The AFL is the home of the Australian Football League. Australian Rules Football, or footy as we call it, has been played for over 160 years.
Our great game is influenced by soccer and rugby, but was originally developed by cricketers in 1858 to keep them fit during winter. The Melbourne and Geelong Football Clubs, founded in 1858 and 1859 respectively, are among the oldest continuous sporting clubs in the world.
There are two leagues, men’s and women’s, with 18 teams in each, spread over five of Australia’s six states. Games consist of two teams competing with 18 players per side (with four reserves on the bench). Points are scored by kicking the oval-shaped ball between goal posts (six points) or between behind posts (one point).
It’s a body contact sport, with players being allowed to use their hands or their whole bodies to wrestle opponents to the ground when contesting possession of the ball. This is known as tackling. There’s also kicking, handballing (holding the ball in one hand and punching it with the other), and marking (catching the ball from a long kick). Marking is one of the most spectacular aspects of the game - in fact the ultimate mark is referred to as a ‘specky’ (Aussie slang for spectacular). A specky mark involves a player catching the ball whilst jumping in the air and using their legs to spring off the back or shoulders of one or more opponents and/or teammates. Both the jump and the landing enhance the spectacle of the mark.
Some of the most popular players include Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin (who recently kicked his 1000th career goal), Bailey Smith (most Instagram followers in the whole AFL), Dusty Martin (the only player to ever win three Norm Smith medals), Max Gawn (beloved captain of the reigning premiership club), and Nat Fyfe (dual Brownlow Medalist).
The AFL celebrates the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and their contribution to Australian football and our country, with 2021 marking the 15th year of the Indigenous Round, also known as the Sir Doug Nicholls Round. 2021 also saw the launch of the inaugural AFLW Indigenous Round, celebrated in Round Five of the AFL Women’s Competition.
Our nationally recognised game attracts the highest spectator numbers of any sport in Australia. It’s popular internationally too, being played now by over 100,000 people across 80 countries, with those numbers continuing to rise.