Australian Rules Football
Australian Rules Football, often referred to as "Aussie Rules" or "footy," is a professional team sport originating from Australia in the mid-nineteenth century. It is recognized as the world's oldest football code, having been influenced by early soccer, rugby, and indigenous games like marn-grook. The sport is governed by the Australian Football League (AFL), which oversees its rules, seasonal play, and premiership. With over 1.2 million players across various levels, it stands as Australia's most-watched sport and is particularly popular locally, though it lacks widespread recognition internationally.
Matches are played on oval fields, featuring teams of 14 to 18 players, with the objective of scoring more points than the opponent. The game is characterized by physical contact, allowing for specific types of tackles while prohibiting others to ensure player safety. Scoring involves kicking the ball through goal posts for six points or achieving a "behind" for one point. Women have participated in the sport for over a century, and the AFL Women's League (AFLW) was established in 2016, further promoting female involvement. The sport also celebrates individual excellence through awards like the prestigious Brownlow Medal, honoring the "fairest and best player" each season.
Subject Terms
Australian Rules Football
Australian rules football is the world's oldest and longest-running professional football sport. Created in the mid-nineteenth century, it predates other popular football codes such as soccer, North American football, Gaelic football and rugby. According to Roy Morgan Research, it is Australia's most-watched professional sport and second-most-played football code.
Often called "Aussie Rules" or "footy", the sport is played in all states and territories. Unlike soccer and rugby, the sport is not broadly popular outside of Australia. More than 1.2 million players participated at any level in the early 2020s, according to the sport's professional league, the Australian Football League. More than 100,000 people play the sport globally. The sport's professional clubs are ranked by their outcomes in seasonal play, with four points awarded for a win and two points awarded for a draw.
Australian rules football is a physical sport that allows players to hold and collide with each other. Charging, kicking and tripping are forbidden, as little protective gear is worn, but "correct tackling", or collision at the waist or chest, is allowed.
Origins and History
While the organised form of Australian rules football predates other football sports, it was influenced by early forms of soccer and rugby, as well as marn-grook, a sport played by Wurundjeri people involving kicking an animal hide ball.
Thomas Wills of Victoria is credited with conceiving Australian rules football as off-season training for cricketers. The first organised match of Australian rules football occurred in August 1858, and the initial set of rules for the sport were laid out in 1859. The Melbourne Football Club was founded that same year. The sport's first administrative bodies, the twelve-club Victoria Football Association (VFA) and the eight-club South Australian Football Association (SAFA), were formed in 1877. The Victorian and South Australian associations began playing against each other during their very first official season.
The sport became popular in its early years but lost favour due to economic depression in the early 1890s. The sport's administrators devised a revenue-sharing model to support the league's clubs, spurring its growth and popularity. In response, several successful clubs formed the Victorian Football League as a separate body from the VFA in 1897 as the sport's regulatory commission and organiser of professional gameplay.
In 1905, the Australasian Football Council was established to oversee interstate and national competition and to maintain the sport's presence and popularity in New Zealand. The following year the SAFA renamed itself the South Australian Football League (SAFL); the organisation would again change its name in 1927 to the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).
The sport again grew in popularity in the 1920s with radio broadcasts and in the late 1950s when matches were first televised. The VFL was renamed the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990. The AFL is Australia's official professional league and regulatory body for the sport, and it governs the rules, seasonal play and premiership. Eighteen football clubs make up the AFL as of 2024. An expansion team in Tasmania is slated to join the league in 2028.
Women have played the sport at the amateur level since 1915, often competing locally between clubs and even interstate. In 2016, the AFL announced the formation of an eight-team women's league (AFLW) for regulated professional play. The league began competing in 2017, and by 2022, had expaanded to eighteen teams. The AFLW plays with slightly modified rules and regulations.
Rules and Regulations
Australian rules football is a team sport, and its object is for a side to score more points than the opposing side before regulation time has elapsed. There are fourteen to eighteen players and up to four interchange players to a side. Time is divided into four twenty-minute quarters of play, excluding any stoppages. If the score is even at the end of the last quarter, the outcome is a draw.
Six points are scored by kicking a ball without interruption through a set of goal posts between 6 and 15 metres high, and a single point is earned when the ball crosses a goal line or touches a goal post without passing through. The scoring of a single point is called a "behind".
To advance the ball, player runs with the ball until he is held by a defending player, at which point he must kick or punch the ball ("handball") to a teammate in order to maintain possession. Players controlling the ball must bounce or touch it every fifteen metres while running. The act of checking an opposing player with one's upper body is known as "shepherding". On-field umpires ensure proper shepherding with limitations on the amount and extent of physical contact between players. There are also at least two boundary umpires and two goal umpires.
When a player has successfully caught or received a kicked ball that has been sent more than fifteen metres within bounds by a teammate and not bounced or been touched, the player is awarded a "mark". When a mark is taken, the player is allowed to set the ball down and freely kick at the goal posts from anywhere behind the marked spot. A defending player will attempt to block or catch the resulting kick. If the defender succeeds, they are instead given the mark and the chance to kick at the opposing goal.
Australian rules football is played on oval cricket fields of varying dimensions (135 to 185 metres long by 110 to 155 metres wide). The playing surface is referred to as the "ground". The sport uses a large oval ball similar in shape to balls used in regulation rugby and American football. In the AFLW, the ball is somewhat smaller than that used by the AFL. Uniforms with synthetic guernseys, shorts and soft-toed boots are the norm. Matches are played 31 March to 30 September.
Top Athletes
The highest individual honour given in the sport is the Brownlow Medal, named for Charles Brownlow, one of the sport's early administrators. The AFL awards the Brownlow Medal to sport's "fairest and best player" each year, based on their accumulation of votes throughout seasonal play. At the end of each match, umpires rank the three best players in that match, and at the end of a season, the player with the highest vote total is awarded the medal. Players who tie or the vote total share the award. Four players have won the Brownlow Medal three times: Haydn Bunton of Fitzroy, Dick Reynolds of Essendon, Bob Skilton of South Melbourne and Ian Stewart of St Kilda and Richmond. Ten players have won the honour twice: Adam Goodes, Bill Hutchison, Chris Judd, Gary Ablett, Greg Williams, Ivor Warne-Smith, Keith Greig, Peter Moore, Robert Harvey and Roy Wright.
Three footballers—Doug Wade, Peter Hudson and Tony Lockett—have been awarded four Coleman Medals, which recognise the player who scored the highest number of goals during seasonal play. Gary Ayres and Andrew McLeod have twice won the Norm Smith Medal, given to the best player in the Grand Final. Norm Smith, for whom the aforementioned medal is named, was a six-time winner of the Jock McHale Medal, presented to the season's premiership coach; seven other coaches have each won four times. AFL Hall of Famers include Paul Bagshaw, Ben Hart, Verdun Howell, Nigel Lappin, Maurice Rioli and Ray Sorrel.
Bibliography
Hess, Rob, and Brunette Lenkić. "Growth of Women's Football Has Been a 100-Year Revolution—It Didn't Happen Overnight." The Conversation Australia, 3 Feb. 2017, theconversation.com/growth-of-womens-football-has-been-a-100-year-revolution-it-didnt-happen-overnight-71989. Accessed 17 June 2024.
"The History of Australian Football." AFL, 2024, www.afl.com.au/about-afl/history. Accessed 17 June 2024.
"Introduction to Australian Football." United States Australian Football League, Accessed 3 Feb. 2017.
Laws of Australian Football 2023. AFL Tasmania, 2023, www.afltas.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Laws-of-the-Game-Booklet-Mobile.pdf. Accessed 17 Junr 2024.
Nauright, John. "Australian Rules Football." Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4 Oct. 2016. Accessed 3 Feb. 2017.
Whimpress, Bernard. "Australian Rules Football." The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History. Edited by Wilfrid Prest, Kerrie Round, and Carol Fort. Wakefield Press, 2001. Adelaidia, Government of South Australia, 29 Apr. 2014, adelaidia.sa.gov.au/subjects/australian-rules-football. Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.