AFL
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The AFL (Australian Football league) is the national Australian rules football competition, which currently features 17 teams – 18 from 2012 – across five states, with Tasmania the only state not represented. The AFL premiership runs from mid march to late September, with each side playing 22 matches over 24 rounds, before a top-eight finals series culminates in the grand final in late September. The AFL is unarguably the most popular football code in Australia, as it not only boasts the highest on-going attendance figures of any major sporting league in the country, but its clubs also have far more official members on average, in comparison with other codes.
A Brief History of Australian Rules Football
The first noted origins of Australian rules football date back as far as the late 1850s, when a young Melbourne cricketer named Tom Wills – who had also spent time playing rugby in England – is thought to have proposed the idea of local cricketers forming football clubs in order to keep fit during the winter months.
After roughly a year of loosely-organised football matches, which were predominately played with experimental variations of rugby regulations, Wills chaired a meeting in May of 1859 in which the Melbourne Football Club – now known as the Melbourne Demons – was formed and a set of rules were documented to create what Wills is said to have referred to as “a game of our own”.
Apart from rugby, the other inspirations for the first organised football code in Australia are said to have included a composition of an Aboriginal past-time named marngrook – meaning ‘game ball’ in English – which is thought to have involved punting a stuffed ball, as well as an Irish game named caid – believed to be the original version of Gaelic football – which was brought to Australia by Irish settlers.
Over the next few decades, several other clubs were formed in Melbourne and greater Victoria, with the game also spreading to South Australia and Western Australia. Separate leagues were formed in all three states, but in 1897 several clubs from the Victorian Football Association – many of which are now current AFL clubs – decided to form an elite eight-team competition named the Victorian Football League.
The VFL quickly became regarded as Australia’s premier Australian rules football competition and by 1925 had expanded to 12 teams. However, it wasn’t until 1982 that the league’s first non-Victorian side entered the VFL, when South Melbourne relocated to Sydney and became known as the Sydney Swans. In 1987 the Perth-based West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears – now known as the Brisbane Lions, following their 1997 merger with the Fitzroy Lions – joined the league, which subsequently changed its name to the Australian Football League in 1989.
The 1990s saw further national expansion, with the Adelaide Crows, Fremantle Dockers and Port Adelaide Power all joining the AFL to create a 16-team competition. In 2009, the league announced the inclusion of a 17th franchise from the Gold Coast – later named the Gold Coast Suns – to enter the AFL for the 2011 season, as well as an 18th franchise from western Sydney – later named the Greater Western Sydney Giants – to join the league in 2012.
AFL Clubs
Adelaide Crows
Founded – 1991
Premierships – 2
Home Ground – Football Park (capacity: 51,500)
Brisbane Lions
Founded – 1997
Premierships – 3
Home Ground – The Gabba (capacity: 42,000)
Carlton Blues
Founded – 1897
Premierships – 16
Home Grounds – Etihad Stadium (capacity: 53,300), Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity: 100,000)
Collingwood Magpies
Founded – 1897
Premierships – 15
Home Ground – Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity: 100,000)
Essendon Bombers
Founded – 1897
Premierships – 16
Home Ground – Etihad Stadium (capacity: 53,300)
Fremantle Dockers
Founded – 1995
Premierships – 0
Home Ground – Subiaco Oval (43,500)
Geelong Cats
Founded – 1897
Premierships – 8
Home Ground – Kardinia Park (capacity: 28,000)
Gold Coast Suns
Founded – 2011
Premierships – N/A
Home Ground – Carrara Stadium (capacity: 25,000)
Hawthorn Hawks
Founded – 1925
Premierships – 10
Home Grounds – Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity: 100,000), York Park (20,000)
Melbourne Demons
Founded – 1897
Premierships – 12
Home Ground – Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity: 100,000)
North Melbourne Kangaroos
Founded – 1925
Premierships – 4
Home Ground – Etihad Stadium (capacity: 53,300)
Port Adelaide Power
Founded – 1997
Premierships – 1
Home Ground – Football Park (51,500)
Richmond Tigers
Founded – 1908
Premierships – 10
Home Ground – Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity: 100,000)
St Kilda Saints
Founded – 1897
Premierships – 1
Home Ground – Etihad Stadium (capacity: 53,300)
Sydney Swans
Founded – 1982
Premierships – 1
Home Grounds – Sydney Cricket Ground (capacity: 46,000), ANZ Stadium (capacity: 81,500)
West Coast Eagles
Founded – 1987
Premierships – 3
Home Ground – Subiaco Oval (capacity: 43,500)
Western Bulldogs
Founded – 1925
Premierships – 1
Home Grounds – Etihad Stadium (capacity: 53,300), Manuka Oval (capacity: 15,000)
Recent AFL Grand Final Winners
2010 – Collinwood Magpies*
2009 – Geelong Cats
2008 – Hawthorn Hawks
2007 – Geelong Cats
2006 – West Coast Eagles
2005 – Sydney Swans
2004 – Port Adelaide Power
2003 – Brisbane Lions
2002 – Brisbane Lions
2001 – Brisbane Lions
2000 – Essendon Bombers
*Won grand final replay of drawn grand final vs St Kilda Saints
Recent AFL Minor Premiers
2010 – Collingwood Magpies
2009 – St Kilda Saints
2008 – Geelong Cats
2007 – Geelong Cats
2006 – West Coast Eagles
2005 – Adelaide Crows
2004 – Port Adelaide Power
2003 – Port Adelaide Power
2002 – Port Adelaide Power
2001 – Essendon Bombers
2000 – Essendon Bombers
Recent Brownlow Medal Winners (awarded to the AFL player of the year)
2010 – Chris Judd (Carlton Blues)
2009 – Gary Ablett Jr (Geelong Cats)
2008 – Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs)
2007 – Jimmy Bartel (Geelong Cats)
2006 – Adam Goodes (Sydney Swans)
2005 – Ben Cousins (West Coast Eagles)
2004 – Chris Judd (West Coast Eagles)
2003 – Mark Ricciuto (Adelaide Crows)*
– Nathan Buckley (Collingwood Magpies)*
– Adam Goodes (Sydney Swans)*
2002 – Simon Black (Brisbane Lions)
2001 – Jason Akermanis (Brisbane Lions)
2000 – Shane Woewodin (Melbourne Demons)
*Joint winners
AFL Top Ten All-time Goal Kickers
1 – Tony Lockett, 1360 (St Kilda Saints/Sydney Swans)
2 – Gordon Coventry, 1299 (Collingwood Magpies)
3 – Jason Dunstall, 1254 (Hawthorn Hawks)
4 – Doug Wade, 1057 (Geelong Cats/North Melbourne Kangaroos)
5 – Gary Ablett Sr, 1030 (Hawthorn Hawks/Geelong Cats)
6 – Jack Titus, 970 (Richmond Tigers)
7 – Mathew Lloyd, 926 (Essendon Bombers)
8 – Leigh Mathews, 915 (Hawthorn Hawks)
9 – Peter McKenna 874 (Collingwood Magpies/Carlton Blues)
10 – Bernie Quinlan 817 (Footscray Bulldogs/Fitzroy Lions)
NAB Cup
The NAB Cup is a month-long, pre-season competition for the AFL, which begins in February and runs until two weeks prior to the start of round one of the AFL regular season in March. Since its inception as a pre-season tournament in 1988, the cup has predominately been run in a knockout format featuring 16 teams. However, with the addition of new AFL clubs Greater Western Sydney – who are not joining the AFL premiership until 2012 – and Gold Coast Suns, the competition has changed to a round robin format for 2011.
The 18 teams are split into six pools of three group opponents, who play each other once in an abbreviated game of two 20-minute halves, with all three games played out over a three-hour period on the same matchday. The six group matchdays are played over the first two weekends of the competition, with the top finishing side in each pool progressing to the quarter-finals, along with the two next best teams overall, who are granted the final two ‘wildcard’ quarter-final spots.
The competition then reverts back to standard games of four 20-minute quarters plus time on for the knockout phases, which are played out over the next three weekends, culminating in the final on Friday, March 11.
International Rules Football
International rules football is a hybrid sport of Australian rules football and Gaelic football, that was created for the purpose of international competition between Australia and Ireland, due to the vague similarities – as well as the international obscurity at a professional level – of the countries’ two codes.
The sport is played with a round ball on a rectangular field as is the case in Gaelic football, however many other rules unique to Australian rules football are incorporated into the official regulations of the game. The first match between the two nations was an informal test played in 1984, but it was not until 1998 that an official annual series was introduced.
The current International Rules Series is an annual two-match contest that takes place each October – following the completion of the AFL and All-Ireland Football competitions in late September – with the host nation alternating each year. Of the 22 tests played since 1998, both Australia and Ireland have won 10 apiece – with two matches having ended in draws – while just 37 total points separate the two sides over that duration.