Football in Australia
Australia is unique among major sporting markets in having four football codes competing for market share. The irony is that the two international games, football (soccer) and rugby union, are getting trounced by the two parochial codes, rugby league and Australian Football, which are both fast and furious, and both built on deep tribal roots.
Paul Sheehan, 2010[1]
Football in Australia refers to numerous codes which each have major shares of the mainstream sports market, media, broadcasting, professional athletes, financial performance and grassroots participation:
In Australia, it is not unusual for football fans to follow or play more than one code of football and spectate major events from multiple different codes, though strong lifelong allegiances are evident in some where football cultures are most ingrained. Immigration to Australia and internal migration have had a significant effect on football followings in parts of Australia, and even have an influence on where Australians move.[6]
Prior to the Federation of Australia, there was no dominant football code and football was played under a variety of rules since 1829. By the 1860s, Australian football and rugby became entrenched in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. The first intercolonial football matches were being played by the 1870s and led to the formation of the first intercolonial governing bodies in Australian rules and rugby. Soccer or "British Association Football" was first introduced in the 1870s; although it has struggled against the full contact codes, it has increased in popularity since the 1890s. Women's soccer dominated female participation from the 1920s until recent times, when the organisation of Women's Australian football saw it boom in popularity. Strong Australian regional rivalries have helped keep a regional football code divide in Australia, popularly known as the "Barassi Line", strong for generations. This divide was still strongly evident in the 1980s after the first national competitions became established. Rugby continued to dominate in Queensland and New South Wales and Australian football, while still being played throughout, dominated the rest of the country. Other traditional divisions have also continued to some extent, including rugby league and rugby union's class/socio economic division and soccer's dominance amongst some minority migrant communities. Most attempts to move outside these traditional boundaries have been largely unsuccessful.
The different codes attract different participation levels that reflect historical trends. Soccer, nationally, has substantially more participants than any other code, and is particularly popular with junior participants. However, Australian football now has much higher participation rates amongst Australia's indigenous communities and women than the other codes.
Australia competes internationally in almost all football codes with national football teams. Nationally the most popular are the "Matildas" & "Socceroos" (soccer), the "Wallabies" (rugby union) and "Kangaroos" (rugby league).
Terminology
In Australia, "football" may refer to any of several popular codes. These include Australian Football, rugby league, rugby union, and association football.[7][8]
As is the case in the United States and Canada, association football has traditionally been referred to in Australia as soccer.[9][10][11] Historically, the sport has been referred to as association football, English association football, British association rules and British football.[12][13] It is also sometimes referred to in the media as "the round ball game", "the world game" and "international football".[citation needed] The governing body for association football is 'Football Australia' and the term football is becoming more popular.
Australian Football can be referred to as "Australian rules football", "
Rugby league can be referred to as league, footy, football, league football or rugby.[24][25][26][27]
Rugby union can be referred to as union, rugby football, football, footy or rugby.[28]
National governing bodies and competitions
All the major football codes are represented by national governing bodies which run the major competitions and game development initiatives in the country.
Football code | Australian Overview | Main governing body | National club competition/s | National representative competition/s | Semi-national competition/s | Variants and participation sports |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Football | Australian rules football in Australia | AFL Commission | Australian Football League, AFL Women's | AFL Women's Under 18 Championships
|
Victorian Football League | Auskick, AFL9s, AFL Masters, Women's Australian rules |
Rugby league | Rugby League in Australia
|
Australian Rugby League Commission | NRLW
|
Rugby League State of Origin, Affiliated States Championship
|
Touch football, Tag football | |
Association football | Soccer in Australia | Football Australia | A-League Men, A-League Women, Australia Cup | - | - | Futsal |
Rugby union | Rugby union in Australia | Rugby Australia | Super W
|
Super W
|
- | Rugby Sevens, Touch rugby, Women's rugby |
Minor codes
Football code | Australian Overview | Main governing body | National competition/s |
---|---|---|---|
Gridiron | Gridiron in Australia
|
Gridiron Australia | Australian Gridiron League |
Gaelic football | Gaelic football in Australia
|
Australasia GAA | Australasian Championships |
The timeline below outlines the history and evolution of the governing bodies and the respective major competitions of each code.
National club competitions
Although contemporary professional competitions are represented by clubs from multiple states and national governing bodies, there are currently no truly national club competitions with clubs in all states due to the exclusion of Tasmania. This may change as the two competitions that are closest to national competitions (AFL/AFLW and A-League/W-League) expand to include Tasmania (see:
Men's
Table below shows current fully professional clubs numbers in men's senior competitions for the big four football codes in each state and territory as at 2021 in the most populous states. This list includes full season competitions only (including finals systems) and excludes shorter season and knock-out type competitions. Some codes have second tier leagues, or reserves competitions with semi-professional teams competing in other state/territories (for example the Victorian Football League) however there are currently no such competitions which are national. This does not give a breakdown of metropolitan and regional clubs. TV viewership and participation numbers are generally determined by the number of clubs in the big 3 states: New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
Football Code and National Competition | Professional clubs (by State) |
Professional clubs (by Territory) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | Competition | Total | NSW | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Australian Football | AFL | 18 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | -[29] | -[30] | -[31] |
Rugby league | NRL | 16 | 10 | 1 | 4 | -[32] | -[33] | - | 1 | - |
Soccer | A-League Men | 11 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -[34] | -[35] | - |
Rugby Union | Super Rugby | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | -[36] | - | - | 1 | - |
Football Code | Representative team (by State) |
Representative team (by Territory) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | Highest Competition | NSW | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Rugby Union | Super Rugby | New South Wales Waratahs (Super Rugby) | Victoria (NRC Division 2) | Queensland Reds (Super Rugby ) | - | South Australia (NRC Division 2) | Tasmania (NRC Division 2) | ACT Brumbies (Super Rugby) | Northern Territory (NRC Division 2) |
Rugby league | Rugby League State of Origin |
New South Wales | Queensland | ||||||
Australian Football | AFL State of Origin Series[37] |
New South Wales[38] |
Victoria[39] | Queensland[40] |
Western Australia[41] | South Australia[37] | Tasmania[42] |
Australian Capital Territory[38] |
Northern Territory[43]
|
Soccer | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Women's
Table below shows current semi-professional clubs numbers in women's senior competitions for the big four football codes in each state and territory as at 2021 in the most populous states.
Football Code and National Competition | Professional teams (by State) |
Professional teams (by Territory) | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | Competition | Total | NSW | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Australian Football | AFLW | 18 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | -[44] | -[45] | -[46] |
Soccer | A-League Women | 10 | 4 | 2[47] | 1 | 1 | 1 | -[48] | 1 | - |
Rugby league | NRLW | 10 | 6 | - | 3 | - | - | - | 1 | - |
Rugby Union | Super W |
5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - |
National audience
Australian sport fans have historically attended events in large numbers, dating back to the country's early history. An early football game played in Melbourne in 1858 had 2,000 spectators.[49] Australian sport fans have behaved unruly at times, with police being required at football games dating back to the 1860s.[49] By 1897, tens of thousands of spectators attended an early Australian Football match at a time when top level soccer matches in England would draw six thousand fans. A finals match between the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood in 1938 drew 96,834 fans.[50] In 1909, at a time when rugby union had not yet become professionalised, 52,000 people in Sydney attended a game between New South Wales and New Zealand. The spectators accounted for 10% of the total population of Sydney at the time.[51] In 2000 during the Bledisloe cup opener, rugby union drew its largest ever crowd in Australia for what many have since labelled as "the greatest Test ever played" with 109,874 crowding into stadium Australia.[52] The 1914 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand included a match in Melbourne, the first rugby league game to be played in Victoria. The match between England and New South Wales drew 12,000 spectators.[53]
Total average game attendance for the Australian Football League and the National Rugby League increased between 1970 and 2000, with the AFL going from an average attendance of 24,344 people per match in 1970 to 27,325 by 1980 to 25,238 in 1990 and 34,094 by 2000. The National Rugby League had an average per game attendance of 11,990 in 1970, saw a decrease in 1980 to 10,860 but increased to 12,073 by 1990 and improved on that to 14,043 by 2000.[54]
Australian Bureau of Statistics survey Spectator Attendance at Sporting Events, 2009–10 reported the following findings regarding female attendance at football sporting events. Survey found that an estimated 3.3 million females attended one or more sporting events as spectators. This represented 37% of females aged 15 years and over in Australia and 54% of females aged 15–17 years. The top football sports in attendance were: Australian Football (1,171,100), rugby league (594,700), soccer (354,800), and rugby union (209,300).[55]
Men's
Broadcast audience
Football code | Current National League | National television audience | Grand Final television viewers
|
---|---|---|---|
Rugby league | NRL |
174 million (2023)[56] | 3.52 million (2023)[57] |
Australian Football | AFL | 142.88 million (2023)[58] | 3.84 million (2023)[57] |
Rugby Union | Super Rugby | [59] | 1.3 million (2020)[60] |
Soccer | A-league |
[61] | 200,000 (2020)[62] |
Attendance
Football code | Current National League | Total attendance | Average Attendance |
---|---|---|---|
Australian Football | AFL | 8,039,440 (2023) | 37,393 (2023) |
Rugby league | NRL |
4,006,624 (2023) | 19,640 (2023) |
Soccer | A-league |
1,115,048 (2022–23) | 7,544 (2022–23) |
Rugby Union | Super Rugby |
Attendance records
Record attendances are sometimes an indication of each code's popularity but not always, as it can be restricted by capacity of the state/territory's available stadiums, however typically regular demand drives the requirement for larger stadiums.
State record | Territory record | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | National record | NSW | VIC |
QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Australian Football | 121,696[63] | 72,393[64] | 121,696[63] | 37,478[65] | 61,118[66] | 66,987[67] | 24,968[68] | 14,974[69] | 17,500[70] |
Rugby Union | 109,874[71] | 109,874[71] | 90,119[72] | 52,499[73] | 61,241 [74] | 36,366[75] | 15,457[76] | 28,753[77] | 4,000[78] |
Rugby league | 107,999[79] | 107,999[80] | 91,513[81] | 52,540[82] | 59,721[83] | 48,613[84] | 11,727[85] | 26,476[86] | 13,473[87] |
Soccer | 104,098[88] | 104,098[88] | 99,382[89] | 51,153[90] | 56,371[91] | 53,008[92] | 8,061[93] | 20,032[94] | 3,175[95] |
Women's
Broadcast audience
The Matildas vs England semi-final in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup set the record television audience for a sports program in Australia, 11.15 million.[96] AFLW's free to air television audience fell from an average of 180,000 per game to 53,000 in 2022, with total viewership falling by 70%.[97]
Football code | Current National League | National television audience | Grand Final television viewers
|
---|---|---|---|
Australian Football | AFLW |
2,622,000 (2020)[98] | 355,000 (2022)[99] |
Soccer | W-League | 879,000 (2020)[100] | |
Rugby league | NRLW |
264,000 (2022)[99] | |
Rugby Union | Super W |
Attendance
Note: NRLW does not currently publish standalone attendance figures as the majority of matches are still NRL double-headers, with the first standalone fixtures held in 2023 including a small percentage of matches. In 2023, NRLW standalone matches attracted an average of 2,252 per match, just short of the AFLW's 2,853. AFLW attendance in 2023 despite growing since the COVID-19 pandemic was down 60% on its first season.[101]
In April 2024, the 2023–24 A-League Women season set the record for the most attended season of any women's sport in Australian history, with the season recording a total attendance of 284,551 as of 15 April 2024.[102][103][104][105]
Football code | Current National League | Total attendance | Average Attendance |
---|---|---|---|
Soccer | A-League Women | 284,551 (2023–24) | 2,273 (2023–24) |
Australian Football | AFLW |
99,867 (2023) | 2,853 (2023) |
Rugby league | NRLW |
2,252 (2023) | |
Rugby Union | Super W |
Attendance records
Note that many women's matches are played as curtain-raisers or multi-headers (most women's AFL matches prior to 2017 AFLW season; all NRL Women's premiership and State of Origin matches prior to 2022 and Rugby's Wallaroos vs New Zealand match) - only stand alone attendances are counted. Note that prior to 2021 there was free entry to AFLW matches.
State record | Territory record | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | National record | NSW | VIC |
QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Soccer | 75,784[106] | 75,784[107] | 50,629[108] | 49,461[109] | 59,155 [110] | 13,142[111] | 692[112] | ||
Australian Football | 53,034[113] | 8,264[114] | 24,568[115] | 15,610[116] | 41,975[117] | 53,034[113] | 3,123[118] | 6,460[119] | 5,100[120] |
Rugby league | 30,000[121] | 30,000[121] | 18,275[122] | 11,321[123] | |||||
Rugby Union |
7,055[124] | 7,055[124] |
Participation
Establishment and participation by state/territory
The following gives a summary of each football code by state/territory, along with foundation dates and summaries. (Some Australian colonies, early in their history, for example South Australia and Tasmania), had football competitions and clubs as early as the 1840s but played what are now defunct codes and later adopted one of the existing codes.) This also includes the earliest dates for areas where a code was dormant for long periods of time (such as Australian rules in New South Wales and Queensland and rugby in Tasmania). Highlighted dates for the earliest code established in that territory (not an indication of current popularity). Although Rugby league began in 1908, as a breakaway from rugby union, with most of its following initially coming from that code.
State establishment year | Territory establishment year | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | National | NSW | VIC |
QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Australian Football | 1859 | 1866 | 1859[125] | 1866 | 1868 | 1877 | 1879 | 1911 | 1916 |
Rugby Union |
1863 |
1863[126] | 1878 | 1876 | 1868 | 1932 |
1933[127] | 1907 | 1916 |
Soccer |
1867 | 1880 | 1883 | 1867 | 1896 | 1880 | 1879 | 1910 | 1911 |
Rugby League |
1907 |
1907[128] | 1923 | 1909 | 1948 | 1948 | 1953 | 1928 | 1920 |
Participation and regional variation
Recent[when?] surveys have shown that while the number of football participants has more than doubled in Australia with more than 3.1 million Australians participating in one of the four major football codes in 2019, the overall participation rate in outdoor football codes has declined slightly over the course of the 2010s. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures from 2011 which showed that in 2009 and 2010, 1.2 million Australians over the age of fifteen participated in one football code or another.[129] Outdoor soccer and Australian Football were the most popular football codes played by Australian children in 2009, with 13% and 8.6% participation total respectively.[129]
Soccer has the highest participation rate in every state and territory except South Australia and the Northern Territory where Australian Football is the most played. Soccer has the highest participation nationally in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, where more than 7% of the population regularly play it. Participation in soccer follows most closely Australia's demographic distribution being strongest in the major cities (6%) with more than 3 in 4 of its players found in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. In remote areas, Australian Football (5.7%) and Rugby League (2.4%) dominate. Almost 90% of all the rugby football players can be found in New South Wales and Queensland.
Since the 2010s the strongest participation growth has been posted by soccer which has grown its national marketshare through large participation increases in the eastern states of New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT. Rugby league has grown its hold in New South Wales and strengthened its position in the Australian Capital Territory as well as its participation across the Barassi Line in Victoria and Western Australia. Rugby Union has defied a downward national trend posting strong growth in Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory, areas where Australian Football has been declining. Australian Football outgrew rugby union in New South Wales and Queensland between 2016 and 2019 however it has since stagnated while experiencing a sharp decline in South Australia and Tasmania with recent growth limited to its traditional strongholds of Victoria and Western Australia.
State participation rate | Territory participation rate | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | National rate | NSW | VIC |
QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Soccer[130] | 6.9 | 7.0 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 3.9 | 4.4 | 7.3 | 5.1 |
Australian Football[131] | 3.6 | 1.1 | 4.3 | 1.3 | 4.2 | 4.8 | 3.3 | 2.4 | 5.0 |
Rugby league[132] |
1.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 2.1 |
Rugby Union[133] |
0.5 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.6 |
State players | Territory players | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | National players | NSW | VIC |
QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Soccer[134] | 1,138,466 | 468,148 | 241,067 | 207,398 | 109,513 | 59,387 | 18,583 | 24,453 | 9,917 |
Australian Football[135] | 555,629 | 70,292 | 229,861 | 56,502 | 95,316 | 70,463 | 14,893 | 8,281 | 10,021 |
Rugby league[136] |
175,290 | 82,397 | 9,676 | 66,913 | 8,889 | 2,735 | 10 | 1,063 | 3,607 |
Rugby Union[137] |
138,075 | 59,259 | 11,691 | 43,743 | 12,151 | 3,972 | 1,394 | 3,028 | 2,837 |
American Football[138] |
15,678 | 4,303 | 3,932 | 2,800 | 2,740 | 1,330 | 185 | 312 | 75 |
Gaelic Football[139] |
2,524 | 586 | 1,014 | 280 | 451 | 193 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
State clubs | Territory clubs | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Football code | National clubs | NSW | VIC |
QLD | WA | SA | TAS | ACT | NT |
Australian Football | 2,672 | 267 | 1,242 | 130 | 546 | 367 | 100 | 15 | 210 |
Soccer | 2,200 | 139 | 199 | 300 | 36 | 29 | 30 | 10 | 13 |
Rugby league |
1,125 | 500 | 13 | 560 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 15 |
Rugby Union |
848 | 100 | 25 | 200 | 35 | 14 | 13 | 7 | 4 |
There was historically a regional variation in the spread of Australian Football and rugby: the Barassi Line is a rough dividing line between areas where Australia rules is most popular and where rugby union and rugby league are most popular. Rugby league participation was historically high in New South Wales and Queensland,[140] and both rugby league and rugby union continue to be popular in these states.[141] Some of the relative popularity of one football code over another in terms of participation was a result of media influence on coverage of the two major professional games, Rugby league and Australian Football. This influence and their media market desires drove some of the regional patterns for these codes.[142]
Football in Australia has also been historically drawn across class and ethnic lines. For example soccer participation was for many years confined to Australia's newly arriving European ethnic groups.[140] Most rugby union players are developed at private schools with it having the notable reputation of a sport for the privileged.[143]
Indigenous
Australian Football has traditionally been one of the most popular football codes played by Australia's Indigenous community
The popularity of soccer began to grow in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the 2000s
Rugby League has around 30,000 indigenous participants in 2021.[145] 12 percent of NRL-contracted players are Indigenous compared with the just 2.8 percent of Australians who identify as having Aboriginal heritage according to the latest Census in 2016. And on top of that, 17 percent of grassroots players are Indigenous. The Rugby League Koori Knockout is the biggest single gathering of indigenous people in Australia.[citation needed] In 1944, the first Aboriginal rugby league club was founded in Redfern, New South Wales the Redfern All Blacks. The first All Indigenous Australian National Rugby League team was named in 2009.[144] Arthur Beetson became the first indigenous Australian to captain the national team of any football code when in 1973 he was selected to lead the Australian rugby league team.
Rugby Union too has a rich history of Aboriginal participation with notable indigenous athletes such as the Ella brothers, Mark, Gary and Glen as well as Kurtley Beale all past members of the Wallabies.[154]
Female
Among females, Australian Football is by far the most participated code, followed by soccer, rugby union and rugby league.
Women's Australian rules has exploded since the advent of the national AFLW competition. In 2017, a record number of 463,364 females were playing Australian Football across the nation, making up 30% of all participants and overtaking women's soccer for the first time in history. The number of female Australian Football teams reached 1,690 nationally, a huge 76% increase on the previous year [155] In 2018 and 2019, nationally there were 156,893 registered women's and girls soccer participants[156] 63,443 female rugby union participants[157] and 16,337 female rugby league participants.[158]
There are national professional competitions for females including the
Safety
The issue of safety around football in Australia is driven by the situation in American sport. Concussions are a problem for all four major football codes in Australia. A summit was held by leadership in the big four professional football leagues to address these issues in 2011.[24]
In Brisbane, Queensland in 1980, 63% of all sport related injuries were as a result of one of the four major football codes.[159] 10.2% of football players in one medical study had a head or neck injury.[159] The most common injury for an Australian Football player is a lower limb injury, accounting for about 60% of all injuries.[159] In Australian Football, injuries as a result of contact occurred 71% of the time compared to other causes of injury.[159]
History of football codes in Australia
Forms of football were played prior to European colonization, most notably the indigenous game known as Marn Grook among the Wurundjeri. The earliest historical observations date to the Australia's convict colonial period.[160][161] It is not clear how long these traditional games were played or how widespread they were practiced elsewhere on the continent.[162][163][164][165]
With the arrival of Europeans, forms of football were played very early on in the Australian colonies with matches being played by 1829 in the
Immigrants from England brought with them an awareness particularly of Rugby football (codified 1845) as well as Eton football (codified 1847) and Harrow football (codified 1858), Cambridge rules (codified 1856) and a variety of other games.[173]
Regular football competitions were organised in the colony of New South Wales by 1850 (an early form of Rugby).[citation needed] Accounts from the Colony of Tasmania of football in the 1850s indicate that matches were played under mostly English public school football games rules, but particularly Rugby, Eton and Harrow rules.[173]
In the Colony of South Australia from 1854 a version of Harrow football was also being played.[174] The rules under which the Old Adelaide Football Club played in 1860, while published, are now lost, however many assume that they were also along the lines of Harrow. Harrow rules at the time featured the absence of an 'off-side', kicking from the hand, marking (fair catch), carrying the ball in hand, tackling or shoulder charging the player with the ball and kicking through upright goals to score, all elements of South Australia's most popular code to this day.
In the
By 1858 a handful of Melbourne clubs, mostly schools, were also experimenting with public school football, particularly rugby, though concerns were growing about its suitability for adults. Among the rugby dissenters in Melbourne were Tom Wills, (himself a rugby player educated at the Rugby School), William Hammersley and J. B. Thompson who would form Australia's oldest football club, the Melbourne Football Club and begin to popularise a new Australian code.[177] The Melbourne rules of football (later Victorian and Australian Football) were first codified and played in 1859.[178][179][180] The current Australian Football League features some of the earliest football clubs in the country, Melbourne Football Club and Geelong Football Club (founded 1859), these remain Australia's longest running football clubs.[181][178][179] By 1864 the code grew rapidly and there were as many as a dozen clubs throughout Victoria.
The Sydney University Football Club, established between 1863 and 1865 was the first rugby club in New South Wales.[182] Its formation led to the first Sydney rugby competition in 1874.[citation needed]
In 1866, the
Soccer was also being played in Australia by the mid 1870s.[186][140][142]: 175 However it became established in Sydney in 1880[187] with the founding of the first club, the Wanderers.[188][189]
In 1884, rugby challenged Australian for its primacy in Queensland as the popularity of rugby intercolonials against New South Wales rose.
Like rugby, soccer also grew through the 1880s with the establishment of strong governing bodies. In 1884, Victoria formed its own association, the Anglo-Australian Football Association (now
In 1897 the Victorian Football League formed as a breakaway from the VFA, the league would exert significant influence and became the country's most significant nationally in terms of interest and attendance.
Following
In 1914 and 1915 an amalgamation of rugby league and Australian Football was considered and trialled.[194][195]
After the war, Australian Football became popular in both the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory.
In 1922, a committee in Australia investigated the benefits of physical education for girls. They came up with several recommendations regarding what sports were and were not appropriate for girls to play based on the level of fitness required. Football[clarification needed] was completely medically inappropriate for girls to play. It was medically appropriate for all girls to be able to participate in, so long as they were not done in an overly competitive manner, swimming, rowing, cycling and horseback riding.[196]
In 1928 Australia national rugby league team adopted the national colours of green and gold for the first time, having previously used blue and maroon, making the Kangaroos the first national football team of any code to do so.[197] All others have adopted the colours since.
During the 1930s, rugby league, which had gone professional, began to overtake rugby union in popularity in Queensland, with the league being the dominant spectator code by 1937.[51]
The
The
The regional football code divide in Australia was still present in the 1980s, with rugby league being the dominant code in Queensland and New South Wales while Australian Football dominated in the rest of the country. When codes went outside of their traditional geographic home, they had little success in gaining new fans and participants.[198] During the 1980s and 1990s both Australian Football and Rugby league's major peak governing bodies changed their names to reflect a more nation-wide approach and added expansion teams outside their traditional areas. While the VFL attempted to expand into Sydney, Australian Football lost its dominance in the ACT in 1982 to rugby league, and became a minor sport in both places.
During the 1990s, soccer faced a challenge in attracting youth players because of the ethnic nature of the sport at the highest levels of national competition. The sport's governing body made an effort to make the game less ethnically oriented. At the same time, rival football codes were intentionally trying to bring in ethnic participants in order to expand their youth playing base.[199]
73,811 people attended a gridiron
In 2006, both Sydney's and Melbourne's grand finals featured teams from interstate, reflecting the shift in professional football in Australia.[202]
In the late 2000s, Karmichael Hunt made history by becoming the first professional footballer to change codes from rugby league to rugby union to Australian Football.
The COVID-19 pandemic had an immense effect on both Australian Football and Rugby league, causing the two code's flagship events to leave their traditional host cities for the first time. Despite a contract with the Melbourne Cricket Ground until 2059, the AFL was forced to relocate the 2020 AFL Grand Final to Brisbane.[203] Likewise the 2021 NRL Grand Final was hosted by Brisbane due to pandemic restrictions. While the AFL followed some of the NRL's responses to the pandemic, continued restrictions in Victoria saw the 2021 AFL Grand Final hosted in Perth.[204]
History of National competition
Intercolonial and interstate representative competition
This article is missing information about history of representative football in Australia.(May 2022) |
Inter-club competition
Football codes in Australia have aspired to national competition since prior to Federation of Australia, however the first truly national competitions began post Federation.
The ANFC (Australian Football, founded 1906) was the first national governing body of any football code in Australia. The 1908 Melbourne Carnival was the first national representative competition involving all Australian states.
Prior to the modern national club football competitions, the first club competitions to feature clubs from more than two states were the Championship of Australia (1888-1975) (Australian Football) and the Australia Cup (1962–1968) (soccer).
Professionalism
The first professional football leagues in Australia were the Australian Football League, and the National Rugby League.[205][206] Up until the late 2000s, there were three major football codes competing every weekend, which included Australian Football, Rugby league and Rugby union.[207] Unlike in Europe and the United States, professional clubs tend to be member run organisations instead of single owner, for profit businesses.[208] The major football codes and professional leagues in the country all watch what their competition does in order to improve their own strategic picture in the Australian sporting landscape.[206]
The
The National Rugby League traces its roots back to the 1890s when rugby league split from rugby union as the code went professional. By 1908, the professional New South Wales Rugby League was created.[205] Collective player bargaining came to the professional game by 1982, with 95% of all played having joined the player union by 1991.[211] Media access to the sport was one of the main reasons for a split in the sport in the 1990s that resulted in the New South Wales Rugby League facing competition from the Rupert Murdoch backed Super League, and the "Super League war" in 1997, which ended with the founding of the National Rugby League which had become a national, not state based, professional competition.[212]
Media coverage
There is a long history of television coverage of football in Australia. From 1957 to 2001, the
There are few Australian films which incorporate Australia's football codes.
National teams
National football teams include the
Sport | Team | Nickname | Refs |
---|---|---|---|
American football | Men's | Australian Outbacks | [227][228] |
Australian Football
|
Men's Under-17 | AFL Academy | |
International rules football | Men's
|
||
Women's
|
|||
Rugby union | Men's | Wallabies | [229] |
Men's 7's | Australia | ||
Men's Under-20 | Junior Wallabies | ||
Men's Under-18 | |||
Women's | Wallaroos | [230] | |
Women's 7's | Australia | ||
Rugby league | Men's | Kangaroos | [231][232][233] |
Men's Reserve | PM's XIII | ||
Men's Under-20 | Junior Kangaroos | ||
Men's Under-18 | |||
Women's
|
Jillaroos | [234][235] | |
Wheelchair | Steelers (official) Wheelabies (unofficial) | [236][237] | |
Soccer | Men's
|
Socceroos
|
[238] |
Men's Under-23
|
Olyroos | ||
Men's Under-20
|
Young Socceroos | ||
Men's Under-17
|
Joeys | ||
Men's Futsal | |||
Men's Beach | Beach Socceroos | ||
Men's Paralympic | Pararoos | ||
Women's | Matildas | ||
Women's Under-20 | Young Matildas | ||
Women's Under-17 | Mini Matildas | ||
Women's Futsal |
See also
- Sport in Australia
- American football in Australia
- Australian rules football in Australia
- Rugby league in Australia
- Rugby union in Australia
- Soccer in Australia
References
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- ISBN 0949853933.
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- ^ "Eye of the storm". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 June 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
- ^ Your choice of footy team can predict where you'll move Aidan Devine, The Telegraph 4 Jun 2018
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- ^ Gatt, Ray (17 August 2013). "Son of Spain has Socceroos in his sights". The Australian. Australia. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
- ISBN 978-3-8233-6398-9.
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- Maitland Daily Mercury. NSW: National Library of Australia. 18 March 1913. p. 5. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
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- ISBN 978-1-74259-094-3. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
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- ISBN 0-7255-0831-0.
- ISBN 978-0-7336-2132-1.
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- ^ New licence awarded for entry in 2028 (see Tasmania Football Club)
- GWS Giants. Past second tier club (Canberra). Regular matches played by visiting AFL clubs each year
- ^ Current bid for future entry in 2030. Past second tier club (NT Thunder). Regular matches played by visiting AFL clubs each year
- Western Reds: ARL (1995-1996); Super League (1997)
- ^ Past club Adelaide Rams: Super League (1997); NRL (1998)
- ^ Current bid for entry in 2025/26 (see Tasmanian A-League bid)
- Canberra A-League Bid)
- ^ Western Force former club participated in Super Rugby AU 2020
- ^ a b defunct since 1999
- ^ a b defunct since 1988, part of composite NSW/ACT side until 1993
- ^ Only plays on special occasions such as 2020 State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match
- ^ defunct since 1992
- ^ defunct since 1998
- ^ defunct since 1993
- ^ defunct since 1988, played one season as composite QLD/NT
- Tasmanian AFL bid)
- GWS Giants
- ^ Not clear as to whether Northern Territory AFL bid includes a women's team though it is likely given the league's strategy for participation by all clubs
- ^ 1 additional team joining in 2023
- ^ Not clear if women's team is part of Tasmanian A-League bid
- ^ a b Hess et al. 2008, p. 60.
- ^ Guttmann 2007, p. 86–87.
- ^ a b Andreff & Szymański 2006, p. 438.
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- ^ "AFL sets audience records in 2023 thanks to big streaming lift". 10 October 2023.
- ^ Official figures include a substantial component of overseas viewers
- ^ "Nine amps up sports streaming war with Super Rugby numbers". 11 May 2021.
- ^ 'Only half of the story' - Simon Hill weighs in on the A-League's poor TV ratings Josh Thomas Sporting News 17/03/21
- ^ Foxtel A-League grand final ratings slide 14 per cent Sydney Morning Herald 1 September 2020
- ^ a b 1970 VFL Grand Final
- ^ 2003 AFL Round 21 – Sydney Swans v. Collingwood
- ^ 2019 AFL Qualifying Final – Brisbane Lions vs Richmond
- ^ 2021 AFL Grand Final
- ^ 1976 SANFL Grand Final – Sturt vs Port Adelaide (official ticketed crowd - police estimates were up to 80,000)
- ^ 1979 TFL Grand Final Glenorchy v Clarence
- ^ 2016: AFL Greater Western Sydney Giants v Richmond
- ^ 2002 AFL (pre-season practice) Aboriginal All-Stars vs Carlton
- ^ a b 2000: Australia v New Zealand
- ^ 1997 Bledisloe Cup - Australia vs New Zealand
- ^ 2013: Wallabies vs British & Irish Lions
- ^ 2019 Bledisloe Cup, Australia v New Zealand
- ^ 2022 Wallabies v South Africa (Adelaide Oval)
- ^ 2003 Rugby World Cup Namibia vs Romania
- ^ 2004 Super 12: Brumbies vs Crusaders
- ^ 2011: Super Rugby Trial Brumbies vs Reds
- ^ 1999 NRL Gran Final St George Illawarra Dragons vs Melbourne Storm
- ^ 1999 NRL Grand Final St George Illawarra Dragons vs Melbourne Storm
- ^ 2015 State of Origin series
- ^ 2017 State of Origin series
- ^ 2019 State of Origin series
- ^ 2023 State of Origin Series
- ^ 2012: NRL Melbourne vs Brisbane
- ^ 2010: NRL Canberra Raiders v Wests Tigers
- ^ 2017 Rugby League World Cup Australia vs Samoa
- ^ a b c 2000 Summer Olympics Football Final: Spain v Cameroon
- ^ 2015: Manchester City vs Real Madrid International Champions Cup
- ^ 2014 A-League: Brisbane Roar vs Western Sydney Wanderers
- ^ 2019 A-League Grand Final Perth Glory vs Sydney FC
- ^ 2015: Adelaide United v Liverpool
- ^ 2007: Melbourne Victory vs Adelaide United
- ^ 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualification Australia v Kuwait
- ^ 2015: Darwin Olympic vs Adelaide United
- ^ Matildas TV ratings: Records tumble again despite Australia losing to England by Phil Rothfield for CodeSports 17 August 2023
- ^ 'The broadcast was almost unwatchable': The insiders' view on why Australia switched off AFLW By Marnie Vinall for The Age 11 July 2023
- ^ Over 2.6 million Australians watch AFLW on TV from Roy Morgan March 29, 2021 Finding No. 8674
- ^ a b AFLW and NRLW look to future The Australian. (subscription required)
- ^ W-League grows TV viewership as Australia & NZ awarded hosting rights for 2023 Women's World Cup from Roy Morgan July 21, 2020 Finding No. 8468
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- ^ 2023 Australia vs Ireland 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup (Accor Stadium)
- ^ 2023 Australia vs Ireland (Accor Stadium) 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
- ^ 2023 Australia vs France (Marvel Stadium)
- ^ Australia vs France 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup (Suncorp Stadium)
- ^ 2023 Philippines vs Australia (Perth Stadium)
- ^ Brazil vs Panama 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup (Hindmarsh Stadium)
- ^ 2022 A-League Women
- ^ a b 2019 AFLW Grand Final - Adelaide vs Carlton (Adelaide Oval)
- ^ 2022 S7 AFLW Rd 1 - Sydney vs St Kilda (North Sydney Oval)
- ^ 2017 AFLW Rd 1 - Collingwood vs Carlton (Ikon Park)
- ^ 2017 AFLW Grand Final - Brisbane vs Adelaide (Metricon Stadium)
- ^ 2018 AFLW Rd 2 - Fremantle vs Collingwood (Optus Stadium)
- ^ 2019 AFLW Rd 3 - Kangaroos vs Western Bulldogs (York Park)
- ^ 2017 AFLW Rd 7 - GWS Giants vs Western Bulldogs (Manuka Oval)
- ^ 2017 AFLW Rd 6 - Adelaide vs Melbourne (TIO Stadium)
- ^ a b 1921 Exhibition match Sydney
- ^ 2023 Women's State of Origin Country Bank Stadium Townsville
- ^ 2022 Women's State of Origin. GIO Stadium
- ^ a b 2023 Wallaroos vs Black Ferns. Dolphin Stadium. Redcliffe, Qld
- ^ Matches were played in 1858 under experimental rules
- ^ Based on establishment of Sydney Uni rugby club
- ^ Foundation of Launceston club
- ^ Established in New South Wales prior to breakaway competition
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- ^ Ausplay Participation Report by State (2022) Football/soccer
- ^ Ausplay Participation Report by State (2022) Australian Football
- ^ Ausplay Participation Report by State (2022) Rugby League
- ^ Ausplay Participation Report by State (2022) Rugby Union
- ^ Ausplay Participation Report by State (2022) American Football
- ^ Ausplay Participation Report by State (2022) Gaelic Football
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Australia (which calls itself the Steelers but for whom the popular name is the Wheelabies)
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