Australian rules football
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- Australian Rules and Aussie Rules redirect here. For the movie, see Australian Rules (film). For other codes of football played in Australia, see Football in Australia
Australian football, also known as Australian rules football, is a code of football that originated in Melbourne, Australia. In areas where the game is popular, the game is simply called "football" or "footy". When contrasted with other codes, it is often called "Aussie rules", and sometimes referred to by the name of its most presitigious league, the "AFL". The game is played between two teams of 18 players (plus interchange players) on cricket ovals or similar-sized grassed arenas that vary in size and may be up to 185 metres (200 yards) long; these are much larger than those used by other codes of football (almost four times the area).
The game is also distinguished from other games by the fast, relatively free, movement of the ball (partly due to the absence of an offside rule) and the awarding of a free kick for any mark (clean catch) of a ball that has been kicked more than 15 metres. Spectacular high marks or "speccies", tackles, bumps and fast fluid play are the game's main attributes as a spectator sport.
Although it is a winter sport, pre-season competitions usually begin in late February (late summer in the southern hemisphere). The football season, proper, is from March (early autumn) to August (late winter) with finals being held in September (early spring).
Structure and competitions
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: AFL NSW/ACT, Football Tasmania, AFL Northern Territory, the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), AFL Queensland, Football Victoria and the West Australian Football League (WAFL). Most of these hold annual semi-professional club competitions while the others oversee more than one league. Local semi-professional or amateur organizations and competitions are affiliated to their state leagues.
The AFL is also the de facto world governing body for Australian Rules Football. There are also a number of organisations governing amateur clubs and competitions around the world.
Unlike most soccer competitions there are usually no separate "league" and "cup" trophies. In the AFL, the McClelland Trophy is awarded to the team that finishes the league in first position (sometimes called the minor premiership) but this is not afforded as high a level of prestige as the major objective is the Premiership.
The teams that occupy the highest positions (usually the top four sides in most amateur leagues and the top eight sides in the AFL) play off in a "semi-knockout" finals series (in the AFL the top four sides get a second chance if they lose in the first round) with the two successful teams meeting in the Grand Final to contest the Premiership. The winner is awarded the Premiership Cup.
Rules of the game
Both the ball and the field of play are oval in shape. No more than 18 players of each team are permitted to be on the field at any time. Up to four interchange (reserve) players may be swapped for those on the field at any time during the game. There is no offside rule nor are there set positions in the rules—unlike many other forms of football—players from both teams disperse across the whole field before the start of play.
Games are officiated by umpires. Unlike other forms of football, Australian football begins similarly to basketball. After the first siren, the umpire bounces the ball on the ground, and the two ruckmen (typically the tallest man from each team), battle for the ball in the air on its way back down.
The ball can be propelled in any direction by way of a foot, clenched fist (called a handball or handpass) or open-hand tap (unlike rugby football there is no knock-on rule) but it cannot be thrown under any circumstances. Throwing is defined in the rules quite broadly but is essentially any open hand disposal that causes the ball to move upward in the air.
A player may run with the ball but it must be bounced or touched on the ground at least every 15 metres (throwing down to bounce it is allowed). Opposition players may bump or tackle the player to obtain the ball and, when tackled, the player must dispose of the ball cleanly or risk being penalised for holding the ball. If the opposition player pushes a player in the back whilst performing a tackle, the opposition player will be penalised for a push in the back.
If a player takes possession of the ball that has travelled more than 15 metres from another player's kick, by way of a catch, it is claimed as a mark and that player may then have a free kick (meaning that that the game stops while he prepares to kick from the point at which he marked). There are different styles of kicking depending on how the ball is held in the hand. Two examples are the punt (the ball is held about or below the waist and the foot comes up to it), and the drop punt (the ball is thrown forward and down, almost to the ground, to be kicked). Another commonly used kick, is the torpedo, aka spiral punt (the ball is held at an angle and kicked, which makes the ball spiral in the air, resulting in extra distance)
Apart from free kicks or when the ball is in the possession of an umpire for a ball up or throw in, the ball is always in dispute and any player from either side can take possession of the ball.
Scoring
At each end of the field are four vertical posts. The middle two are the goal posts and the two on either side, which are shorter, are the behind posts, or point posts.
A goal is scored when the football is propelled through the goal posts at any height (including above the height of the posts) by way of a kick from the attacking team. It may fly through on the full or bounce through and must not be touched, on the way, by any player from either team. A goal cannot be scored from the foot of an opposition (defending) player.
A behind is scored when the ball goes across the line between a goal post and a behind post or if the ball hits a goal post or if it is touched by any part other than a foot, but also the foot of an opposition player, (a rushed behind) before passing between the goal posts.
A goal is worth 6 points whereas a behind is worth 1 point. The Goal Umpire signals a goal with two hands raised at elbow height, a behind with one hand, and then confirms the signal with the other goal umpire by waving flags above his head.
The team that scores the most points at the end of play wins the game. A score of 10 goals and 10 behinds equals 70 points. A score of 9 goals and 18 behinds equals 72 points. The latter score would win the game despite the fact that that team scored one goal less. The result would usually be written as:
- Team A 9.18 (72) defeated Team B 10.10 (70), and said, "... nine-eighteen seventy-two defeated ... ten-ten seventy."
History
- Further information: History of Australian rules football
Origins of the game
Tom Wills began to devise Australian rules in Melbourne in 1858. A letter by Wills was published in Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle on 10 July, 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit during winter. An experimental match, played by Wills and others, at the Richmond Paddock (later known as Yarra Park next to the MCG) on 31 July, 1858, was probably the first game of Australian football. However, few details of the match have survived.On 7 August, 1858, two significant events in the development of the game occurred. The Melbourne Football Club was founded, one of the world's first football clubs in any code, and a famous match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College began, umpired by Wills. A second day of play took place on 21 August and a third, and final, day on 4 September. p303. The two schools have competed annually ever since. However, the rules used by the two teams in 1858 could not have had much in common with the eventual form of Australian football since Wills had not yet begun to write them.
The Melbourne Football Club rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian football. They were drawn up at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne, on 17 May, by Wills, W. J. Hammersley, J. B. Thompson and Thomas Smith (some sources include H. C. A. Harrison). p303. The 1859 rules did not include some elements that soon became important to the game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running, and Melbourne's game was not immediately adopted by neighbouring clubs. Before each match the rules had to be agreed by the two teams involved. By 1866, however, several other clubs had agreed to play by an updated version of Melbourne's rules.
The influence of British public school and university football codes, while undetermined, was clearly substantial. Wills had been educated at Rugby School in England (where Rugby football had been codified since 1845). Wills had also, like W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson, been to the University of Cambridge. The Cambridge Rules, drawn up in 1848, included some elements which are important in Australian football, such as the mark. It is also often said that the founders were partly inspired by the ball games of the local Aboriginal people in western Victoria. Marn Grook, a sport that used a ball made out of possum hide, and is said to have featured jumping to catch the ball, called mumarki (meaning to catch), which resembles the high marking in Australian football. While it is clear even to casual observers that Australian rules football is similar to Gaelic football, the exact relationship is unclear, as the Irish game was not codified by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) until 1887.
Australian clubs and competitions
In 1877, the game's first league, the Victorian Football Association (VFA) was formed. Gradually the game – known at first as "Melbourne Rules", "Victorian Rules" or sometimes as "Australasian Rules" – began to spread from Victoria into other Australian colonies in the 1860s, beginning with Tasmania (1864), Queensland (1866) and South Australia (1873). The game began to be played in New South Wales in 1877, in Western Australia in 1881 and the Australian Capital Territory in 1911. By 1916, the game was first played in the Northern Territory, establishing a permanent presence in all Australian states and mainland territories. In Newcastle, New South Wales the Black Diamond league was founded by Victorian goldminers and the Black Diamond Challenge Cup remains Australia's oldest sporting trophy.
The precursors of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and the West Australian Football League (WAFL) were strong, separate competitions by the 1890s. However, factors such as interstate rivalry and the denial of access to grounds in Sydney caused the code to struggle in New South Wales and Queensland. A rift in the VFA led to the formation of the Victorian Football League (VFL), which commenced play in 1897 as an eight-team breakaway of the stronger clubs in the VFA competition. By 1925, the VFL consisted of 12 teams, and had become the most prominent league in the game.
The first intercolonial match had been played between Victoria and South Australia in 1879. For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition – and the inability of players to compete internationally – meant that matches between state representative teams were regarded with great importance. Because VFL clubs increasingly recruited the best players in other states, Victoria dominated these games. The introduction of State of Origin rules were introduced in 1977 saw Western Australia and South Australia begin to win many of their games against Victoria.
In 1982, in a move which heralded big changes within the sport, one of the original VFL clubs, South Melbourne Football Club, relocated to the rugby league stronghold of Sydney and became known as the Sydney Swans. In the late 1980s, strong interstate interest in the VFL led to a more national competition; two more non-Victorian clubs, the West Coast Eagles and the Brisbane Bears began playing in 1987. The league changed its name to the Australian Football League (AFL) following the 1989 season. In 1991, it gained its first South Australian team, Adelaide. In the next five years, two more non-Victorian teams joined the league. The AFL, currently with 16 member clubs, is the sport's elite competition and the most powerful body in the world of Australian rules football.
Following the emergence of the Australian Football League, the SANFL, WAFL and other state leagues rapidly declined to a secondary status. Apart from these there are many semi-professional and amateur leagues around Australia, where they play a very important role in the community, and particularly so in rural areas. The VFA, still in existence a century after the original schism, merged with the former VFL reserves competition in 1998. The new entity adopted the VFL name. State of origin games declined in importance, especially after an increasing number of withdrawals by AFL players, and Australian football State of Origin matches ceased in 1999. The second-tier state and territorial leagues still contest interstate matches.
Australian football internationally
Almost as soon as the game was becoming established in Australia, it had spread to New Zealand in 1876. South Africa followed in the 1880s, with the help of Australian goldminers and then soldiers. In 1908, New Zealand defeated both New South Wales and Queensland at the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival, an event held to celebrate 50 years of Australian Football.
The first ever international match involving Australia was played in 1977 at under 17 level between Australia and Papua New Guinea in Adelaide, with Australia taking the honours.. Since then, Australia have been peerless in the sport and seldom compete at international level. However, since 1967 there have been many matches between Australian and Irish teams, under various sets of hybrid, compromise rules. In 1984, the first official representative matches of International rules football were played, and these are now played annually each October.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, as distance became less of an obstacle, amateur teams were established in many parts of the world Most of these were initially established by Australian expatriates but are collecting growing numbers of native players. The International Australian Football Council (IAFC) was formed after football first featured at the Arafura Games in 1995. Inspired by successful Arafura Games competitions, the inaugural Australian Football International Cup was held in Melbourne in 2002, an initiative of the IAFC and the AFL. With the closure of the IAFC subsequent cups are staged by the AFL.
The AFL did not recognise the IAFC as anything more than a promotional body, and is itself considered the keeper of the code. Since 1998, the Barassi International Australian Football Youth Tournament, endorsed by the AFL as part of its International Policy, has hosted several junior teams from other countries. On July 3, 2006 the AFL announced that it had formed an International Development Committee to support overseas (non-Australian) football leagues. The AFL also hope to develop the game in other countries to the point where Australian football is played at an international level by top-quality sides from around the world. The AFL plans to host the International Cup regularly every four years, beginning in 2008, the 150th anniversary of the code.
Today, Australian football is a major spectator sport in Australia and Nauru, although occasional exhibition games are staged in other countries. Some local grand final and carnival type events in Papua New Guinea, Nauru, England and the United States have occasionally drawn attendances that number in the thousands.
Traditions of the game
Gameday traditions
Players wear sleeveless guernseys, similar to basketball jumpers. Although players wore sleeveless lace-up tops since the turn of the century, this became standard in 1960 season and lace-ups were no longer used. A few players choose to wear a long sleeved variation. Players wore pants until the 1920s. Short shorts were a notable trend in the 1980s. Padding is rare, but some ruckmen wear shin pads and thigh pads and players with head injuries sometimes wear soft helmets. Long socks, or football socks, are compulsory and must be worn by all players. Mouthguards are essential and worn by most players.Traditionally, umpires have worn white. However, in the AFL, umpires now wear bright colours chosen not to clash with the guernseys of the competiting teams. AFL goal umpires now wear t-shirts and caps, rather than the traditional white coat and broad brimmed hat.
At the elite level, the game still retains some links to its suburban roots. At the start of each game, AFL players run on to the field through a crêpe paper banner depicting some message (for instance, congratulating players on a milestone number of games) constructed by volunteer supporter groups.
Football clubs also traditionally have a club song. Most of the AFL club songs were composed during the early twentieth century, or mimic the musical styles of that era (exceptions being the newer teams). Some teams use club songs set to the tunes of well-known American marches. Both teams songs are played as they enter the ground, and the winners song is sung at the end of the game.
Supporter traditions
See also List of nicknames used in Australian rules.Australian rules is often referred to as the people's game due to its ability to transcend class and racial boundaries, unify supporters and attract crowds.
Fans barrack for their team rather than support or root for (in Australia, 'root' is slang for sexual intercourse). The term barrack is believed to derive from early matches between soldiers stationed in army barracks near the MCG. One of the first things many Melburnians will ask when meeting someone new is which football team they 'barrack' or 'go' for.
Typical supporter wear includes the team scarf and sometimes beanie (particularly in cooler climates) in the colours of the team. Team jerseys are also worn by supporters. Team flags are sometimes flown by supporters, and official club cheersquads behind the goals will sometimes wave enormous coloured pompoms known as floggers after the umpire has signalled a goal.
Meat pies and beer are popular consumables (sometimes noted as a tradition) for supporters at Australian rules matches. Mobile vendors walk around the ground selling such pies, yelling out the well-known call of "hot pies, cold drinks!"
At the end of the match, it is traditional for a pitch invasion to occur. Supporters run onto the field to celebrate the game and play games of kick-to-kick with their families. In recent years, this has been more strictly controlled with security guards to ensure that players and officials can safely leave the ground. Sometimes a mid-game pitch invasion is expected for various landmark achievements, such as a player kicking a record number of goals and players are protected by bodyguards.
Popularity
Australian rules football has attracted more overall interest among Australians than any other winter sport for at least several years.[Media Release], Sweeney Sports, 22 June 2005. A recent survey has suggested that the sport recently took over from swimming as the most popular sport in Australia The Sunday Mail article, previously at http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17792967%255E23211,00.html ..It is particularly popular amongst indigenous Australian communities. Approximately 10% of all AFL players are of indigenous origin.
It is popular in two countries which are former Australian territories: Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
Cricket is the most common summer spectator sport in Australia, and is usually played on the same grounds as Australian football. In the past, many elite-level footballers also played representative cricket, but the increasingly professional nature of the game made this impossible by the 1980s.
Australian rules is the most popular form of football in the Northern Territory (NT), South Australia (SA), Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia (WA). In southern New South Wales, the code has rivalled the two varieties of rugby in popularity over many decades. Interstate migration trends and the growth of amateur football mean that the demographic of Australian football is changing.
In recent years, Australian rules has become increasingly popular in Queensland due to the recent success of the Brisbane Lions, who won three premierships in a row (2001-2003) and finished runner-up in 2004. Popularity in Sydney and the state of New South Wales has increased since the Sydney Swans made their first Grand Final appearance in 1996. In 2005, the team won their first premiership since relocating to Sydney in 1982, and the club's first since 1933 (as the South Melbourne Swans). Increasing marketshare in these states has boosted the overall national popularity of the code.
Audience
- Attendance
As well as the AFL attendances, strong state competitions also drew crowds. Although crowds for local leagues have suffered in recent years, they continue to draw support, particularly for finals matches. The South Australian SANFL drew an attendance of 303,354 in 2005, the Western Australian WAFL drew an official attendance of 202,797 in 2004 and the Victorian VFL (including a Tasmanian side, the Devils) also drew strong crowds (but with no available attendance figures).
As of 2005 the AFL is one of only five professional sports leagues in the world with an average attendance above thirty thousand (the others are NFL and Major League Baseball in the United States, and the top division soccer leagues in Germany, and England). (See also: Sports attendances.)
- Television
In recent years, the AFL Grand Final has reached the top 5 programmes across the five mainland state capitals in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. Australian rules football has achieved a #1 rating in the sports category in both 2004 and 2005.
Participation
With more than 450,000 participants aged 15 years and over, football is also one of the most-played team sports in Australia. [Participation in exercise, recreation and sport], Australian Sports Commission Annual Report 2004.A total of 539,526 registered participants played football in Australia in 2005, a 4.6 per cent rise from 2004. http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=269374 6.7 per cent of all participants are from non-English speaking origin.
Victoria has the largest number of participants over 15 years of age (205,000 participants or 5.2% of the Victorian population). The Tiwi Islands is said to have the highest participation rate in Australia (35%).
Amongst children aged 5 to 14 years, football is the third most popular organised sport for children to participate in (beyond soccer and swimming). An estimated 284,200 children aged 5 to 14 participated in football in the 12 months prior to interview in 2003 (13.6% of all children). http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/99AEABDFDCF70A0DCA256E2A00767431/$File/49010_apr%202003.pdf
Australian football is also now played as an amateur sport in more than 20 countries around the world, with a fast growing base of over 30,000 participants. (See: Australian football around the world.)
Many related games have emerged from football, mainly with variations of contact to encourage greater participation. These include include Auskick, Rec Footy, Women's Footy, 9-a-side Footy and Masters Australian Football. Players outside of Australia also engage in related games such as Metro Footy and Samoa Rules based on available fields.
Australian rules in popular culture
For many years, the game of Australian Rules Football captured the imagination of Australian film, music and literature. Many songs inspired by the game have become anthems of the game, none more so than the 1970s hit Up There Cazaly, by Mike Brady.The sport is featured in: