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This is a page about the national league in Australian Rules Football. For information about the rules and history of the game see the Australian Rules Football page.

The Australian Football League is the Australian national competition in the sport of Australian Rules Football. The organization that runs the league has become the de facto world governing body for the sport. The league was renamed from Victorian Football League (not to be confused with the current Victorian Football League, formerly the VFA, a rival competition in Victoria) after expansion during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2005 the AFL Premiership Season had a total regular season attendance of 6,283,788, and the average attendance of 35,703 was the third highest of any professional sports league in the world. Since the move toward a national competition, the AFL has become a very powerful, wealthy and influential organization in Australian sport.

Administration

AFL

• Chairman: Ron Evans
• CEO: Andrew Demetriou
• General Manager- Broadcasting, Strategy & Major Projects: Ben Buckley
• General Manager- Football Operations: Adrian Anderson

AFL Players' Association

• President: Peter Bell
• Vice President: Nathan Buckley
• CEO: Brendon Gale

AFL Tribunal

AFL Tribunal

• Chairman: David Jones (replacing Brian Collins)
• Members:
  John Hassett
  Will Houghton QC
  Andrew Tinney
  Emmett Dunne
  Michael Sexton
  Wayne Schimmelbusch
  Richard Loveridge

AFL Appeals Board

• Chairman: Peter O'Callaghan
• Members:
  Brian Collis QC
  Brian Bourke
  John Schultz
  Michael Gree

AFL Grievance Tribunal

• Chairman: Jack Rush QC
• Members:
  Kevin Power
  Michael Moncrieff
  Darren Baxter
  James Dowsley
  Roger Berryman

AFL Match Review Panel

• Chairman: Peter Schwab
• Members:
  Peter Carey
  Andrew McKay

Season/Tournaments

Toyota AFL Premiership Season

The Toyota AFL Premiership Season lasts for 22 rounds and begins in late March, contested between 16 teams from around Australia.

At the end of the 22 rounds, the top eight teams compete in the Toyota AFL Finals Series, in which teams compete in a Qualifying Final or Elimination Final, depending on the teams’ ladder position. At this stage, only six teams remain, and the bottom four teams play in a Semi Final, in which two teams are eliminated. The remaining four teams play in one of two Preliminary Finals, and the last two teams standing play in the Grand Final.

The winners of the Grand Final become the premiers of that year.

The Grand Final is always held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground,even if two non-Victorian teams are playing.The only recent exception was Waverley Park in 1991 while the MCG was undergoing redevelopment. See 2006 Australian Football League season.

NAB Cup

Before the premiership season commences, a pre-season competition is played. It has had several incarnations as the Escort Cup, the Fosters Cup, the Ansett Australia Cup, the Wizard Cup, and as of the 2006 season it will be known as the NAB Cup. Teams eliminated the competition play a series of Regional Challenge practice matches. See also 2006 NAB Cup.

AFL Strongholds

Australian Rules Football is the dominant football code in every state and territory in Australia, except New South Wales and Queensland, where Rugby League dominates and in A.C.T. where Rugby union is arguably more popular. In Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania massive crowds attend many of the games and AFL is the dominant sport on television, print and radio news.

Clubs

(for more information go to List of Australian Rules Football Clubs)

Present

(Note: Many clubs play several "home" matches at alternate grounds.)

Former Teams

Playing Lists

The AFL has tight controls over the player lists of each club. Each club can have a senior list of 38 players plus up to 6 rookie or veteran list players. Teams can only trade players during a single trade week at the end of each season and recruit new players through the AFL Draft. Specific draft rules have changed every few years since it was introduced in 1986, but the basic philosophy is that the picks are in reverse ladder order, so that bottom team gets the first selection.

A salary cap (known as the Total Player Payments or TPP) is also in place as part of the league's equalization policy. In 2006, this will be $6,472,812 per club. Salaries of draft selections are fixed for two years, but salaries for senior players are not normally released to the public, although they are estimated to be up to $1,000,000 per year for the top few players.

Infringements by clubs in relation to exceeding the TPP, not informing the AFL of payments or draft tampering are severe and can include large fines and exclusion from the AFL draft. Unlike the National Rugby League, the AFL doesn't penalize clubs premiership points for breach of the salary cap.

VFL/AFL Records

• Highest score
  Geelong- 37.17 (239)
  Carrara Oval, May 3, 1992.
• Highest winning margin
  Fitzroy- 190 points
  Waverley Park, July 28, 1979.
• Largest crowd
  Carlton v Collingwood - 121,696
  MCG, September 26, 1970 (Grand Final)
• Largest Home & Away crowd
  Melbourne v Collingwood - 99,346
  MCG, 1958
• Largest crowd for a game between Non-Victorian clubs
  Sydney v West Coast Eagles - 91,898
  MCG, September 24, 2005
• Largest International crowd
  Melbourne v Sydney- 32,789
  B.C. Place, Vancouver, Canada, 1987
• Most premierships
  Carlton/Essendon 16
• Most wooden spoons (last position at the end of the Home and Away Season)
  St Kilda 26, most recent 2000
• Most consecutive premierships
  Collingwood- 4
  1927-1930
• Most games won in a season
  Essendon- 24
  2000
• Most consecutive wins
  Geelong- 23
  1952-1953
• Most games played in a career
  Michael Tuck (Hawthorn)- 426 games
• Most goals in a career
  Tony Lockett (St Kilda/Sydney)- 1,360 goals
• Most goals in a game
  Fred Fanning (Melbourne)- 18 goals
• Most consecutive matches
  Jim Stynes (Melbourne)- 244
• Most consecutive matches from debut
  Jared Crouch (Sydney)- 182
• Tallest player
  Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle)- 211cm
• Shortest player
  Danny Craven (St Kilda/Brisbane)- 162cm
• Heaviest player
  Aaron Sandilands (Fremantle)- 124kg
• Longest kick
  Albert Thurgood (Essendon)- 98.48m (109 yards, 1 foot, 3.2 inches)

Team Rivalries

Games in which teams with rivalries typically draw large crowds and interest regardless of both teams positions on the ladder. Collingwood is a famous club in the league because it is a rival of almost all other traditional clubs and also known as, the 'team people love to hate'. With a 22 round season and 16 teams, the AFL fixtures are not equal with each team playing 8 teams twice and 7 teams once. Having to play certain games twice, such as the Showdown and the Western Derby results in a skewed fixture with not all teams travelling as often as others do.

Traditional Rivals

• Carlton v Collingwood
  Arguably the greatest and longest standing rivalry in the competition. Two clubs in close proximity, fuelled by the rivalry between white (Carlton) and blue collar (Collingwood) and intensified by the 1970 Grand Final in which Carlton extinguished hopes of Collingwood breaking a premiership drought. Games between these two clubs regularly attract large crowds regardless of whether they are both at the bottom of the ladder.

• Richmond v Collingwood
  Arising from the fact that the two areas neighbour each other, and that Richmond supporters often mocked Collingwood supporters whom they thought were "feral". In addition, Richmond and Collingwood were both highly successful in the late 1920's to the early 1930's, meeting each other in several grand finals.

• Melbourne v Collingwood
  Traditional White collar (Melbourne) vs. Blue collar (Collingwood) rivalry additionally fuelled by a narrow loss to Collingwood which stopped Melbourne from winning a fourth flag in a row in 1958. In addition, the fact that Melbourne played half their premierships against them. Since 1999, they have played each other on the Queen's Birthday public holiday Monday in June.

• Richmond v Carlton
  A rivalry based on close geographical proximity and large supporter bases. The rivalry intensified as both clubs contested several Grand Finals between 1969 and 1982. Particularly the 1972 Grand Final where Richmond scored the highest score recorded in a Grand Final, only to be bettered by Carlton in the same match. The following year Richmond won the 1973 Grand Final in an even more physically bitter contest than in recent encounters between the two sides. In 1982 Carlton got their revenge by defeating Richmond in their last Grand Final appearance.

• Essendon v Carlton
  As is the case with two successful sides in any competition, fans of each club love to defeat the other. The two clubs share the record for the most premierships with 16.

• Essendon v Collingwood
  Arising from the drawn inaugural MCG ANZAC Day clash and Essendon's loss to Collingwood in the 1990 Grand Final. Games between these sides draw large crowds, with the ANZAC day match generally being the largest crowd each year outside of the finals.

• Essendon v Richmond
  A rivalry simply born out of the fact that these to clubs are both part of the "Big 4" clubs in Melbourne as the highly supported teams. In every contest between the two teams there is a good attendance not matter what the circumstances. The teams have met three times in Grand Finals.

Local Derbies

• Adelaide v Port Adelaide
  See main article: The Showdown

• West Coast v Fremantle
  See main article: Western Derby

More Recent Rivals

• Brisbane v Sydney
  Two frontier states for the AFL, the AFL uses the Rugby League State of Origin rivalry between Queensland and New South Wales to draw crowds to games between these teams.

• Melbourne v Geelong
  The first 2 clubs in the league. Melbourne CEO Steve Harris once made comments about how Melbourne people never like to travel to Geelong, with this rivalry being manufactured by the AFL in the recent AFL Rivalry Round concept.

• Essendon v Hawthorn
  The clubs contested the Grand Final on several occasions in the 1980s.

• Brisbane v Essendon
  The two sides who clashed in the 2001 Grand Final, has since developed into a great rivalry thanks to respective coaches Leigh Matthews (Brisbane) and Kevin Sheedy (Essendon), with several famous clashes already.

• Brisbane v Collingwood
  The Brisbane Lions defeated Collingwood in the 2002 and 2003 Grand Final, which caused Grand Final Rematches and great rivalry between the two teams. This continued onwards with many Lions fans disliking Collingwood, and their President Eddie McGuire.

• Brisbane v Port Adelaide
  The two sides who dominated the AFL from 2001-2004, they had identical winning percentages over the four years. The Lions won three consecutive titles (2001-2003), while Port developed a reputation as chokers in big matches until they won the 2004 title, defeating Brisbane in that decider. Matches between the two are always hard fought encounters. The two sides have also drawn on two occasions, in 1997 and 1998.

• West Coast v Essendon
  The rivalry started when Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy celebrated a victory by running down from the coaches box to the ground waving his jacket around his head. Now the fans of the victorious team in these clashes celebrate the victory by waving their jackets. Occasionally fans of other league teams (infamously Richmond after the 1995 semi-final) wave ther jackets (or scarves) to after their team defeats Essendon. This tradition however, has become increasingly rare.

• St Kilda v Geelong
  Both teams have reasonably young teams making their mark in AFL. In addition, it's a battle of the two cities on Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay.

• Hawthorn v Melbourne
  This is a more recent rivalry. In 1996 both sides were involved in merger talks. The merge, which would have led to the berth of the Melbourne Hawks, never eventuated.

Past Rivals

• St Kilda v South Melbourne
  These clubs shared the same geographical area until the Swans moved to Sydney. These teams played for the 'Lake Trophy'.

• Collingwood v Fitzroy
  As with St Kilda and South Melbourne, these clubs shared the same geographical area until Fitzroy folded (and was absorbed by Brisbane) and began a new rivalry with Collingwood from successive Grand Final encounters.

Future

Several areas have been discussed as expansion possibilities, most often Tasmania, western Sydney, North Queensland, the Gold Coast, Canberra, Darwin and even New Zealand or South Africa, but the AFL have an aim to keep the competition to 16 teams. It is generally thought that if the AFL expands into a new area, one of the less financially well-off Victorian clubs will re-locate, rather than an entirely new club being formed. The Western Bulldogs and Kangaroos are most often considered candidates for re-location, and some theorise that their respective name changes in the 1990s were in anticipation of such a move.

Having experimented with home games in Western Sydney, the Kangaroos play regular premiership season games at Manuka Oval in Canberra, and the Bulldogs have played in Cairns and Darwin, the Demons in South East Queensland (both Brisbane and the Gold Coast) while Hawthorn have played in Tasmania, leading to more speculation that they are attempting to build a supporter base in those areas for future re-location.

Mergers have also been an option for the AFL, as was seen with the Brisbane Bears and the defunct Fitzroy Lions in 1996. If two Victorian teams merge, then it makes room for a 16th team to come from an interstate city - the likely candidates for this are the Southport Sharks or a Tasmanian team based in Hobart or Launceston. However, that since the 1996 Melbourne Hawks merger attempt, the AFL has been less willing to actively persue the amalgamation of two Victorian-based clubs as an option.

Game Development

The AFL is responsible for development of the game of Australian Rules Football in Australia, and conducts Auskick clinics for junior participation in conjunction with local leagues.

As well as domestic development, as the defacto world governing body for the code, the AFL plays a small part in the development of the game outside of Australia, with specific projects to develop the game at junior level in other countries such as South Africa and affiliated amateur leagues around the world (See Australian football around the world).

The marketing of the game under the name "AFL" (the league's name) in developing markets rather than as "Australian Rules Football" has caused confusion and criticism by many of the game's traditionalists, but is a key part of the strategy of the world's only fully professional Australian league in the sport.

Representation

International

Each year, the AFL's representative team plays the Gaelic Athletic Association in an International Rules series. This is the time of year where the players from the AFL and GAA get to prove their worth on the international stage. There are 2 games in the series between Australia and Ireland. The game is played with a round ball (similar to a soccer ball) and has the normal 4 scoring posts. To create a difference a soccer goal is set up in between the two goal posts and when a goal is scored in the soccer net it is worth six points. Overs are worth three points and behinds are worth one point. The round ball is much harder to kick than the standard AFL ball therefore, it makes the standard of football rise between both teams. The series is sponsored by Fosters and is held each October. The public considers this tournament to be an exiting event on the footballing calendar.

State

There is currently no official state representation for AFL players, but Interstate Matches and State of Origin have taken place between 1879 and 1999. Despite many calls for the return of the concept , the popularity of the E. J. Whitten Legends charity event and the popularity of Rugby League State of Origin, a return of the representation series is an unpopular idea with the AFL clubs and ultimately unlikely as the competition becomes more national and the International Rules series continues.

Hall of Fame

For the centenary of the VFL/AFL in 1996, the Australian Football Hall of Fame was formed. Its members not only consist of those who have contributed to the VFL/AFL, but from Australian football in general (in such leagues as the SANFL and WAFL). That year 136 Australian Rules identities were inducted, including 100 players, 10 coaches, 10 umpires, 10 administrators and 6 media representatives.

Legends of the Game

In 1996, twelve Hall of Fame members were declared Legends of the Game. Now, each year another member of the Hall of Fame is declared a legend. The following is a list of Legends of the Game.

• Ron Barassi Junior (added 1996)
• Haydn Bunton Senior(added 1996)
• Roy Cazaly (added 1996)
• John Coleman (added 1996)
• Jack Dyer (added 1996)
• Graham Farmer (added 1996)
• Leigh Matthews (added 1996)
• John Nicholls (added 1996)
• Bob Pratt (added 1996)
• Dick Reynolds (added 1996)
• Bob Skilton (added 1996)
• Ted Whitten Senior (added 1996)
• Ian Stewart (added 1997)
• Gordon Coventry (added 1998)
• Peter Hudson (added 1999)
• Kevin Bartlett (added 2000)
• Barry Robran (added 2001)
• Bill Hutchison (added 2003)
• Jock McHale (added 2005)

Team of the Century

To celebrate the 100th season of the AFL, the "AFL Team of the Century" was named in 1996.

Jim Elder was declared the Umpire of the Century was to coincide with the Team of the Century. Since the naming of this side, all AFL clubs have nominated their own teams of the century. An Indigenous Team of the Century was also selected in 2005, featuring the best Aboriginal players of the previous 100 years.

Corporate Relations

Membership

The AFL sells membership that entitle subscribers to reserve seats for matches at the Telstra Dome and Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne and priority access to finals. AFL Members can nominate a club to get priority Grand Final tickets.

Broadcasting

Television

The official television broadcast partners of the AFL are: Nine Network, Network Ten, and Foxtel (Fox Footy Channel).

As of 2007 the official Free to Air television brodcast partners will be: the Seven Network and Network Ten. The Pay TV partner, if any, is yet to be confirmed.

Before 2001, the Seven Network had broadcast the AFL for 45 years. The only year they didn't hold the rights was 1987, when the rights were bought by Sportsplay, a satellite channel, who then onsold the rights to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1997, the Seven Network's main rivals created a consortium to snatch the rights from the network. Seven, however, did purchase a guaranteed last rights bid which in the future proved to be handy for the network. In January 2006, shortly after the death of media magnate Kerry Packer, a Seven/Ten alliance used Seven's last rights bid to match Nine's offer of $AUD 780 million for broadcast rights in what was the biggest sport broadcasting deal in Australian history.

International Broadcasting

• ABC Asia Pacific currently broadcasts the full AFL Premiership season to more than 39 countries.
• AFL is broadcast in the United States and Canada, but not free-to-air. In the 1980s, ESPN played a highlights package called Fosters Australian Rules. The AFANA is an organisation aimed at increasing coverage in North America.

In 2006, Fox Soccer Channel announced they were dropping the coverage of games, focusing more on soccer. However, fellow niche-sports network Setanta Sports has apparently picked up the rights, and will show games starting in April 2006.

• Although Australian rules are not shown in Ireland, Setanta airs International Rules matches.

Radio

The official radio broadcast partners of the AFL are Triple M, 3AW, ABC Local Radio, FiveAA, 6PR, K-Rock, and the National Indigenous Radio Service.

Publishing and Print

The official print broadcast partner of the AFL is News Limited. The AFL Record is a print publication that is read by around 225,000 people each week .

Internet

The official internet/3G broadcast partner of the AFL is Bigpond. The AFL also provides exclusive broadband content including streaming video for international fans via its website.

Merchandising

The AFL run a chain of stores that sell various merchandise from all teams, and the merchandise is also available from other retailers.

Hall of Fame and Sensation

A modern museum called the Hall of Fame and Sensation opened in Melbourne in 2003 to celebrate the culture of the AFL and the Australian Football Hall of Fame. The museum, a licenced spin-off of the AFL was originally touted for the MCG, the Hall of Fame failed to get support of the Melbourne Cricket Club, so the new QV shopping centre on Swanston Street was chosen as the location next to one of the busiest AFL shops. Later controversy surrounded the appoint meant of an administration as the museum began running at a loss. Many blamed high entry prices, which were subsequently reduced, and the museum remains open to the public. Hall of Fame and Sensation features various honour boards and artefacts as well as a range of innovative interactive displays designed to immerse fans and visitors in the experience of elite aussie rules.

Video games

Main Article: List of Australian rules football computer games.

These are computer/video games that were licensed to use the AFL / Australian Football sports brand:

• Australian Rules (1987) C64
• Aussie Rules Footy (1991) NES
• AFL Finals Fever (1996) PC
• AFL '98 (1999) PC/PS1 (PAL)
• AFL '99 (2000) PC/PS1 (PAL)
• Aussie Rules Coach (2001) PC
• Kevin Sheedy Coach (2002) PC
• AFL Live 2003 (2003) PC/PS2/Xbox (PAL)
• AFL Live 2004 (2004) PC/PS2/Xbox (PAL)
• AFL Premiership 2005 (2005) PC/PS2/Xbox (PAL)

Gambling

The AFL is the subject of footy tipping and betting competitions around Australia run by individuals, syndicates, workplaces and bookmakers. Footy tipping competitions are held by punters and even the normal family household. this is a great way to follow your team and try to win prizes each week, in the grand final money is often the grand prize for winning the competition.

See also

• Australian Rules Football
• AFL Footballers
• AFL Premiers
• Brownlow Medal
• Coleman Medal
• Leigh Matthews Trophy
• Sports attendances
• List of Celebrity Supporters of AFL Clubs
• WikiProject AFL

External links

Australian Football League clubs

• Australian Football League
• Australian rules football competitions
• Sports governing bodies in Australia