samoa Rules
Samoa Rules
Samoa Rules is a game derived from Australian rules football and rugby union that is occasionally played in Samoa.-Rules:Generally the rules are taken from Aussie Rules, but each team consists of 15 players, like rugby union....
(played on rugby fields).
Australian Football Hall of Fame
For the centenary of the VFL/AFL in 1996, the Australian Football Hall of Fame was established. In that year 136 identities were inducted, including 100 players, 10 coaches, 10 umpires, 10 administrators and six media representatives.The selections have caused some controversy, mainly because of the predominance of VFL players at the expense of those who played in other leagues in the years before there was a national competition.
The elite Legend status was bestowed on 12 members of the Hall of Fame in 1996: Ron Barassi
Ron Barassi
Ronald Dale Barassi, Jr AM is a former Australian rules football player and coach. During a long and decorated career, Barassi has been one of the most important figures in the history of Australian football. His father, Ron Barassi, Sr., was the first Australian footballer killed at Tobruk during...
, Haydn Bunton Senior, Roy Cazaly
Roy Cazaly
Roy Cazaly was an Australian rules football player famous for his high marks and ruck work, which gave rise to the phrase "Up There Cazaly".-Early life/career:...
, John Coleman, Jack Dyer
Jack Dyer
John Raymond Dyer Sr. OAM , always known as Jack Dyer, was one of the colossal figures of Australian rules football during two distinct careers, firstly as a player and coach of the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League between 1931 and 1952, and later in the broadcast media for...
, Polly Farmer, Leigh Matthews
Leigh Matthews
Leigh Raymond "Lethal Leigh" Matthews AM is a former player and coach of Australian rules football. He played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League from 1969 to 1985, coached Collingwood from 1986–1995, and coached the Brisbane Lions from 1999 to 2008...
, John Nicholls, Bob Pratt
Bob Pratt
Harold Robert "Bob" Pratt was a former Australian rules footballer from Mitcham, Victoria.Pratt played with South Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League from 1930–1939 and again in 1946, and with the Coburg Football Club in the Victorian Football Association from 1940 to 1941...
, Dick Reynolds
Dick Reynolds
Richard Sylvannus 'Dick' Reynolds was an Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Essendon and Victoria with great distinction....
, Bob Skilton
Bob Skilton
Robert John "Bob" Skilton was an Australian rules football player who played as a rover for South Melbourne and Victoria between 1956 and 1971....
and Ted Whitten
Ted Whitten
Edward James "EJ" Whitten was an Australian rules football player and media personality. He played a then-record 321 Victorian Football League games for the Footscray Football Club between 1951 and 1970...
(see above list for further details).
The following ten members have been promoted to the status of "Legend" since 1996: Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart (Australian rules footballer)
Ian Harlow Stewart , son of Aldo Liberale Cervi and Anita Cervi who separated three years after his birth, is a former Australian rules footballer with Hobart in the Tasmanian Football League , and in the Victorian Football League with St Kilda and Richmond...
(1997), Gordon Coventry
Gordon Coventry
Gordon "Nuts" Coventry was an Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League . With 1,299 goals over 18 seasons, Coventry remains one of the greatest full forwards the game has ever seen...
(1998), Peter Hudson
Peter Hudson
Peter John Hudson AM is a former Australian Rules Football player, considered one of the greatest full-forwards in the game's history....
(1999), Kevin Bartlett (2000), Barrie Robran
Barrie Robran
Barrie Charles Robran MBE is a former Australian rules footballer in the South Australian National Football League , widely acknowledged as a champion in his sport....
(2001), Bill Hutchison (2003), Jock McHale
Jock McHale
James Francis "Jock" McHale, was an Australian rules football player and coach for the Collingwood Football Club in the Victorian Football League in a marathon career that extended from 1903 to 1949....
(2005), Darrel Baldock
Darrel Baldock
Darrel John Baldock , commonly nicknamed "The Doc" and "Mr Magic", was an Australian rules football player and state politician who in 1966 was the first captain of a premiership-winning St Kilda Football Club. Baldock was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as a "Legend"...
(2006), Norm Smith
Norm Smith
Norman Walter "Norm" Smith was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League. After 200 games as a player with Melbourne and Fitzroy, Smith began a twenty year coaching career, including a fifteen year stint at Melbourne...
(2007), Alex Jesaulenko
Alex Jesaulenko
Alex 'Jezza' Jesaulenko MBE is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He is regarded as one of the game's greatest-ever players and is an official Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame...
(2008) and Kevin Murray (2010).
See also
- Australian rules football attendance recordsAustralian rules football attendance recordsAustralian rules football attendance records-Australia:Note: Since the 1970s in Australia, many grounds have been reconfigured without standing room, which reduces maximum capacity.-By Australian State and Territory:-Regional:...
- Australian rules football positions
- List of Australian rules football clubs
- List of Australian rules football terms
- Australian football at the 1956 Summer OlympicsAustralian football at the 1956 Summer OlympicsAustralian football was one of two demonstration sports at the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia. The rules stated that the hosts must organize both a native game and a sport foreign to the organizing country as "demonstration sports"....
External links
- Laws of Australian Football 2008
- Australian Football explained in 17 languages – a publication from AFL.com.au
- Culture Victoria – Football Stories from Country Victoria
- Australian Football League (AFL) official site
- Aussie Rules International
- Masters – Australian Football for the over 30s
- Australian Institute of Sport AFL website
- Australian Sports Commission website
- Full Points Footy – comprehensive history site