The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
competition of
Australian rules football. Through the
AFL Commission
The AFL Commission is the official governing body of the Australian Football League Limited (AFL), its subsidiaries and controlled entities. Richard Goyder has been chairman since 4 April 2017, replacing Mike Fitzpatrick.
It was formed in 198 ...
, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the
laws of the game. Originally known as the Victorian Football League (VFL), it was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the
Victorian Football Association
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFA), with
its inaugural season commencing the following year. The VFL, aiming to become a national competition, began expanding beyond
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
to other Australian states in the 1980s, and changed its name to the AFL in 1990.
The league currently consists of 18 teams spread over five of Australia's six states (
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
being the exception). Matches have been played in all states, plus the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...
and the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
, as well as in New Zealand and China to expand the league's audience. The AFL season currently consists of a 23-round regular (or "home-and-away") season, which runs during the Australian winter (March to September). The team with the best record after the home-and-away season is awarded the "
minor premiership". The top eight teams then play off in a four-round
finals series
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
, culminating in the
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...
, which is normally held at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground each year. The grand final winners are termed the "
premiers
Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier.
A premier will normally be a head of governm ...
" and are awarded the premiership cup and flag. and are the joint-most successful clubs in the competition, having won sixteen premierships apiece. The current premiers are , which won the
2022 AFL Grand Final
The 2022 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between Geelong and the Sydney Swans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 24 September 2022. It was the 127th grand final of the Australian Football League (AFL), staged to ...
.
History
VFL era (1897–1989)
Background and founding
![1896 VFA premiership list](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/1896_VFA_premiership_list.jpg)
Several of the AFL's current member clubs date back to the origins of the sport and were instrumental in establishing its popularity which has ultimately culminated in the AFL. The oldest being
Melbourne Football Club (which wrote the first laws of the code) and
Geelong which date back to 1858 and 1859 respectively while
Melbourne University
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
, also founded in 1859, is also one of the oldest clubs to have later participated in the competition.
The
Victorian Football Association
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFA) was established in 1877 and quickly went on to become
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
's football competition. During the 1890s, an off-field power struggle occurred between the VFA's stronger and weaker clubs, the former seeking greater administrative control commensurate with their relative financial contribution to the game. This came to a head in 1896 when it was proposed that gate profits, which were always lower in matches involving the weaker clubs, be shared equally amongst all teams in the VFA. After it was intimated that the proposal would be put to a vote, six of the strongest clubs—, , , Geelong, Melbourne and —seceded from the VFA, and later invited and to join them in founding a new competition, the Victorian Football League (VFL). The remaining VFA clubs—
Footscray,
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...
,
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...
,
Richmond and
Williamstown—were given the opportunity to compete as junior sides at a level beneath the VFL, but rejected the offer and remained for the
1897 VFA season.
1897–1900s: Inaugural VFL season and early years
![Essendon fc 1897](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Essendon_fc_1897.jpg)
The VFL's inaugural season occurred in 1897. It made several innovations early on to entice the public's interest, including an annual
finals
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
tournament, rather than awarding the premiership to the team with the best record through the season; and, the formal establishment of the modern scoring system, in which six points are awarded for a goal, and one point for a behind.
Although the VFL and the VFA continued to compete for spectator interest for many years, the VFL quickly established itself as the premier competition in Victoria. In 1908, the league expanded to ten teams, with
Richmond crossing from the VFA and
University Football Club
Melbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University, is an Australian rules football club based at the University of Melbourne. The club fields two teams, known as the "Blacks" and "Blues", who both compete in the Victorian Ama ...
from the
Metropolitan Junior Football Association. Professionalism began from the 1911 season, with clubs permitted to pay players beyond the reimbursement of expenses for the first time. University, after three promising seasons, finished last each year from 1911 until 1914, including losing 51 matches in a row, in part caused by its players' focus on their studies rather than football, and in part because it had chosen to remain amateur; as a result, the club withdrew from the VFL at the end of 1914.
Beginning sporadically during the late 1890s and consistently from 1907 until World War I, the VFL premier and the premier of the
South Australian Football League
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the ...
met in a playoff match for the
Championship of Australia. South Australia's was the most successful club of the competition winning three titles during the period along with an earlier victory.
1915–1945: Three VFA clubs join the VFL
![1924 Victorian Football Championship](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/1924_Victorian_Football_Championship.jpg)
In 1925, the VFL expanded from nine teams to twelve, with
Footscray,
Hawthorn and
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...
each crossing from the VFA. North Melbourne and Hawthorn remained very weak in the VFL for a very long period. Although
North Melbourne
North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at ...
would become the first of the 1925 expansion sides to reach a grand final in
1950
Events January
* January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
* January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...
, initially it was
Footscray that adapted to the VFL with the most ease of the three clubs, and by 1928 were well off the bottom of the ladder.
Between the years of 1927 and 1930, Collingwood became the first, and only VFL team, to win four successive Premierships.
1946–1975: Post-war golden years
In 1952, the VFL hosted a "national day", when all six matches were played outside Melbourne. Matches were played at the Sydney Cricket Ground,
Brisbane Exhibition Ground,
North Hobart Oval
North Hobart Oval is a sports venue in North Hobart, Tasmania, used for Australian rules football.
History
North Hobart Oval started its existence as Hobart Town's brickfields in 1844 before becoming a convict women's housing site, an immigr ...
,
Albury Sports Ground and Victorian country towns
Yallourn
Yallourn, Victoria was a company town in Victoria, Australia built between the 1920s and 1950s to house employees of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, who operated the nearby Yallourn Power Station complex. However, expansion of th ...
and
Euroa
Euroa is a town in the Shire of Strathbogie in the north-east of Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Euroa's population was 3,275.
The name Euroa comes from an Aboriginal word in the old local dialect meaning 'joyful'.
History
Major T ...
.
Footscray became the first of the 1925 expansion teams to win the premiership in 1954.
Melbourne became a powerhouse during the 1950s and early 1960s under coach
Norm Smith
Norman Walter Smith (21 November 1915 – 29 July 1973) was an Australian rules football player and coach in the Victorian Football League (VFL). After more than 200 games as a player with and , Smith began a twenty-year coaching career, inc ...
and star player
Ron Barassi. The club contested seven consecutive grand finals from 1954 to 1960, winning five premierships, including three in a row from 1955 to 1957.
Television coverage commenced in 1957 with direct telecasts of the final quarter permitted. At first, several channels competed through broadcasting different games. When the VFL found that television reduced crowds it decided no coverage was to be allowed for 1960. In 1961 television replays in Melbourne were introduced although direct telecasts were rarely permitted. Other states and territories enjoyed live telecasts every Saturday afternoon.
In 1959, the VFL planned the first purpose-built mega-stadium,
VFL Park
Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football Le ...
(later known as Waverley Park), to give it some independence from the
Melbourne Cricket Club
The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia.
The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, ...
, which managed the
Melbourne Cricket Ground. VFL Park was planned to hold 155,000 spectators, which would have made it one of the largest stadiums in the world – although it would ultimately be built with a capacity of 78,000. Land for the stadium was purchased at Mulgrave, then farmland but predicted to be near the demographic centre of Melbourne's population.
The VFL premiership trophy was first awarded in addition to a pennant flag in 1959; essentially the same trophy design has been in use since.
In the 1960s, television began to have a huge impact. Spectators hurried home from games to watch replays and many former players took up positions as commentators on pre-game preview programs and post-game review programs. There were also several attempts at variety programs featuring VFL players, who generally succeeded in demonstrating that their skills were limited to the football ground.
The VFL played the first of a series of
exhibition matches in 1962 in an effort to lift the international profile of the league.
The 1970 season saw the opening of VFL Park, with the inaugural match being played between Geelong and Fitzroy, on 18 April 1970. Construction work was carried out at the stadium as the 1970s progressed, culminating in the building of the now heritage listed Sir Kenneth Luke Stand.
Queen Elizabeth, was a guest at the game and officially opened the stadium to the public. The
1970 Grand Final between traditional rivals Carlton and Collingwood, arguably the league's most famous game, which saw Carlton recover from a 44-point deficit at half-time to win the game by 10 points, featured a famous
spectacular mark
A spectacular mark (also known as a specky, speckie, speccy, screamer or hanger) is a mark (or catch) in Australian rules football that typically involves a player jumping up on the back of another player.
The spectacular mark has become a much ...
by
Alex Jesaulenko, and was witnessed by a record crowd of 121,696.
1976–1981: VFL leaves Australian National Football Council
In 1976, the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
, which was the national administrative body for Australian rules football at the time, established the
NFL Night Series
The NFL Night Series was an Australian rules football tournament which was contested annually from 1976 until 1979. The tournament, played concurrently with the premiership season, was contested at different times by football clubs from the Victo ...
to succeed the
Championship of Australia. Played concurrently with the premiership season, the Night Series was contested among twelve clubs from the VFL, SANFL and WANFL invited based on their finishing positions from the previous year. The event was mostly played on Tuesday nights, with night games at
Norwood Oval in Adelaide, and all games were televised live in colour on
Channel 9, which opened up unprecedented revenue streams from television rights and sponsorship opportunities for the sport.
The NFL began plans to expand its Night Series to incorporate more teams from the VFL, SANFL and WAFL, as well as state representative teams from other states.
In November 1976, the VFL announced that it was withdrawing from the NFL's competition, having arranged more substantial television and sponsorship deals for its own Night Series for 1977 to be based in Melbourne and feature only the VFL clubs. Light towers were erected at VFL Park specifically for the event. The VFL established a
proprietary limited company
A proprietary company, the characteristic of which is abbreviated as "Pty", is a form of privately held company in Australia, Namibia and South Africa that is either limited or unlimited. However, unlike a public company there are, depending ...
called Australian Football Championships Pty Ltd in 1978 to run the Night Series, and offered shareholdings to the other state leagues in an attempt to lure other states into the competition.
For the three years from 1977 until 1979, the NFL and AFC competitions were run separately as rival Night Series. In 1978, the
Tasmanian representative team competed in both the NFL and AFC series, but all SANFL and WAFL clubs and the minor states teams remained in the NFL Night Series. In 1979, the WAFL clubs and the New South Wales and A.C.T. representative teams defected from the NFL Night Series and joined the AFC Night Series, leaving the NFL Night Series mostly composed of SANFL teams. The NFL Night Series was not revived in 1980, and the SANFL clubs joined the AFC Night Series. Although the NFL itself continued to exist as an administrative body into the early 1990s, the power gained by the VFL as a result of its Night Series take over was one of the first significant steps in its spread interstate and ultimately its take-over (as the Australian Football League) of administrative control of all football in Australia.
In 1980 and 1981, the first years after the NFL Night Series had ended, the AFC Night Series competition was at its largest, with all VFL, WAFL and SANFL clubs plus the four minor states teams (selected under residential qualification rather than
state of origin
A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Ov ...
qualification) competing for a total of 34 teams. The size of the competition was reduced from 1982, and thereafter only the top two or three teams from the SANFL and WAFL and the winner of the minor states' annual carnival were invited.
In 1987, the Night Series reverted to only the VFL teams. The competition was pushed earlier into the year, with the final played on 28 April. The following season, the competition did not overlap with the day premiership season at all, and became entirely a
pre-season competition. The Night Series is generally considered to be of equivalent importance as the pre-season competition and the
VFL Night Series (1956–1971), and records relating to the three competitions are often combined.
With the number of players recruited from country leagues increasing, the wealthier VFL clubs were gaining an advantage that metropolitan
zoning
Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...
and the Coulter law (salary cap) restricting player payments had prevented in the past. Country zoning was introduced in the late 1960s, and while it pushed Essendon and Geelong from the top of the ladder, it created severe inequality during the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1972 and 1987, only six of the league's twelve clubs – Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Richmond – played in grand finals.
1982–1989: Professionalism, bankruptcy and expansion
The 1980s was a period of significant structural change in Australian football around the country. The VFL was the most popular and dominant of the state leagues around the country in terms of overall attendance, interest, and money, and began to look towards expanding its influence directly into other states. The VFL and its top clubs were asserting their financial power to recruit top players from interstate. As a result of this, rising cost pressures were driving some of Victoria's weaker clubs into dire financial situations. One of those clubs, the South Melbourne Swans, became the first VFL club to relocate interstate. The Swans moved their home games to Sydney in 1982, officially renaming themselves the
Sydney Swans the following year. Under the private ownership of wealthy
Dr Geoffrey Edelsten
Geoffrey Walter Edelsten (2 May 1943 – 11 June 2021) was an Australian businessman and former physician known for founding the health care company Allied Medical Group.
Edelsten was a general practitioner whose unconventional clinics an ...
during the mid-1980s, Sydney became a successful team on-field.
Throughout the 1980s approaches were made by SANFL and WAFL clubs to enter the VFL. Of particular note were approaches by the
East Perth Royals in 1980, the
Norwood Redlegs
Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in the state of South Australia. Its home ground is Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which is ...
in 1986 and 1988, and an
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
–
South Fremantle merger proposal in 1987. None of these attempts were successful despite Norwood trying again in 1990 and 1994.
In 1986, the
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September ...
and
Queensland Australian Football League
The Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL) is an Australian rules football competition organised by the AFL Queensland, contested by clubs from South East Queensland.
Previously known as the Queensland Football League (QFL), Queensland ...
were awarded licences to field expansion teams in the VFL, leading to the establishment of the
West Coast Eagles
The West Coast Eagles are a professional Australian rules football club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club was founded in 1986 as one of two expansion teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), then known as the Victorian Football L ...
and
Brisbane Bears
The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...
, who both joined the league in 1987. These
expansion team licences were awarded on payment of multimillion-dollar fees which were not required of the existing VFL clubs. In 1989 financial troubles nearly forced
Footscray and
Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
to merge, but fees paid by the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears, propped up the struggling VFL sides.
The 1980s first saw new regular timeslots for VFL matches. VFL matches had previously been played on Saturday afternoons but Sydney began playing its home matches on Sunday afternoons and North Melbourne pioneered playing matches on Friday night. These have since become regular timeslots for all teams.
The first
National Draft was introduced in 1986 and a
salary cap
In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Sever ...
was introduced in 1987.
AFL era (1990–present)
The league was officially renamed the Australian Football League in 1990 to reflect its national composition.
1990–2010: A professional national competition
![MCG stadium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/MCG_stadium.jpg)
In 1990 the
AFLPA, the players union, signed its first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the league which outlined wages and conditions in what was becoming a sole source of income for players who had previously had part-time or full-time jobs outside of football. Functionally, the AFL gave up control over its Victorian-based
minor grades at the end of 1991 – clubs continued to field reserves teams in a competition run by the new
Victorian State Football League
The Victorian State Football League is a former Australian rules football governing body.
The VSFL was established at the end of 1991 to take over administration of football in Victoria from the Australian Football League, which was now becomi ...
, and the under-19s competition and zone-based recruiting were abolished and replaced with an
independent system.
Midway through 1990, the SANFL's most successful club,
Port Adelaide, made a bid for an AFL licence. In response, the SANFL gained an injunction via
Glenelg and
Norwood against Port Adelaide, allowing it time to establish a composite South Australian team called the
Adelaide Crows
The Adelaide Crows (officially the Adelaide Football Club) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1990. The Crows has fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since ...
, which was awarded the licence and joined the league in 1991 as the fourth non-Victorian club. The same year saw the West Coast Eagles become the first non-Victorian club to reach the grand final, which was won by Hawthorn. The Eagles would then win the premiership in 1992 and 1994. In 1994, the
Fremantle Football Club
The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of Fr ...
was formed in Western Australia, and joined the AFL in 1995, becoming the fifth non-Victorian club.
The
VFA took over the
Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
name in 1996.
In 1996 several Victorian clubs were in severe financial difficulties, most notably Fitzroy and Hawthorn. Hawthorn proposed to merge with Melbourne to form the
Melbourne Hawks but the merger ultimately fell through and both teams continued as separate entities. Fitzroy, however, was too weak to continue by itself. The club nearly merged with North Melbourne to form the
Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos but the other clubs voted against it. In 1994 Port Adelaide was awarded an AFL licence but could not enter until a Victorian team had folded or merged. At the end of 1996 Fitzroy played its last match and merged with Brisbane to form the Brisbane Lions. This allowed Port Adelaide to enter the AFL for the 1997 season as the sixth and only pre-existing non Victorian club.
Through the 1990s there was a significant trend of Melbourne-based teams abandoning the use of their small (20,000–30,000 capacity) suburban venues for home matches in favour of the larger MCG and Waverley Park. The 1990s saw the last matches played at
Windy Hill (Essendon),
Moorabbin Oval
Moorabbin Oval (also known as RSEA Park under a naming rights agreement) is an Australian rules football ground in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia at Linton Street in the suburb of Moorabbin.
The ground was most notable as the home ...
(St Kilda),
Western Oval
Whitten Oval (also known as Victoria University Whitten Oval under a naming rights agreement) is a stadium in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located in Barkly Street, West Footscray. It is the training and administ ...
(Footscray) and
Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to:
Places Australia
* Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales
* Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse
* Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...
(Collingwood) and saw
Princes Park abandoned by its long-term co-tenant, Hawthorn. The transition to the use of only two venues in Melbourne was ultimately completed in 2005 when Carlton abandoned the use of Princes Park. In 1999, the league sold
Waverley Park
Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football ...
stadium and used the funds in a joint venture to begin construction of a brand-new stadium situated at Melbourne's
Docklands. Representative state football came to an end, with the last
State of Origin
A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Ov ...
match held in 1999.
2011–present: 18-team era
In the late 2000s, the AFL looked to establish a permanent presence on the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
in the state of Queensland, which was fast-developing as a major population centre. North Melbourne, which was in financial difficulty and had played a few home games on the Gold Coast in previous years, was offered significant subsidies to relocate to the Gold Coast but declined. The AFL then began work to establish a club on the Gold Coast as a new expansion team.
Early in 2008, a meeting held by the AFL discussed having two new teams enter the AFL competition. In March 2008, the AFL won the support of the league's 16 club presidents to establish sides on the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
and in
Western Sydney
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
* Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that i ...
. The
Gold Coast Suns were established and joined the AFL in 2011 as the 17th team. The
Greater Western Sydney Giants, representing both Western Sydney and Canberra, were then established and entered the league as the 18th team in 2012.
On 25 April 2013 the
Westpac Stadium
Wellington Regional Stadium (known commercially as Sky Stadium through naming rights) is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. The stadium's bowl site size is .
The stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction and is situ ...
in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
, New Zealand hosted the first ever Australian Football League game played for premiership points outside Australia. The night game between and was played in front of a crowd of 22,183 on
Anzac Day to honour the
Anzac
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood comm ...
bond between the two countries.
A
national women's league National Women's League may refer to:
* National Women's League (Canada), a women's rugby union league in Canada
* National Women's League (Ghana), a women's football league in Ghana
* National Women's League (New Zealand), a women's football le ...
comprising a subset of AFL clubs began in 2017. Thirteen AFL clubs placed bids to participate in the women's competition. Eight clubs – , , , , , , and the – were granted licences to participate in the inaugural season. Six clubs joined the league in the coming years; and entered the competition in 2019, while , , and made their debut in 2020. The remaining four clubs—, , , and — entered AFL Women's in the
seventh season in 2022.
On 14 May 2017, and the played the first-ever AFL match for premiership points in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
, China, attracting a crowd of 10,114 at
Jiangwan Stadium
The Jiangwan Stadium (), formerly Shanghai Stadium, is a multi-purpose athletics stadium in Shanghai.
History
Jiangwan Stadium was built in 1934 as part of the Greater Shanghai Plan. It hosted its first National Games of China in 1935.
Durin ...
. Port Adelaide won the game by 72 points.
In 2020, the AFL season was
severely disrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. The first round of matches was played
in front of no crowds due to the pandemic, before the season was suspended on 22 March due to health concerns and strict government regulations on non-essential travel. After nearly two months of planning with the assistance of state governments and health officials, the season resumed on 11 June, with the length of the season reduced from 22 matches per team to 17 matches. The grand final was played in October at
The Gabba
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as the Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. The nickname Gabba derives from the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located. Over the years, the Ga ...
in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
, the first time it was held outside of Victoria since the creation of the league due to the spiking cases in that state. The pandemic caused the league to lose out on up to $400 million in anticipated revenue, and also precipitated a 20% cut in industry jobs.
In 2021 the grand final was played in September at
Perth Stadium
Perth Stadium, currently known as Optus Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Burswood. It was completed in late 2017 and officially opened on 21 January 2018. The s ...
in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
, because an ongoing COVID-19 lockdown prevented the match from being played with spectators at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. It was the first grand final played in Perth and the second consecutive grand final to be played outside Victoria. The event set a new attendance record for Australian rules football in Western Australia, eclipsing the previous record set in 2018, despite not featuring any WA based teams and being played during the COVID pandemic.
Clubs
The AFL operates on a single table system, with no divisions and conferences, nor promotion and relegation from other leagues.
The league was founded as the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897, comprising eight teams only based in the state of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
. Over the next century, a series of expansions, a relocation, a merger and a club withdrawal saw the league's teams expand to the 18 teams there are today.
In 1990, the national nature of the competition resulted in the name change to the Australian Football League (AFL).
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...
,
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
and
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
are the only states or territories not to have AFL clubs, although at least two games per year are played in each of these parts of the country. The current 18 teams are based across five states of Australia; the majority (ten) still remain in Victoria, nine of which are located in the
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
metropolitan area. The states of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
and
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
have two teams each.
Current clubs
Former clubs
Since the league commenced in 1897 as the VFL, only one club, , has withdrawn from the competition. It last competed in 1914 and withdrew because, as an amateur club, it was unable to remain competitive in a time when player payments were becoming common;
the club still competes to this day in the
Victorian Amateur Football Association
The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division ...
(VAFA). Two other clubs, and the , merged in 1996 to form the . However, after coming out of financial administration in 1998, Fitzroy resumed its playing operations in 2009 and also competes in the VAFA.
Timeline of clubs
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1858 till:2040
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors = id:barcolor
id:line value:pink
id:bg value:white
id:AFL value:rgb(0.4,0.80,0.1) # Use this color to denote a team that is a current league member
id:VFA value:rgb(0.6,0.8,1) # Use this color to denote a team that is a former league member
id:VFL value:rgb(0.35,0.55,1)
id:SANFL value:rgb(0.996,0.4,0.4) # Use this color to denote when team that has moved in from a different league was active in the prior league(s)
id:Interclub value:RGB(0.7,0.7,0.7)
id:Marker value:rgb(0,0,0)
PlotData =
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Marker from:1896 till:1897 text: VFL formed (1897)
bar:1 color:Marker from:1989 till:1990 text: VFL renamed AFL (1990)
bar:2 color:Interclub from:1858 till:1876 text:Melbourne (1858)
bar:2 color:VFA from:1877 till:1896 text:
bar:2 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:2 color:AFL from:1990 till:2022 text:
bar:3 color:Interclub from:1859 till:1876 text:Geelong (1859)
bar:3 color:VFA from:1877 till:1896 text:
bar:3 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:3 color:AFL from:1990 till:2022 text:
bar:4 color:Interclub from:1864 till:1876 text:Carlton (1864)
bar:4 color:VFA from:1877 till:1896 text:
bar:4 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:4 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:5 color:Interclub from:1871 till:1877 text:Essendon (1871)
bar:5 color:VFA from:1878 till:1896 text:
bar:5 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:5 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:6 color:Interclub from:1873 till:1876 text:St Kilda (1873)
bar:6 color:VFA from:1877 till:1879 text:
bar:6 color:Interclub from:1880 till:1880 text:
bar:6 color:VFA from:1881 till:1882 text:
bar:6 color:Interclub from:1883 till:1885 text:
bar:6 color:VFA from:1886 till:1896 text:
bar:6 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:6 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:7 color:Interclub from:1874 till:1878 text:South Melbourne (1874)
bar:7 color:VFA from:1879 till:1896 text:
bar:7 color:VFL from:1897 till:1981 text:
bar:7 color:VFL from:1981 till:1981 text: Relocated to Sydney, Sydney Swans (1982)
bar:7 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:7 color:VFL from:1982 till:1990 text:
bar:7 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:8 color:VFA from:1883 till:1896 text: Fitzroy (1883)
bar:8 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:8 color:AFL from:1990 till:1996 text:
bar:8 color:AFL from:1996 till:1996 text: Merged with Brisbane Bears
bar:9 color:VFA from:1892 till:1896 text: Collingwood (1892)
bar:9 color:VFL from:1897 till:1990 text:
bar:9 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:10 color:Interclub from:1859 till:1884 text: University (1859)
bar:10 color:VFA from:1885 till:1888 text:
bar:10 color:Interclub from:1889 till:1907 text:
bar:10 color:VFL from:1908 till:1915 text:
bar:11 color:VFA from:1885 till:1907 text: Richmond (1885)
bar:11 color:VFL from:1908 till:1990 text:
bar:11 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:12 color:Interclub from:1869 till:1876 text:North Melbourne (1869)
bar:12 color:VFA from:1877 till:1924 text:
bar:12 color:VFL from:1925 till:1990 text:
bar:12 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:13 color:Interclub from:1877 till:1885 text: Footscray (1877)
bar:13 color:VFA from:1886 till:1924 text:
bar:13 color:VFL from:1925 till:1990 text:
bar:13 color:AFL from:1990 till:1996 text:
bar:13 color:AFL from:1996 till: 2022 text: Renamed Western Bulldogs (1996)
bar:14 color:Interclub from:1902 till:1913 text: Hawthorn (1902)
bar:14 color:VFA from:1914 till:1924 text:
bar:14 color:VFL from:1925 till:1990 text:
bar:14 color:AFl from:1990 till:2022 text:
bar:16 color:VFL from:1987 till:1990 text: Brisbane Bears (1987) Merged with Fitzroy
bar:16 color:AFL from:1990 till:1996 text:
bar:17 color:VFL from:1987 till:1990 text:West Coast (1987)
bar:17 color:AFL from:1990 till: 2022 text:
bar:18 color:AFL from:1991 till: 2022 text:Adelaide (1991)
bar:19 color:AFL from:1995 till: 2022 text:Fremantle (1995)
bar:20 color:AFL from:1997 till: 2022 text: Brisbane Lions (1997)
bar:21 color:Interclub from:1870 till:1876 text: Port Adelaide (1870)
bar:21 color:SANFL from:1877 till:1996 text:
bar:21 color:AFL from:1997 till: 2022 text:
bar:22 color:AFL from:2011 till: 2022 text:Gold Coast (2011)
bar:23 color:AFL from:2012 till: 2022 text:Greater Western Sydney (2012)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1860
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)
text:
† Not all teams shown. These competitions are current.
Venues
Throughout the history of the VFL/AFL, there have been a total of 45 different grounds used, with 17 used during the
2019 AFL season.
[All venues](_blank)
– AFL Tables. Retrieved 1 November 2012. The largest capacity ground in use is the
Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which has a capacity of over 100,000 people, and hosts the Grand Final each year (see
AFL Grand Final location debate
The AFL Grand Final, which is the final premiership deciding match each season in the Australian Football League (AFL), has been played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria every year since 1902, except on seven occasions when ...
). The MCG is shared by four teams as a home ground, while the other grounds used as home venues by multiple teams are
Docklands Stadium
Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...
in Melbourne (five teams),
Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The venue is predominantly used for cricket and Australian rules football, but has also played host to rugby le ...
in
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
(two teams), and
Perth Stadium
Perth Stadium, currently known as Optus Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Burswood. It was completed in late 2017 and officially opened on 21 January 2018. The s ...
in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
(two teams). The AFL has had exclusive ownership of Docklands Stadium (commercially known as
Marvel
Marvel may refer to:
Business
* Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company
** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment
** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe
** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics
* ...
Stadium) since late 2016.
Prior to the expansion of the competition, most grounds were located in suburban Melbourne, with
Princes Park,
Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to:
Places Australia
* Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales
* Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse
* Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...
, the
Junction Oval
Junction Oval (also known as the St Kilda Cricket Ground, or the CitiPower Centre due to sponsorship reasons) is a historic sports ground in the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The oval's location near the St Kilda Jun ...
,
Waverley Park
Waverley Park (also and originally called VFL Park) was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football ...
, and the
Lake Oval
Lakeside Stadium is an Australian sports arena in the South Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. Comprising an athletics track and soccer stadium, it currently serves as the home ground and administrative base for association football club Sout ...
each having hosted over 700 games.
However, since the introduction of a national competition, each
state and territory of Australia has hosted AFL games. On 25 April 2013 (
Anzac Day), a match took place between St Kilda and Sydney at
Wellington Regional Stadium
Wellington Regional Stadium (known commercially as Sky Stadium through naming rights) is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. The stadium's bowl site size is .
The stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction and is situ ...
in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
, New Zealand, being the first AFL match played outside Australia for official premiership points.
Current venues
Below are the venues that will host AFL matches during the 2022 season.
Former venues
Below are the other venues to have hosted matches during the AFL era (1990–present), with official capacities at the time.
Players
![Dustin Martin 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Dustin_Martin_2017.6.jpg)
AFL players are drawn from a number of sources; however, most players enter the league through the
AFL draft
The Australian Football League draft is the annual draft of unsigned players, especially new nominations, by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League (AFL).
History
W ...
, held at the end of each season. A small number of players have converted from other sports, or been recruited internationally. Prior to the nationalisation of the competition, a
zoning system was in place. At the end of the season, the best 22 players and coach from across the competition are selected in the
All-Australian team
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...
.
The AFL has tight controls over the player lists of each club. Currently, apart from the recently added expansion clubs who have some additional players, each team can have a senior list of 38 to 40 players plus 4 to 6
rookie players, to a total of 44 players (following a reduction by two of the number of rookies in 2012) and up to three development rookies (international, alternative talent or New South Wales scholarship players). Changes to playing lists are permitted only in the off-season: clubs can trade players during a "
trade period" which follows each season and recruit new players through the three
AFL draft
The Australian Football League draft is the annual draft of unsigned players, especially new nominations, by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League (AFL).
History
W ...
s, the national draft, the
pre-season draft and the rookie draft, which take place after the trade period. A mid-year draft was conducted between 1990 and 1993. The national draft is the primary method of recruiting new players and has been used since 1986. The draft order is based on reverse-finishing position from the previous year, but selections can be traded.
Free agency
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is ...
player movements have only been permitted since the 2012/13 offseason, having been rejected by the AFL commission previously.
Salary cap
A
salary cap
In professional sports, a salary cap (or wage cap) is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Sever ...
(known as the Total Player Payments or TPP) is also in place as part of the league's equalisation policy; this was $9,130,000 for the 2013 season with a salary floor of $8,673,500 except for the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
, whose salary cap was $9,630,000 with a salary floor of $9,171,500, and
Greater Western Sydney, whose salary cap was $9,987,000 with a floor of $9,530,500. As part of the AFL's enhanced equalisation policies, in 2014 the league announced an increase of the TPP for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. TPP increased an additional $150,000 per club in 2015 above previously contracted amounts, increasing from $9.92m to $10.07m in 2015 and $10.22m to $10.37m in 2016.
The salary cap was set at $1.25 million for 1987–1989 as per VFL agreement, with the salary floor set at 90% of the cap or $1.125 million; the salary floor was increased to 92.5% of the cap in 2001, and 95% of the cap for 2013 due to increased revenues. Both the salary cap and salary floor has increased substantially since the competition was rebranded as the AFL in 1990.
Salaries of draft selections are fixed for two years. Salaries for senior players are not normally released to the public, though the average AFL player salary at the conclusion of the 2012 season was $251,559
and the top few players can expect to earn up to and above $1,000,000 a year. Upon successfully trading to the
Sydney Swans in 2013, marquee player
Lance Franklin
Lance Franklin (born 30 January 1987), also known as Buddy Franklin, is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Hawthorn Football Club from ...
signed a 9-year contract with the club, reportedly worth over $10 million and resulting in subsequent payments of $1.8 million annually in consecutive seasons. The Total Player Earnings (TPE) – or total amount of revenue spent on reimbursement of AFL listed players – at the conclusion of the 2012 season was $173.7 million, up by 13 per cent from $153.7 million in 2011.
In June 2017, the AFL and
AFL Players Association
The AFL Players Association (AFL PA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players.
The AFL PA promotes and protects its membe ...
agreed to a new
CBA deal which resulted in a 20% increase in players' salaries. The six-year deal, which began in 2017 and ends in 2022 means that the average player wage rises from $309,000 to $371,000 and the player salary cap from $10.37m to $12.45m. In 2022, the final year of the agreement, the average player wage will be $389,000 with a salary cap of $13.54m.
The breaches of the salary cap and salary floor regulations outlined by the AFL are: exceeding the TPP; falling below the salary floor; not informing the AFL of payments; late or incorrect lodgement or loss of documents; or engaging in draft tampering. Penalties include fines of up to triple the amount involved ($10,000 for each document late or incorrect lodged or lost), forfeiture of draft picks and/or deduction of premiership points. The most significant breach of the salary cap was that of the
Carlton Football Club in the early 2000s.
Demographics
![Lance Franklin 2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Lance_Franklin_2017.1.jpg)
There were 801 players on AFL club senior, veteran, rookie and international lists in 2011, including players from every
state and mainland territory of Australia.
As of 2014, there were 68 players of
Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
descent on AFL club lists, comprising approximately 9% of the overall playing population.
There were 12 players recruited from outside Australia on AFL lists in 2011, including 10 from
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, all
converts from
Gaelic football drafted as part of the
Irish Experiment
The Irish Experiment is the popular name for the interest, primarily from VFL/AFL clubs, in bringing Irish sportspeople, particularly Gaelic footballers, to Australia to play Australian rules football professionally. The AFL's focus on Gae ...
, and one each from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
There were also another five overseas-born players who emigrated to Australia at an early age on AFL lists.
An international rookie list and international scholarship list were introduced in 2006. The international rookie list includes up to two players between the ages of 15 and 23 who are not Australian citizens. These players may remain on this list for up to three years before they must be transferred to the senior or rookie list. For the first year, payments made to international-rookie-listed players fell outside the salary cap. The international scholarship list gives AFL clubs the option of recruiting up to eight players from outside Australia (other than Ireland). Irish players are required to either be placed on clubs' senior or
rookie list
The rookie list is a means for Australian Football League (AFL) clubs to maintain additional players outside the 38-man primary or senior list. Rookie listed players are not eligible to play in AFL home-and-away or finals matches unless they are e ...
s. At the beginning of 2011, there were 14 international scholarship players.
Of the 121 multicultural players, more than half have one parent from
Anglophone
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
countries, mainly the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, Ireland and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Season structure
Pre-season
From 1988 until 2013, the AFL ran a pre-season competition that finished prior to the commencement of the premiership season, which served as both warm-up matches for the season and as a stand-alone competition.
It was mostly contested as a four-week
knock out tournament
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
, but the format changed after the expansion of the league beyond sixteen clubs in 2011, and has frequently been used to trial rule changes.
In 2014, the competition format was abandoned, and practice matches are now played under the sponsored name Marsh Community Series. This consists of all 18 clubs playing two matches each, which are played on some weekdays and weekends, throughout February and early March.
Premiership season
The AFL home-and-away season at present lasts for 23 rounds, starting in mid-March and ending in late August. As of the
2022 AFL season
The 2022 AFL season is the 126th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featur ...
, each team plays 22 matches, with one bye. Teams receive four premiership points for a win and two premiership points for a draw. Ladder finishing positions are based on the number of premiership points won. "Percentage," calculated as the ratio of points scored to points conceded throughout the season, is used as a tie-breaker when teams finish with equal premiership points. Further tie-breakers, if required, are the premiership points accumulated in head-to-head matches between the tied teams, and then the percentage earned in such matches, with a final tie-breaker being a random drawing of lots. At the end of the home-and-away season, the
McClelland Trophy
The McClelland Trophy is an Australian rules football trophy which has been awarded each year since 1951 by the Australian Football League (known prior to 1990 as the Victorian Football League) to the best-performing club in the home-and-away sea ...
is awarded to the
minor premiers.
Themed rounds and special matches
![Anzac Day 2011 game 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Anzac_Day_2011_game_3.jpg)
Several teams also play against each other at set times each year, with the most prominent of these being when Collingwood play Essendon in the annual
Anzac Day clash
The Anzac Day match is an annual Australian rules football match between Collingwood and Essendon, two clubs in the Australian Football League, held on Anzac Day (25 April) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
History of Australian rules f ...
at the MCG. Other prominent matches include the
Queen's Birthday match
The King's Birthday match is an annual Australian rules football match between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on the King's Birthday ...
between Collingwood and Melbourne, and the
Easter Monday clash between Geelong and Hawthorn.
There are
separate trophies for matches between several clubs.
Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round
Perhaps the most well-known of the themed rounds is the Indigenous Round.
In 2007, following the success of the
Dreamtime at the 'G
The Dreamtime at the 'G is an annual Australian rules football match between Australian Football League clubs and .
Since the 2007 AFL Season, 2007 season the match has been held annually on the Saturday night of the AFL's "Indigenous Round", ...
matches in 2005 and 2006, the AFL nominated a specific Indigenous Round (round 9) which has become an annual event in which the Dreamtime at the 'G match takes centre stage on a Saturday night. The success of the annual match, which now usually features crowds in excess of 80,000, led to the two clubs agreeing to cement the match's official status for an additional decade in May 2016.
In 2016 the Round was named after
Sir Doug Nicholls, the only VFL player to have been
knighted and who served as a state
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
(of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
). Its official name is now the Sir Doug Nicholls Round, although it is still commonly referred to as the Indigenous Round.
Each year, each player in all 18 clubs wears a specially-commissioned artwork by an Indigenous artist on their guernsey. In 2020, there was controversy over the
Aboriginal flag copyright issue, after the AFL had decided not to enter into a commercial agreement with the clothing company who own the
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
over its use on clothing, as the general sentiment of the Aboriginal community that it should be free for use in Australia.
Finals series
The top eight teams at the end of the AFL Premiership season compete in a four-week
finals series
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
throughout September, culminating in a
grand final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...
to determine the premiers. The finals series is played under the
AFL final eight system
The AFL final eight system is an eight-team championship playoff tournament developed and adopted by the Australian Football League in the 2000 season. The eight teams, which are ranked or seeded in advance of the tournament, participate in a fo ...
, and the grand final is traditionally played at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground on the afternoon of the last Saturday in September.
The winning team receives a silver premiership cup, a navy blue premiership flag – a new one of each is manufactured each year – and is recorded on the perpetual E. L. Wilson Shield. The flag has been presented since the league began and is traditionally unfurled at the team's first home game of the following season. The Wilson Shield, named after
Edwin Lionel Wilson, was first awarded after the 1929 premiership. The premiership cup was first introduced in 1959 and is manufactured annually by Cash's International at their metalworks in
Frankston, Victoria
Frankston is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Frankston local government area. Frankston recorded a population of 37,331 at the 2021 census.
Due ...
. Additionally, each player in the grand final-winning team receives a premiership medallion.
Awards
The following major individual awards and accolades are presented each season:
*
Brownlow Medal
The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the "best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by t ...
– to the
fairest and best
In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...
player in the league, voted by the umpires
*
Coleman Medal
The Coleman Medal is an Australian rules football award given annually to the Australian Football League (AFL) player who kicks the most goals
A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve.
Goal may also refer ...
– to the player who kicks the most
goals
A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve.
Goal may also refer to:
Sport
* Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs
** Goals, the goal frame in ...
during the home-and-away season
*
All-Australian team
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led b ...
– a squad of 22 players deemed the best in their positions, voted by an AFL-appointed committee
*
Rising Star Award – to the fairest and best young player (under the age of 21 and with fewer than ten games' experience at the beginning of the year), voted by the All-Australian committee
*
Norm Smith Medal
The Norm Smith Medal is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best on ground in the Grand Final of the Australian Football League (AFL). Prior to 1990 the competition was known as the Victorian Football ...
– the best player on the ground in the grand final, voted by a committee
*
Jock McHale Medal – the coach of the premiership-winning team
*
Mark of the Year
The annual Australian Football League Mark of the Year competition (currently also known as the Four'N Twenty AFL Mark of the Year) is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best mark. A mark is the action of a player cleanly catchin ...
– to the player who takes the best or most spectacular
mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* F ...
during the season
*
Goal of the Year – to the player who kicks the best or most spectacular goal during the season
*
Leigh Matthews Trophy
The Leigh Matthews Trophy is an annual award given by the AFL Players Association to the Most Valuable Player in the Australian Football League. It is named in honour of Leigh Matthews, who won the first MVP award in 1982, when the league was st ...
– to the best player in the league, voted by the players through the
AFL Players' Association
Other independent
best and fairest awards are presented by different football and media organisations.
Team of the Century
To celebrate the 100th season of the VFL/AFL, the "AFL Team of the Century" was named in 1996.
Jack Elder was declared the ''Umpire of the Century'' to coincide with the Team of the Century. Since the naming of this side, most AFL clubs have nominated their own teams of the century. An
Indigenous Team of the Century
The Indigenous Team of the Century (Australian rules football) was selected to recognise the role of Indigenous Australians in the sport. It was announced in 2005 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first senior-level game played by an indig ...
was also selected in 2005, featuring the best Aboriginal players of the previous 100 years from both the VFL/AFL and other state leagues.
Representative football
State football
State representation football in the AFL initially ended in 1999. The concept has been revived twice since then in 2008 and 2020 when a Victorian state team took on all stars teams (in 2008 against ''The Dream Team'' and in 2020 against the ''All Stars'').
History of the VFL/AFL's involvement
![Ted Whitten statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Ted_Whitten_statue.jpg)
VFL players first represented the Victoria representative team in 1897 regardless of their state of origin.
Being the dominant league drawing many of the country's best players, the
Victoria Australian rules football team
The Victoria Australian rules football team, known colloquially as the Big V, is the state representative side of Victoria, Australia, in the sport of Australian rules football.
The Big V has a proud history, dominating the first 100 years of ...
(nicknamed the "Big V" and composed mostly of VFL players) dominated interstate matches until the introduction of State of Origin selection criteria by the
Australian Football Council in 1977, after which Victoria's results with the other main Australian football states became more even.
The AFL Commission assumed control of interstate football in 1993 and coordinated an annual State of Origin series typically held during a mid-season bye round.
However, after the 1999 series, the AFL declared the concept of interstate football "on hold", citing club unwillingness to release star players and a lack of public interest: the 1999 series, where Victoria defeated South Australia by 54 points, was played in wet conditions in front of a crowd of 26,063, whereas 10 years earlier, the same match with a plethora of star players attracted a crowd of 91,960.
The AFL shifted its focus of representative football to the International Rules Series, where at the time in the late 1990's, drew a greater television revenue. A once-off representative match, known as the
AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match
The AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match was a one-off all-star game between two representative sides organised by the Australian Football League to celebrate the History of Australian rules football, 150th anniversary of Australian rules football. Th ...
, was played in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport between a team of players of Victorian origin and a team of players of interstate origin (the "
Dream Team
Dream Team may refer to:
Sport
Basketball
* Dream Team, the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team in Barcelona
* Dream Team II, the 1994 U.S. men's national basketball team at the FIBA World Championship
* Dream Team III, the 1996 ...
"), which was won by Victoria.
In 2020 The AFL hosted a State of Origin match with the money raised from the event going towards affected bushfire communities. On 28 February the game took place at Marvel Stadium with Victoria defeating an All Stars team and Dustin Martin taking out best on ground.
Some past AFL players participate and help promote the
E. J. Whitten Legends Game.
Global expansion
Although no
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
leagues or teams exist outside Australia, the AFL has stated that it wishes to showcase Australian rules football to other countries such as India, China and South Africa so as to create a global following thus creating more exposure for its sponsors in the increasing Asian and African markets. On 17 October 2010, AFL clubs
Melbourne Demons
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria, and plays its home ...
and
Brisbane Lions
The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...
played an exhibition game in front of 7,000 people at the
Jiangwan Sports Center
The Jiangwan Stadium (), formerly Shanghai Stadium, is a multi-purpose athletics stadium in Shanghai.
History
Jiangwan Stadium was built in 1934 as part of the Greater Shanghai Plan. It hosted its first National Games of China in 1935.
During ...
in Shanghai. This was the first professional AFL game to be played in China. Since then AFL premiership matches have been played in New Zealand and China, and the competition developed some interest in North America amidst the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
International Rules Series
The AFL has garnered increased interest in Ireland due to the introduction of the
International Rules Series
The International Rules Series is a senior men's international rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team (selected by the Australian Football League) and the Ireland international rules football team (se ...
played between an AFL picked
All Australian Team
The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...
and
Ireland international rules football team
:''This article concerns the men's team; for information on the Irish women's team, see Ireland women's international rules football team.''
:''This article concerns the hybrid sport of International Rules Football; for information on Ireland's n ...
beginning from 1984. The series is organised under the auspices of the AFL and the
Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include t ...
. The game itself is a
hybrid sport, consisting of rules from both Australian football and Gaelic football. The series provides the only outlet for AFL players to represent their nation. This series encouraged young Irish footballers switching code to join AFL teams because of much higher salaries in the AFL than that of
Gaelic Football. However, most Irish players fail to make the grade into 1st team football. This also paved the way for extended news coverage and increased broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Administration
![Gillon McLachlan 03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Gillon_McLachlan_03.02.201.jpg)
The
AFL Commission
The AFL Commission is the official governing body of the Australian Football League Limited (AFL), its subsidiaries and controlled entities. Richard Goyder has been chairman since 4 April 2017, replacing Mike Fitzpatrick.
It was formed in 198 ...
is responsible for the administration of the AFL. It was established in December 1985, and then granted almost unilateral administrative control over the league in 1993, after the club parochialism and self-interest which came with the traditional club delegate based administrative structure threatened to undermine the competition.
The commission's chairman is
Richard Goyder, who officially took over from
Mike Fitzpatrick
Michael Gerard Fitzpatrick (June 28, 1963 – January 6, 2020) was an American attorney and politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing from 2005 to 2007 and 2011 to 2017. He was fir ...
on 4 April 2017. The CEO of the AFL is
Gillon McLachlan
Gillon McLachlan (born 1973) is the chief executive officer of the Australian Football League (AFL). He was appointed to the role in 2014, succeeding Andrew Demetriou, having previously served as his deputy. In 2022 he announced his resignatio ...
, who replaced
Andrew Demetriou
Andrew Demetriou (born 14 April 1961) is an Australian businessman, sports administrator, and former Australian rules football player who was chief executive officer (CEO) of the Australian Football League (AFL) up to June 2014. Demetriou play ...
in 2014.
In addition to administering the national competition, the AFL is heavily involved in promoting and developing the sport in Australia. It provides funds for local leagues and in conjunction with local clubs, administers the
Auskick
Auskick is a program designed to teach the basic skills of Australian rules football (AFL) to boys and girls aged between 5 and 12. Auskick is a non-contact variant of the sport. It began in Australia and is now a nationwide non-selective pro ...
program for young boys and girls.
The AFL also plays a leading role in developing the game outside Australia, with projects to develop the game at junior level in other countries (e.g. South Africa) and by supporting affiliated competitions around the world (See
Australian football around the world).
The players of the AFL are represented by the
AFL Players Association
The AFL Players Association (AFL PA, also simply known as AFL Players) is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League (AFL) and AFL Women's (AFLW) players.
The AFL PA promotes and protects its membe ...
, the coaches are represented by the
AFL Coaches Association
The AFL Coaches Association (AFLCA) is the representative body for Australian Football League coaches.
History
The AFLCA was founded in 2002, and as of 2015 had 178 members. Every year annually since 2003, the AFLCA has released a set of award ...
, the umpires are represented by the
AFL Umpires Association
The AFL Umpires Association (AFLUA) is the representative body for Australian Football League umpires.
History
The AFLUA was founded in 1909. The Association's current (as of 2021) CEO is Rob Kerr. Past CEOs include Bill Deller and R. A. Ander ...
, and the related media employees are represented by the Australian Football Media Association.
Audience
The AFL was the
best-attended sporting league in Australia in 2012. According to market research, the AFL is the second-most-watched sporting event in Australia, behind
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
. Currently, broadcast rights for the AFL are shared between the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...
(
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...
),
Foxtel (pay TV), and
Kayo Sports
Kayo Sports is an over-the-top video streaming subscription service available in Australia, owned by Streamotion ( a wholly owned subsidiary of Foxtel). The service offers sports live and on demand from Fox Sports, ESPN, beIN Sports, and Racin ...
(internet). In 2019, a record 1,057,572 people were members of an AFL club. Total TV audiences during the 2022 AFL season 125.4 million viewers with an average of 537,000 people watching each match. 54% of viewers watched using the paid services of Foxtel or Kayo, while 46% watched the Seven Network's free-to-air broadcasts.
Attendance
The following are the most recent season attendances:
1 Finals total and Finals average include grand final crowds.
2 Record.
3 Capacity reduced due to MCG refurbishment.
4 Crowd for the drawn grand final.
5 Crowd for the grand final replay, played one week after the drawn grand final.
6 Attendance reduced due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
7 Capacity reduced due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Television
Australian television
AFL matches are currently broadcast in Australia by the free-to-air
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...
, and subscription television provider
Foxtel. The current deal was announced in August 2015 and covered the inclusive 2017–2022 seasons.
In 2020, the deal was extended until 2024 inclusive.
The Seven Network broadcasts an average of three-and-a-half games a round; Friday Night, Saturday Night, Sunday Afternoon, and any Thursday or Monday Night matches that may occur throughout the year. Channel Seven also airs the AFL Finals Series and the
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...
. Foxtel broadcasts every match through their Fox Footy channels, including simulcasts from the Seven Network except for the grand final, which is aired exclusively on Channel Seven. Foxtel also has the rights to air rounds on their internet protocol television platform titled
Foxtel Now, as well as via the sports streaming service
Kayo.
Telecast history
The 1957 VFL season was the first broadcast after the commencement of television in Australia (introduced in 1956 to coincide with the
Melbourne Olympic Games). During the late 1950s and 1960s, all Melbourne stations (
ABV2,
HSV7,
GTV9
GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands.
History
GTV-9 was amongst the first television stations to begin regular t ...
and, after it commenced in 1965,
ATV0/ATV10) broadcast some games. However, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the VFL was concerned that direct telecasts may affect attendances and stations were only permitted to telecast a delayed replay of the last quarter of games. In the early 1970s until 1986, the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...
and the
Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) were given exclusive rights to VFL/AFL games. The only year Seven did not telecast games was 1987 when the rights were bought by Broadcom, which on-sold the rights to the ABC in Victoria. Seven regained the rights in 1988 and also exclusive rights.
With the launch of subscription television in Australia, AFL match coverage commenced on cable television.
Optus Vision bid for and won exclusive pay-TV rights from 1996 to 2001, screening coverage on its own 24-hour AFL channel, branded ''Sports AFL'' in Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne (where available). The Sports AFL channel was later closed due to financial issues and relaunched in March 1999 as
C7 Sport
C7 Sport was a pay-TV service in Australia, owned and run by Seven Network. The service was carried on the Austar and Optus Vision pay-TV networks between 1995 and 2002. Seven unsuccessfully pursued court action against competitors, seeking dama ...
by the
Seven Network
The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...
with AFL match coverage also transferred to the new channel. C7 Sport became available in regional areas not in the
Foxtel or
Optus Vision licence area via
Austar
Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Tele ...
soon after the re-launch. The AFL coverage was not available through Foxtel at this time as the Seven Network and Foxtel disagreed on the cost of carrying the C7 channel. These issues regarding C7 and AFL broadcasting rights evolved into a court case between not just the Seven Network and
News Limited
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...
, but Seven against the owners of the Nine Network and Network Ten in the years that followed.
On 25 January 2001, the Seven Network's main rivals, the
Kerry Packer led
Nine Network,
Network Ten and pay-TV's
Foxtel set up a consortium which bid $500 million for the right to broadcast the
2002–
2006 seasons inclusive. Seven had purchased a guaranteed right to make the last bid in 1995,
[Day, Mark (1 February 2007)]
Pay TV strikes a deal on AFL
; The Australian but decided not to outbid their rivals. The games were split between the networks, with Nine screening
Friday Night Football, a live Sunday afternoon game in the east and, if needed, a doubleheader for WA and SA, Ten screened a Saturday afternoon and a Saturday night match, with the remaining four matches shown on Foxtel. Foxtel set up its own version of a dedicated AFL-only channel, the
Fox Footy Channel, which showed every game on replay during the week, as well as many news,
talkback
Talkback or talk back may refer to:
* ''Talkback'' (album), a 1983 album by the Canadian band the Spoons
* ''Talk Back'' (Kembe X album), 2016
*Talkback, an alternate name for Marvel Comics superhero Chase Stein
* Talkback (recording), an audio ...
and general interest shows related to Australian rules football.
When the rights were offered again in January 2006 for the
2007 to 2011 seasons, Seven formed an alliance with Ten and used its guaranteed last bid rights to match Nine's offer of $780 million to win back the broadcast rights in what was the biggest sport telecasting deal in Australian history at the time. After lengthy negotiations, Foxtel agreed to be a broadcast partner and showed four live matches each week, although no longer on a dedicated AFL channel.
Seven took back the Friday night match and only one game on Sunday, while Ten retained showing two matches on Saturdays. Foxtel showed two games on Saturday and two on Sunday, including a late afternoon or twilight game.
The 2012–2016 rights were bought by Seven, Foxtel, and Telstra for $1.25 billion, the biggest sport telecasting deal in Australian history at the time. As part of the deal, Foxtel would show all home-and-away AFL matches live, as well as all Finals bar the grand final, via the resurrected Fox Footy. Telstra would broadcast all matches via mobile, and Seven would broadcast three live matches (Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon) and one delayed match (Saturday afternoon). Seven also had the option to on-sell one game a week to either Nine or Ten; this did not happen.
The 2017–2022 rights were re-bought by Seven, Foxtel and Telstra for $2.5 billion, besting the previous deal to become the most lucrative in Australian history at the time. Under the terms of the deal, Seven broadcasts at least three live matches per round as well as all Finals matches, whilst Foxtel broadcasts (or simulcasts Seven's feed) all nine matches per round, as well as all Finals bar the grand final, which is exclusively broadcast by Seven. Telstra continues to maintain exclusive mobile broadcast rights to all matches.
There are some variations in broadcasting dependent on the relevant
state or territory. The agreement with Seven, Foxtel and Telstra was extended in 2020 by two years to include the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
In 2021 Telstra's AFL streaming service, AFL Live Pass, was removed and replaced with access to
Kayo, run by Streamotion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Foxtel.
The 2025-2031 rights were re-bought by Seven, Foxtel and Telstra for $4.5 billion, once again besting the previous deal to become the most lucrative in Australian history. As part of the deal, Seven would show three-and-a-half games a week on average during the home-and-away season, as well as all Finals and the Brownlow Medal. This includes Thursday Night games for the first 15 rounds of each season, and streaming rights to all matches they broadcast via 7+. Fox Footy would continue to show every home-and-away game and every final live bar the Grand Final via Foxtel and Kayo. All Foxtel matches will have Fox Footy commentary, including simulcasts of Channel Seven matches, and Saturday matches will be exclusive to Fox Footy for the first eight rounds bar any marquee matches. These arrangements differ outside of Victoria, where every local team's match will be broadcast on free-to-air, most of them live.
International broadcasts
=International broadcast history
=
Historically AFL broadcasts in other countries have varied.
In late 1979, the brand new
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
cable network signed the league's first international TV contract. Coverage began with the 1980 season with matches airing on late Friday and Saturday nights, sometimes live but usually one or two week tape delayed to up to 2.5 million subscribers. At the time, reports indicated ESPN paid the VFL nearly $100,000 (the VFL's Australian TV rights deal at the time was just $600,000). The 1983 VFL Grand Final was the first time in history that the Grand Final was broadcast live into the US. Coverage continued on ESPN until 1986, when the sport was dropped after which it was not broadcast in the US for over a decade.
New Zealand was the second country which held broadcast rights in 1980, with highlight packages with the Grand Final going live into the country.
In the early 1990s, American regional sports network
Prime Sports
Prime Sports (originally known as the Prime Sports Network (PSN), and also known as Prime Network or simply Prime) is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, ope ...
(unrelated to the
Australian regional television network) aired Seven's weekly highlight show as well as the grand final. Some other English speaking countries have shown the game, however, it has been since 2008 that channels in other countries began televising matches. From 1998 to 2006 games were broadcast in the United States by the
Fox Sports World network.
In 2007, after the record domestic television rights deal, the AFL secured an additional bonus: greater international television rights and increase exposure to overseas markets, including a five-year deal with
Setanta Sports
Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...
and new deals with other overseas
pay-TV
Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...
networks. The deal ended early in 2009 when Setanta stopped broadcasting into Great Britain. ESPN again took up the contract.
Additionally, AFL games can be shown in Irish pubs and sport pubs by request in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
although
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
has no AFL rights because these pubs have subscribed internet cable services.
=International broadcast partners
=
The following countries are ranked by the approximate extent of their current television coverage (and whether it is free to air):
Radio
The first broadcast of a VFL game was by
3AR in 1923, the year that broadcasting officially commenced in Australia. The first commentator was
Wallace (Jumbo) Shallard, a former Geelong player who went on to have a long and respected career in print and broadcast media. The VFL/AFL has been broadcast every year since then by the ABC and (since 1927) by various commercial stations. The saturation period was the early 1960s when seven of the eight extant radio stations (
3AR,
3UZ
RSN Racing & Sport (ACMA callsign: 3UZ) is an Australian radio station in Australia. Owned and operated by thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing bodies of Victoria, it broadcasts a sports radio format to Melbourne, and to much of Victori ...
,
3DB,
3KZ
Gold 104.3 (call sign: 3KKZ) is a radio station broadcasting in Melbourne, Australia. Gold 104.3 is part of the Pure Gold Network (which itself is a part of the Australian Radio Network) and broadcasts on the 104.3 MHz frequency.
History
3K ...
,
3AW,
3XY and
3AK
3AK is the call sign of SEN 1116, an earlier the on-air name of a former Melbourne talk-back radio and music station, which, in 2003, leased its licence to sports network SEN 1116. A number of unusual events and precedents throughout the stati ...
) broadcast VFL games each week, as well as broadcasts of Geelong games by local station
3GL. (At this time, the only alternative that radio listeners had to listen to the football on a Saturday afternoon were the classical music and fine arts programs that were broadcast by
3LO).
Currently, the official radio broadcast partners of the AFL are:
*
Triple M Melbourne
Triple M Melbourne is a radio station broadcasting in Melbourne, Victoria. Its target demographic is the 18-54 age group. Triple M Melbourne is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Triple M Network and broadcasts on the 105.1 MHz frequency.
Th ...
*
Triple M Adelaide
5MMM (identified on air and in print as Triple M) is a radio station broadcasting in Adelaide, Australia. Its target demographic is the 30-54 age group. Triple M Adelaide is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Triple M Network and broadcasts on ...
*
Triple M Perth
*
Triple M Sydney
Triple M Sydney (callsign 2MMM) is a radio station broadcasting in Sydney, Australia. Triple M Sydney is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Triple M network and broadcasts on the 104.9 MHz frequency.
History The Early Days
Triple M commence ...
(broadcasts only Sydney and Greater Western Sydney matches)
*
Triple M Brisbane
4MMM (identified on air and in print as Triple M) is a commercial FM rock radio station in Brisbane, Australia. It broadcasts on the Triple M network on 104.5 MHz frequency.
Station history
4MMM started on the FM band at 104.1 MHz on August ...
(broadcasts only Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast matches)
*
1116 SEN
1116 SEN (call sign 3AK) is an Australian radio station in Victoria. Owned and operated by Pacific Star Network, it broadcasts a sports radio format from Lower Plenty to Greater Melbourne. First broadcast on 29 November 1931 as 3AK, the sta ...
Melbourne
*
SEN SA Adelaide
*
3AW Melbourne
*
FIVEaa
FIVEaa (pronounced ''Five Double A'') is Adelaide's only commercial talkback radio station.
The station has a range of programs including news, sports, current affairs, social issues, football calls, gardening, lifestyle, cars, travel and heal ...
Adelaide
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6PR
6PR, known as 882 6PR, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 Oc ...
Perth
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K-Rock Geelong
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98.9FM Brisbane
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ABC Sport
ABC Sport is the name given to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's sport programming broadcasts on ABC Television and ABC Radio. From November 2020 the brand includes the former ABC Radio Grandstand.
, ABC Sport is a section of the ABC ...
(broadcasts matches across Australia to selected major cities in NSW/QLD/ACT/SA/WA)
Internet
The official internet/mobile broadcast partner of the AFL is
Telstra
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...
. The AFL also provides exclusive broadband content including streaming video for international fans via its website. Telstra also hosts the official websites of all the 18 AFL clubs.
However, the website is frequently derided by users for its convoluted
information architecture
Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...
and
bloated presentation.
Since 2012, Telstra has broadcast live matches over its
Next G
Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 ...
mobile network for a pay-per-view or season fee.
Since 2019,
Kayo has broadcast every game live bar the Grand Final. In Feb 2021, Telstra officially terminated the AFL Live Pass service, replacing it with access to Kayo at a discount for Telstra customers.
Streaming rights outside of Australia for full games are currently held by the Watch AFL subscription service operated by Fox Sports Australia.
Corporate relations
Sponsorship
The following is a chronologigical list of the official naming sponsors of the VFL/AFL competition:
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Carlton & United Breweries
Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, Pu ...
(1980–81, 86, 89–94, 2001–03)
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Holden (1982–83)
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Nissan (1984–85)
* Sportsplay (1987)
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Elder's IXL (1988)
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Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
(1995–2000)
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Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
(2004–present)
The official print broadcast partner of the AFL is
News Corp Australia. The ''
AFL Record
The ''AFL Record'' is the official program available at Australian Football League (AFL) matches. The publication began as the ''Football Record'' in Melbourne, Australia in 1912, making it one of the oldest magazines in Australia.
The publicat ...
'' is a match-day magazine published by the AFL and is read by around 225,000 people each week.
Membership
The AFL sells memberships that entitle subscribers to reserve seats for matches at
Docklands Stadium
Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...
and the
Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne. AFL members also receive priority access to finals. Three levels of memberships are offered, bronze, silver and full (gold). Only full members have guaranteed access to preliminary and grand final matches. Bronze members are restricted to fewer matches at the MCG only.
Merchandising
The AFL runs a chain of stores that sell merchandise from all clubs. Merchandise is also available from other retailers.
AFL World
A modern museum called the Hall of Fame and Sensation opened in Melbourne in 2003 to celebrate the culture of the AFL and to provide a venue for the
Australian Football Hall of Fame. The museum, a licensed offshoot of the AFL, was originally touted for the MCG, but the Hall of Fame failed to receive support from the Melbourne Cricket Club. The new QV shopping centre on Swanston Street was then chosen as the location. However, controversy followed the appointment of an administrator as the museum began running at a loss. Many blamed high entry prices, which were subsequently reduced, and the museum remained open to the public. In early 2006 the name was changed to AFL World. It featured various honour boards and memorabilia as well as a range of innovative interactive displays designed to immerse visitors in the experience of elite Australian rules football. It was closed in 2008.
Video games
The following is a list of all the video games from the AFL video game series:
* ''
Aussie Rules Footy
''Aussie Rules Footy'' is the first AFL simulation video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was developed by Melbourne based Beam Software and published under their "Laser Beam" publishing title in 1992.Beam Software Timeline.' Docum ...
'' (1991)
NES
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
* ''
AFL Finals Fever
AFL may refer to:
Sports
* American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues:
** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...
'' (1996)
Microsoft Windows
* ''
AFL 98'' (1997)
Microsoft Windows
* ''
AFL 99'' (1998)
PlayStation,
Microsoft Windows
* ''
Kevin Sheedy's: AFL Coach 2002'' (2001)
Microsoft Windows
* ''
AFL Live 2003
The ''AFL'' video game series is a series of Australian rules football video games based on the AFL. Released originally by Beam Software, it has since been developed by several other game developers.
Games in the series
''Aussie Rules Footy' ...
'' (2002)
Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 2,
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
* ''
AFL Live 2004
The ''AFL'' video game series is a series of Australian rules football video games based on the AFL. Released originally by Beam Software, it has since been developed by several other game developers.
Games in the series
''Aussie Rules Foot ...
'' (2003)
Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 2,
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
* ''
AFL Live Premiership Edition
The ''AFL'' video game series is a series of Australian rules football video games based on the AFL. Released originally by Beam Software, it has since been developed by several other game developers.
Games in the series
''Aussie Rules Footy ...
'' (2004)
Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 2,
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
* ''
AFL Premiership 2005
''AFL Premiership 2005'' is a sports game for PlayStation 2 based on the Australian Football League (AFL). It is the ninth game in the AFL video game series.
Gameplay
The game features two modes: Season mode, where the player selects one of ...
'' (2005)
Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 2,
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...
* ''
AFL Premiership 2006'' (2006)
PlayStation 2
* ''
AFL Premiership 2007'' (2007)
PlayStation 2
* ''
AFL Mascot Manor'' (2009)
Nintendo DS
* ''
AFL Challenge'' (2009)
PlayStation Portable
* ''
AFL Live'' (2011, 2012)
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
,
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
* ''
AFL'' (2011, 2012)
Wii
* ''
AFL Live 2'' (2013, 2014, 2015)
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...
,
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
,
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
,
Android
* ''
AFL Evolution
''AFL Evolution'' is a video game based on the AFL developed by Wicked Witch Software and published by Tru Blu Entertainment in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. A demo containing player and team creation tools was release ...
'' (2017)
Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 4,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
* ''
AFL Evolution 2
The ''AFL'' video game series is a series of Australian rules football video games based on the AFL. Released originally by Beam Software, it has since been developed by several other game developers.
Games in the series
''Aussie Rules Footy' ...
'' (2020)
Microsoft Windows,
PlayStation 4,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
Gambling
The AFL is the subject of footy tipping and betting competitions around Australia run by individuals, syndicates, workplaces and professional
bookmaker
A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays off bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds.
History
The first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at Newmarket in 1795.
Range of events
Bookm ...
s. In recent years national website based tipping competitions have started to replace the traditional, but more labour-intensive, office or pub run competitions.
Fantasy football competitions based on actual player statistics (number of kicks, marks, goals etc.) are also very popular on websites and in newspapers.
Activism
LGBTI policy
The AFL is a supporter of the
LGBTI
Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, ...
community. In September 2017, in conjunction with the
Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in ...
, the AFL modified its logo in support of
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
. However they reverted to the original logo 24 hours later.
However, in September 2017 the AFL ruled that
Hannah Mouncey
Hannah Mouncey (born 21 October 1989) is an Australian national squad handball player who also plays Australian rules football. Mouncey represented Australia in men's handball before transitioning. She has been the subject of controversy over ...
, a
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
woman, was ineligible for selection in the 2018
AFLW draft. There has been some opposition to the AFL's decision.
See also
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Australian rules football attendance records
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History of Australian rules football in Victoria (1859–1900)
Australian rules football was first organised in Victoria in 1859 when its rules were codified by the Melbourne Football Club.
First rules: 1859
On 17 May 1859, the first rules for a local code of football were written during a meeting of f ...
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Rivalries in the Australian Football League
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Sports attendances
; Lists
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List of VFL/AFL premiers
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List of VFL/AFL minor premiers
This page is a complete chronological listing of VFL/AFL minor premiers. The Australian Football League (AFL), known as the Victorian Football League (VFL) until 1990, is the elite national competition in men's Australian rules football.
The te ...
*
List of VFL/AFL pre-season and night series premiers
*
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List of VFL/AFL players born outside Australia
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List of VFL/AFL players by ethnicity
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List of current Australian Football League coaches
This list includes the appointment date and performance record of current Australian Football League senior coaches. The league consists of 18 clubs across Australia, with at least two clubs in every state/territory apart from Tasmania, the Aus ...
*
List of Australian Football League grounds
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List of sports venues in Australia
The following is a list of sports venues in Australia.
National league stadiums
Venues for Australian rules football, cricket, rugby league, rugby union and soccer are listed here, if they are a regular venue of:
*An Australian national team (Aus ...
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List of VFL/AFL presidents
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List of VFL/AFL records
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List of individual match awards in the Australian Football League
Notes
References
External links
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; Statistics and results
AustralianFootballFinal Siren with comprehensive AFL Statistics 1980–2008AFL Statistics by FootyWireComprehensive & unique AFL Statistics by ProWess Sports
*
ttp://www.austadiums.com/sport/comp.php?sid=1 AFL on Austadiums
; Major AFL news websites
The Age Footy NewsHerald Sun Footy NewsFox Sports Australia AFL news
{{Authority control
Professional sports leagues in Australia
Seven Sport
Australian rules football competitions in Australia
1897 establishments in Australia
Sports leagues established in 1897
Articles which contain graphical timelines