   #copyright

Australian rules football

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Sports

          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.

   Precise field and goal kicking using the oval shaped ball is the most
   important skill in Aussie Rules Footy
   Enlarge
   Precise field and goal kicking using the oval shaped ball is the most
   important skill in Aussie Rules Footy

   Australian rules football, also known as Australian football, Aussie
   rules, or simply "football" or "footy", is a code of football played
   with an oblate spheroid ball, on large oval shaped fields, with four
   posts at each end. No more than 18 players of each team are permitted
   to be on the field at any time and the primary aim of the game is to
   score by kicking the ball between the posts. The winner is the team who
   has kicked the highest total score by the end of the match.

   There are several different ways to advance the ball, including kicking
   and hand passing. When hand passing one hand must be used to hold the
   ball and the other to hit it — throwing the ball is not allowed.
   Players running with the ball must bounce or touch it on the ground.
   There is no offside rule and players can roam the field freely.
   Australian rules is a contact sport. Possession of the ball is in
   dispute at all times except when a free kick is paid. Players who hold
   on to the ball too long are penalised if they are tackled by an
   opposition player who is then rewarded, whilst players who catch a ball
   (known as a mark) from a kick exceeding 15 metres are awarded
   uncontested possession. The duration of play varies, but is longer than
   in any other code of football.

   Frequent contests for possession including aerial marking or "
   speccies" and vigorous tackling with the hands, bumps and the fast
   movement of both players and the ball are the game's main attributes as
   a spectator sport.

   The code originated in Melbourne, Australia in 1858, and was devised to
   keep cricketers fit during the winter months. The first laws of
   Australian football were published in 1859 by the Melbourne Football
   Club. The dominant governing body and most prestigious professional
   competition is the Australian Football League (AFL), which culminates
   in the annual AFL Grand Final, one of the biggest club championship
   events in the world.

Structure and competitions

   An Australian Football League Premiership season match at Carrara
   Stadium on the Gold Coast between Adelaide and Melbourne. The AFL is
   the most popular national competition in Australia and the only fully
   professional league for Australian Rules in the world.
   Enlarge
   An Australian Football League Premiership season match at Carrara
   Stadium on the Gold Coast between Adelaide and Melbourne. The AFL is
   the most popular national competition in Australia and the only fully
   professional league for Australian Rules in the world.

   The football season, proper, is from March to August (early autumn to
   late winter in Australia) with finals being held in September. In the
   tropics, the game is played in the wet season (October to March).
   Pre-season competitions in southern Australia usually begin in late
   February.

   The most powerful organisation and competition within the game, the
   AFL, is recognised by the Australian Sports Commission as being the
   National Sporting Organisation for Australian rules football. There are
   also seven state/territory-based organisations in Australia, most of
   which are now either owned by or affiliated to the AFL. Most of these
   hold annual semi-professional club competitions while the others
   oversee more than one league. Local semi-professional or amateur
   organizations and competitions are often affiliated to their state
   organisations.

   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. The team finishing first on the ladder is often
   referred to as a 'minor premier', although this bears little or no
   significance. The McClelland Trophy in the AFL is considered a
   consolation prize. For almost all Australian rules competitions the
   focus is almost always on winning the premiership. The team which
   finishes at the bottom of the ladder at the end of the season is said
   to get 'the wooden spoon'.

   The premiership is always decided by a finals series. The teams that
   occupy the highest positions play off in a "semi-knockout" finals
   series (The AFL finals system differs from many amateur competitions in
   that it gives some teams a double chance). The two successful teams
   meet in the Grand Final to contest the Premiership. The winner is
   awarded the Premiership Cup.

Rules of the game

   The playing field, which may be 135-185m long and 110-155m wide. The
   centre square is 50x50. The curved fifty metre line is 50m away from
   the goal line. Adjacent goal posts are 6.4 metres apart.
   Enlarge
   The playing field, which may be 135-185m long and 110-155m wide. The
   centre square is 50x50. The curved fifty metre line is 50m away from
   the goal line. Adjacent goal posts are 6.4 metres apart.

   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.

   A game consists of four quarters. The length of the quarters can vary
   from 15 to 25 minutes in different leagues. In the AFL, quarters are 20
   minutes, but the clock is stopped when the ball is out of play, meaning
   that an average quarter could last for 27 to 31 minutes. 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.
   An Australian football. The Sherrin brand is used for all official AFL
   matches. A red ball like this is used for day matches and a yellow ball
   is used for night matches.
   Enlarge
   An Australian football. The Sherrin brand is used for all official AFL
   matches. A red ball like this is used for day matches and a yellow ball
   is used for night matches.

   A player may run with the ball but it must be bounced or touched on the
   ground at least every 15 metres. 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. The ball carrier may only be tackled between the shoulders and
   knees. 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 the opposition tackles the player with possession below
   the knees, it is ruled as a low tackle or a trip, and the team with
   possession of the football gets a free kick.

   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 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. The most common style of kicking seen in
   today's game, due principally to its superior accuracy, is the drop
   punt (the ball is dropped from the hands down, almost to the ground, to
   be kicked so that the ball rotates in a reverse end over end motion as
   it travels through the air). Other commonly used kicks are the torpedo
   punt (also known as the spiral or screw punt; the ball is held at an
   angle and kicked, which makes the ball spiral in the air, resulting in
   extra distance) and the checkside punt, used to curve the ball towards
   targets that are on an angle. Forms of kicking which have now
   disappeared from the game include the drop kick (similar to the drop
   punt except that the ball is allowed to make contact with the ground
   momentarily before being struck with the foot) and place kick (where
   the ball is first placed on the ground when shooting for goal, similar
   to the place kick used in rugby union).

   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

   Australian rules football goal posts - the two tall central posts are
   the goal posts, and the two shorter outer posts are the behind posts.
   Enlarge
   Australian rules football goal posts - the two tall central posts are
   the goal posts, and the two shorter outer posts are the behind posts.

   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 of the body 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

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. 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.
   A game at the Richmond Paddock in the 1860s. A pavilion at the MCG is
   on the left in the background. (A wood engraving made by Robert Bruce
   on July 27, 1866.)
   Enlarge
   A game at the Richmond Paddock in the 1860s. A pavilion at the MCG is
   on the left in the background. (A wood engraving made by Robert Bruce
   on July 27, 1866.)

   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). 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.

   Though it may never be known exactly what inspired Tom Wills' game, the
   influence of English public school and university football codes, while
   undetermined, was clearly substantial. Wills had been educated at Rugby
   School in England (where rugby football was first codified in 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 Wills was 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, featured jumping to catch the
   ball for the equivalent of a free kick. This appears to have resembled
   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 Gaelic football was not codified by the Gaelic Athletic
   Association (GAA) until 1887. Long before either code existed,
   traditional Irish football games, known collectively as caid, were
   being played. Historian B. W. O'Dwyer points out that Australian
   football has always been differentiated from rugby football by having
   no limitation on ball or player movement (that is, no offside rule).
   The need to bounce or toe-kick the ball while running, and punching the
   ball rather than throwing it, are also elements of modern Gaelic
   football. O'Dwyer suggests that some of these elements may be
   attributed to the common influence of older Irish games.

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 gold miners 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, 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
   and remained a primarily state based competition. 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

   Action from an Aussie Rules game in Nauru at the Linkbelt Oval
   Enlarge
   Action from an Aussie Rules game in Nauru at the Linkbelt Oval
   Japan's national team, the Samurai vs Melbourne Vietnam from 2006 tour
   of Australia.
   Enlarge
   Japan's national team, the Samurai vs Melbourne Vietnam from 2006 tour
   of Australia.
   2005 International Rules Series test at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne -
   Australia vs Ireland.
   Enlarge
   2005 International Rules Series test at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne -
   Australia vs Ireland.

   Almost as soon as the game was becoming established in Australia, it
   had spread to New Zealand. South Africa followed in the 1880s, with the
   help of Australian gold miners 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 profound effects of World War I caused the gradual demise in the
   game in countries outside Australia, including New Zealand.

   The longest running international fixture is the annual Oxford versus
   Cambridge Varsity match in England. The match was first played in 1921
   and has emerged into a fierce rivalry. The match is worthy of half-blue
   status at Oxford, who have dominated the event in recent years.

   The first nation outside of Australia to take the sport up seriously
   was the former Australian territory of Nauru, which began playing in
   the 1930s. The game is now the national sport of the country. Another
   former territory, Papua New Guinea began playing in the 1950s.

   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.

   New Zealand resumed a local competition in 1974.

   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.

   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.

   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 leagues. The AFL hopes 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.

Traditions of the game

   Before the start of each AFL games, players run through a banner
   constructed by supporters.
   Enlarge
   Before the start of each AFL games, players run through a banner
   constructed by supporters.

   Australian Rules is a sport rich in tradition and Australian cultural
   references, especially surrounding the rituals of gameday for players,
   officials and supporters.

   As part of their uniform, players wear guernseys, which are similar to
   basketball shirts, but of a more robust design. In the early period of
   the game's development players often wore sleeveless lace-up tops which
   gradually disappeared between the 1960s and early 1980s. A few players
   choose to wear a long sleeved variation of the modern guernsey design.
   Players wore full length pants, before adopting shorts in the 1920s.
   Tight-fitting shorts were a notable fashion trend in most leagues in
   the 1980s and some players began to wear hamstring warmers. A brief
   experiment with lycra by the AFL in the State of Origin series was
   quickly abandoned for more traditional wear. Padding is rare, but some
   ruckmen wear shin pads and thigh pads and players with head injuries
   sometimes wear soft helmets. Long socks (football socks) are
   compulsory, and mouthguards are worn by most players. Boots with
   moulded cleats or studs for gripping the ground are worn (screw-ins
   have been banned from most leagues since the 1990s).

   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 which was similar
   to what was worn by many cricket umpires.

   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.
   Cheersquads at Australian rules football matches behind the goals wave
   giant Pom-pons or floggers to signify a goal
   Enlarge
   Cheersquads at Australian rules football matches behind the goals wave
   giant Pom-pons or floggers to signify a goal

   Typical supporter wear includes the team scarf and sometimes beanie
   (particularly in cooler climates) in the colours of the team. Team
   guernseys 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. At AFL 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 many suburban and country
   games, this also happens during quarter and half-time breaks. In the
   AFL in recent years, this tradition has been more strictly controlled
   with security guards to ensure that players and officials can safely
   leave the ground. At the largest AFL grounds, this tradition has been
   banned completely, to protect the surface, much to the discontent of
   fans. Sometimes a mid-game pitch invasion is expected for various
   highly anticipated landmark achievements (such as a player kicking a
   record number of goals).

Popularity

   Australian rules football is popular amongst indigenous communities.
   Enlarge
   Australian rules football is popular amongst indigenous communities.

   Australian rules football has attracted more overall interest among
   Australians than any other winter sport for at least several years,
   according to the Sweeney Report.

   Australian rules is the most popular form of football in the
   states/territories of Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania,
   Victoria and Western Australia. In southern New South Wales and the
   Australian Capital Territory, 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.

   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.

Audience

Attendance

   Australian rules football is the most highly attended spectator sport
   in Australia: government figures show that more than 2.5 million people
   (16.8% of the population) attended games in 1999. In 2005, a cumulative
   6,283,788 people attended Australian Football League premiership
   matches, a record for the competition. A further 307,181 attended NAB
   Cup pre-season matches and 117,552 attended Regional Challenge
   pre-season practice matches around the country.

   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 the NFL in the United States and Major League Baseball in the U.S.
   and Canada, and the top division soccer leagues in Germany, and
   England).

   As well as attendances for the national AFL competition, some
   semi-professional local competitions also draw crowds. Although crowds
   for state 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. Other leagues, such as the
   Victorian VFL (including a Tasmanian side, the Devils), Northern
   Territory Football League and the popular country league Ovens & Murray
   also charge admission and draw notable crowds (but with no available
   attendance figures).

   Outside of Australia, the game has drawn notable attendances only for
   occasional carnival type events, and exhibition matches.

Television

   The 2005 AFL Grand Final was watched by a record television audience of
   more than 3.3 million people across Australia's five most populous
   cities — the five mainland state capitals — including 1.2 million in
   Melbourne and 991,000 in Sydney. In 2006, the national audience was
   3.145 million, including 1.182 million in Melbourne and 759,000 in
   Sydney.

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

   Some regional leagues attract a national audience through free-to-air
   broadcasting on television networks such as ABC2. OzTAM began measuring
   these audiences in 2006.

   Australian rules has a nominal but growing international audience. The
   AFL Grand Final is broadcast to many countries and attracts an
   estimated 30 million viewers worldwide.

Participation

   A Female Australian Rules Football Match beetween the Melbourne
   University Mugars and the Darebin Falcons.
   Enlarge
   A Female Australian Rules Football Match beetween the Melbourne
   University Mugars and the Darebin Falcons.

   With more than 450,000 participants aged 15 years and over, football is
   the 4th most-played team sport in Australia, behind netball, soccer and
   cricket.

   A total of 539,526 registered participants played football in Australia
   in 2005, a 4.6 per cent rise from 2004. 6.7 per cent of all
   participants are from non-English speaking origin. The Australian
   Sports Commission statistics show a 42% increase in the total number of
   participants over the 4 year period between 2001-2005.

   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).

   Australian football around the world is fast growing as an amateur
   sport, with more than 20 countries around the world. In 2004, a total
   of over 25,000 participants participated outside of Australia.

   Many related games have emerged from football, mainly with variations
   of contact to encourage greater participation. These include
   Kick-to-kick (and its variants such as 'Marks Up), Auskick, Rec Footy,
   Women's Footy, 9-a-side Footy, Masters Australian Football, handball
   and longest-kick competitions. Players outside of Australia sometimes
   engage in related games on the fields available, like Metro Footy
   (played on gridiron fields) and Samoa Rules (played on rugby fields).

Australian rules in popular culture

   For many years, the game of Australian rules football captured the
   imagination of Australian film, music and literature.

   In literature, probably the first mention of the sport was in the
   popular play And The Big Men Fly, written by Alan Hopgood in 1963..
   Another play, The Club was written in 1977. A novel named Deadly,
   Unna?, probably the first specifically about the sport was written in
   1999. There have been a wide range of non-fiction books written about
   the sport, along with biographies and autobiographies written by
   players. In 2002, former AFL great Gary Lyon released the first of many
   children's books in the popular Specky Magee series.

   Many songs inspired by the game have become anthems of the game, none
   more so than the 1979 hit Up There Cazaly, by Mike Brady. Brady
   followed the hit up with One Day in September in 1987. That's the Thing
   about Football was a song by Greg Champion around 1995 which was used
   by television stations as part of their game coverages. When Footy
   Ruled the World appeared in the popular sporting videos. References to
   the sport can be found extensively in the lyrics of the cult band TISM.
   Nothing Beats Footy at the MCG was written by Jim Cadman. South
   Australian hip hop band, the Hilltop Hoods make reference to the sport
   in their song The Nosebleed Section.

   Probably the first reference to the sport in film was The Great
   Macarthy in 1975. A film of the play The Club was released in 1980. In
   1997, a behind the scenes documentary about the struggling Western
   Bulldogs titled Year of the Dogs was featured in Australian cinemas. A
   short film Kick to Kick by Tony McNamara was released in 2000. Deadly
   Unna? inspired the 2002 arthouse film Australian Rules.

   Australian rules has a long history with television which dates back to
   the first broadcasts of the 1960s. Several popular Australian
   television shows have celebrated the sport, some of the more popular
   current ones include The Footy Show and Before The Game. The 2002
   television show The Club, featuring amateur club the "Hammerheads" was
   one of the first reality television shows in the world in the sports
   genre. The game has made the occasional appearance on the Australian
   soap opera Neighbours, which is popular around the world. The show
   features several characters having favourite AFL clubs, watching and
   playing 'footy'.

   Australian Rules is also featured in many interactive video games.
   Famous golfer Greg Norman named his custom built yacht Aussie Rules
   after the sport.

   There are also many cross references in sport. The game was played as a
   exhibition sport at the 1956 Summer Olympics. In the 2006 Commonwealth
   Games opening ceremony, in a statement about Melbourne sporting
   culture, AFL captains and legend Ron Barassi carried the baton toward
   the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Several charity exhibition events,
   including the Community Cup and AFL Legends Match also celebrate the
   sport's role in popular culture.

Australian Football Hall of Fame

   For the centenary of the VFL/AFL in 1996, an Australian Football Hall
   of Fame was established. That year 136 identities were inducted,
   including 100 players, 10 coaches, 10 umpires, 10 administrators and 6
   media representatives.

   The selections have caused some controversy, partly because of the
   predominance of VFL players at the expense of those who played in other
   leagues, in the years before there was a national competition.

   The elite Legend status was bestowed on 12 members of the Hall of Fame
   in 1996; eight other football identities have subsequently received
   this honour.
   Retrieved from "
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
