Aussie Rules Football

Article by: Elizabeth
Last updated: Tuesday, 11-Jul-2006 00:00:00 CEST

AFL (Aussie Rules Football or Footy as it's known) is a mixture of rugby, soccer and gaelic football. Nationally, it is seen as an Australian symbol and holds celebrity status to match the likes of soccer in Europe. Internationally it is known for the oval pitch it is played on and more over, for the very short shorts that are worn by the players.

Most Recent Pages

Aussie Rules Setup

The Australian Football League is the Australian national competition in the sport of aussie rules. The organisation that runs the league has become the de facto world governing body for the sport. It is one of the most popular professional sporting leagues in the country.

The game of Aussie rules is unique in that it allows participation at all levels. And is able to be played by people of all shapes and sizes; children, male and female as young as six right through to the veterans playing Super Rules; modified footy for overage players is a code of footy that originated in Melbourne, Australia.

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 (almost four times the area) than those used by other codes of footy.

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 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 aussie rules season, proper, is from March (early autumn) to August (late winter) with finals being held in September (early spring).

In 2005 the Aussie Rules 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 organisation in Australian sport.

Present Aussie Rules Teams

Club	City	Home Ground
Adelaide Crows	Adelaide	AAMI Stadium
Brisbane Lions	Brisbane	Brisbane Cricket Ground (The 'Gabba)
Carlton Blues	Melbourne	MCG
Collingwood Magpies	Melbourne	MCG
Essendon Bombers	Melbourne	MCG
Fremantle Dockers	Fremantle WA	Subiaco Oval
Geelong Cats	Geelong	Skilled Stadium
Hawthorn Hawks	Melbourne	MCG
Kangaroos	Melbourne	MCG
Melbourne Demons	Melbourne	MCG
Port Adelaide Power	Adelaide	AAMI Stadium
Richmond Tigers	Melbourne	MCG
St Kilda Saints	Melbourne	MCG
Sydney Swans	Sydney	Sydney Cricket Ground
West Coast Eagles	Perth	Subiaco Oval
Western Bulldogs	Melbourne	MCG

Aussie Rules Playing Lists

The AFL has tight controls over the player lists of each aussie rules 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.

An aussie rules salary cap (known as the Total Player Payments or TPP) is also in place as part of the league's equalisation 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.[2]

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 does not penalise clubs premiership points for breach of the salary cap.

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 aussie rules 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.

History of Aussie Rules & AFL Organisation

In 1857, Tom Wills, one of the founders of Australian Football, returned to Australia after attending schools in England where he was the football captain of a Rugby School and a cricketer. Initially, the winter game of football was invented to help keep the cricketers fit during the winter off-season.

The new game was devised by Wills, his cousin H.C.A. Harrison, W.J. Hammersley and J.B. Thompson. The Melbourne Football Club was formed on August 7, 1858 – the year of the first recorded match between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School.

The game quickly blossomed in the state of Victoria. The Geelong Football Club was formed in 1859 and in 1866 an updated set of rules was put in place and competition started. The competition hosted 12 teams and remained like this till 1987 when the Western Australia team, The West Coast Eagles' joined along with the Brisbane Bears. In the following 10 years 4 more teams entered and it to where we stand today.

The game has changed considerably over the last 100 years and there has been widespread debate as to whether all the changes have been for the better. It has though gone from strength to strength, with the popularity increasing and the game surviving 2 World Wars and the competition of more internationaly known sports

One of the main changes has been financial as today the game is controlled by the corporate dollar as is the trend with a vast majority of professional games world wide. The result has seen the clubs fighting to maximise their potential with major businesses in an attempt to increase profits.

But as we enter another century the west australian game seems to be struggling to retain both spectators and corporate sponsorship as the national competition grows ever bigger.

Subiaco Oval History

Subiaco Oval is nationally recognised as Western Australia's home of Aussie Rules football. The ground has a capacity of 43,500 and serves as the home base for the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers.

Subiaco Oval was built in 1908 with the first match being played on 9th of May 1908 between Subiaco and East Perth.

The first Australian Championships were played at Subiaco Oval on 10 August 1921, when WA defeated Victoria by 5 points.

The 3-Tier Stand opened on 31 August 1969 and the 2-Tier Stand opened on 27 April 1981. The Town & Country Stand opened on 14 May 1995 when the inaugural Western Derby was played between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers. Prior to the match the stand was officially opened by the Prime Minister, the Hon. Paul Keating.

The first match played under lights was on 29 March 1997, when the West Coast Eagles defeated the Sydney Swans by 41 points.

In August 1998 the WAFC announced a further $35 million redevelopment of the ground which was completed in May 2000. The new stand at the eastern end of the ground increases the capacity to about 43,500 (all seated) and provides new corporate facilities in support of growing demand from West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers sponsors.

Subiaco Oval is also used for National Soccer League finals and in 2003 hosted 5 games for the Rugby World Cup.

In addition to hosting sporting events, Subiaco Oval is available for corporate functions and other events.

West Australian Football League

The WAFL is Western Australia's premier state sporting league - it is also the state's oldest, and will enter it's 122nd year in 2006.

The competition is comprised of nine clubs from across the metropolitan area - from Joondalup in the north, to Mandurah in the south.

For more information on the WAFL, visit www.wafl.com.au

WAFL Staff Football Director of Football - Grant Dorrington PA to Director of Football - Linda Goldthorp Football Operations Manager - Clint Roberts Football Operations Assistant - Tanya Lowe Database Registrar - Paul Fildes

Corporate Relations Corporate Relations Manager - Nikki Lefort Communications Co-ordinator - Jenna Hardie Events & Marketing Co-ordinator - Kellie McBean

Contact Details Gate 6 Subiaco Oval, Subiaco Road, Subiaco WA 6008 PO Box 275, Subiaco WA 6904 E-Mail: wafl@wafc.com.au Ph: (08) 9381 5599 Fax: (08) 9381 7743