Australian rules football in Australia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Australian rules football in Australia
Victoria
Registered players555,629 (2023)[1]
Clubs2,672[2]
National competitions
Club competitions
Audience records
Single match121,696 –
1970 VFL Grand Final)
Season7,238,858 – 2011 AFL season[3]

Victoria
in 1858 and spreading elsewhere from 1866, it has been played continuously in every Australian state since 1903 plus the two major territories since 1916.

The sport is played by more than half a million Australians. Players participate at an organised level in various forms from

soccer. The season runs in most states and territories during the cooler seasons in Australia (from March to September), avoiding clashes with cricket, with the exception being the northern part of the Northern Territory where the season runs during the wet season (October to March). The highest participation rates (players per capita) can be found in the Northern Territory (5%), South Australia (4.8%), Victoria (4.3%), Western Australia (4.2%), Tasmania (3.3%) and the Australian Capital Territory (2.4%). Unlike other football codes which are strongest in urban areas, Australian rules football has the highest participation in regional and remote areas. Nationally this rate is 5.7%, almost double that of any other code. It is also fast growing in Queensland and New South Wales, though with participation rates of 1.3% and 1.1% respectively it is considered a minor sport, lagging behind soccer and rugby league in overall interest. These two states represent more than half of the Australian population and this dichotomy of football culture is referred to as the Barassi Line
. South Australia is the only state where Australian rules is the code of football with the greatest number of participants.

Australian rules football holds the match attendance record of any football code in Victoria (121,696), South Australia (66,987) Tasmania (24,968) and the Northern Territory (17,500).

The national professional competitions are the Australian Football League (men's) and AFL Women's. These are the most popular professional football competitions of any code, with millions of TV viewers across the country. The AFL governs the code nationally through the AFL Commission. The AFL originated in Victoria and changed its name from Victorian Football League in 1990 after a successful program of national expansion.

While the AFL phased out

AFL Under 19 Championships
or through their lower tier (semi-professional) state competitions.

Australia competes internationally mainly against New Zealand. Australia's national teams remain undefeated. From 2007 to 2019 the underage men's team competed annually against international opponents as the

Indigenous Australia
have competed against Papua New Guinea and South Africa.

History

Main article: History of Australian rules football
See also: Origins of Australian rules football
Engraving of the first intercolonial football match between Victoria and South Australia at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, 1879
The first national interstate competition was held in 1908

It began in the

Colony of Western Australia
(1881).

The first

intercolonial representative match was Victoria vs South Australia (1879)
.

Delegates representing the football associations of South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland met in 1883 in order to standardise the rules across the colonies. The earliest governing body, the

Australasian Football Council
(later Australian National Football Council) dates back to this time.

Following a hiatus in Queensland (1892-1903) and New South Wales (1893-1903) it was revived after the Federation of Australia and expanded to the territories of the Australian Capital Territory (1911) and the Northern Territory (1916).

In Australian popular culture

Main article: Australian rules football in popular culture

The sport has had a significant impact on popular culture in its native

Australia
, capturing the imagination of Australian film, art, music, television and literature.

Audience

Attendance

Football is the most highly attended spectator sport in Australia. Government figures show that more than 2.5 million people (16.8% of the population) attended games in 1999.

NAB Cup pre-season matches and 117,552 attended Regional Challenge pre-season practice matches around the country.[7]
As of 2010, the AFL is one of only five professional sports leagues with an average attendance of over 30,000 per game.

As well as the AFL attendances, strong semi-professional state and local competitions also draw crowds. The South Australian SANFL drew an attendance in 2008 of 362,209 with an average of 3,773 per game, while the Western Australian WAFL drew an attendance of 219,205 with an average of 2,332 per game.

Region/State/Territory Average AFL premiership season attendance (since 1990 as at 2023)[8]
New South Wales New South Wales 24,207
Victoria
 38,116
Queensland Queensland 19,658
Western Australia Western Australia 34,462
South Australia South Australia 35,919
Tasmania Tasmania 14,206
Australian Capital Territory Australian Capital Territory 10,989
Northern Territory Northern Territory 9,320

Television

According to OzTAM, in recent years, the AFL Grand Final has reached the top five programs across the five biggest cities in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Australian rules football has achieved a #1 rating in the sports category in both 2004 and 2005.

Participation

Region/State/Territory Registered players 2016[9] Registered players in 2023[10]
New South Wales National 496,829 555,629
New South Wales New South Wales 51,177 71,481
Victoria
 209,117 235,970
Queensland Queensland 47,274 68,354
Western Australia Western Australia 82,701 95,407
South Australia South Australia 74,806 69,868
Tasmania Tasmania 15,732 14,528
Australian Capital Territory Australian Capital Territory 7,504 8,326
Northern Territory Northern Territory 8,519 9,743

[11]

Structure and competitions

Adelaide's Matthew Clarke and Melbourne's Mark Jamar
contest a centre bounce. The man in the green shirt is a central field umpire.

The most powerful organisation and competition within the game is the elite

professional Australian Football League (AFL). 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 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 affiliated to their state leagues.

Region Overview Governing body Major competition(s)
Australian Capital Territory Australian Capital Territory Overview AFL NSW/ACT AFL Canberra
New South Wales New South Wales Overview
Sydney AFL
Northern Territory Northern Territory Overview AFL Northern Territory Northern Territory Football League
Queensland Queensland Overview AFL Queensland Queensland Australian Football League
South Australia South Australia Overview South Australian Football Commission South Australian National Football League
Tasmania Tasmania Overview AFL Tasmania Tasmanian Football League
Victoria
Overview
 AFL Victoria Victorian Football League
Western Australia Western Australia Overview West Australian Football Commission West Australian Football League

National championships

Senior

Further information:
Interstate matches in Australian rules football

The last senior national carnival was held in 1993 and the last match between interstate senior sides was held in 1999. Senior interstate competition is no longer contested by players from the Australian Football League. A

dream team
". However, the state leagues continue to compete in inter-league matches.

Under 18

Main article:
AFL Under 18 Championships

The AFL Under 18 Championships are the annual national Australian rules football championships for players aged 18 years or younger and includes teams from each Australian state or Territory. The competition is monitored by AFL recruiters and frequently seen as the second biggest pathway for junior players to the fully professional Australian Football League. The competition is currently sponsored by the National Australia Bank (NAB). The competition receives an increasing amount of coverage in the media, however still lags behind the TAC Cup in terms of interest in Victoria.

AFL players' Australian State of Origin

AFL player states of origin based on junior participation.

Region/State/Territory AFL Players (2019)
New South Wales New South Wales 47
Victoria
 483
Queensland Queensland 33
Western Australia Western Australia 101
South Australia South Australia 101
Tasmania Tasmania 23
Australian Capital Territory Australian Capital Territory 4
Northern Territory Northern Territory 10

[12]

See also

Books

References

  1. ^ Ausplay Sports Report 2023 - Australian Football
  2. ^ "Women's participation soars in 2015".
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ Brisbane Courier 25 May 1866
  5. ^ Sports Attendance, Australian Bureau of Statistics, April 1999.
  6. ^ "Aussie Rules sets attendance record". The Sydney Morning Herald. 28 August 2005.
  7. ^ 403 Forbidden
  8. ^ Average H&A Attendances By State
  9. ^ (excludes Auskick registrations)
  10. ^ (excludes Auskick registrations)
  11. ^ Ausplay Participation by Activity/State
  12. ^ AFL Player state of origin map
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Australian rules football in Australia.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Australian_rules_football_in_Australia&oldid=1219834824"