AFL Ontario is the largest
Australian football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modifie ...
league in North America. It is currently composed of teams from the
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...
,
Southwestern Ontario
Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...
and the
National Capital Region
A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...
, who play off for the Conacher Cup (named after
Lionel Conacher
Lionel Pretoria Conacher, MP (; May 24, 1900 – May 26, 1954), nicknamed "The Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. ...
), presently awarded to the winner of the annual AFL Ontario
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. Sy ...
.
AFL Ontario, along with the North West Pacific Football League is a member of
AFL Canada
AFL Canada (formerly the Canadian Australian Football Association, french: Association canadienne de football australien) is the governing body for men's and women's Australian rules football in Canada.
AFL Canada was formed on 30 July 2004, wh ...
, the governing body for the sport in Canada.
History
AFL Ontario which was originally known as the Canadian Australian Football League (CAFA) and more recently as the Ontario Australian Football League (OAFL), was established in 1989. Two teams were formed that year - the Toronto Panthers and the Mississauga Mustangs, with a draft of interested players prior to a three-game season and Grand Final. The coaches of those inaugural teams – John Pearson (Toronto Panthers) and Terence Wallis (Mississauga Mustangs) brought a significant amount of experience from playing at a high level in Australia. An interesting fact is that the first Grand Final was attended by a number of AFL executives including Ron Barrassi and members of the Geelong Cats and Melbourne Demons.
Founding members of the original competition include: Kingsley Ellis (ex-Fitzroy VFL - lead central Umpire, founder of the Hamilton Tigers), Terence Wallis (founded & coached the Mississauga then Toronto Dingos), Bill Frampton (Mississauga then founded the Brampton Bulldogs), Sandro Mancino (Toronto Eagles, Scarborough Rebels and then founded the Balmy Beach Saints). These pioneers set the foundation for the current competition. During the early years CAFA played a number of International games against visiting teams from Australia (Balmain FC, Golden Oldies touring team) as well as the team representing the Australian Rules league in England. The Canadian team narrowly missed beating the touring Australian teams over the years, but soundly defeated England on the four occasions that it played them (1990–1996) culminating in a strong win by the touring Canadian team in London (1996) coached by Terence Wallis.
In 2011, with the increased interest in women's football, AFL Ontario established their Women's League with great success. With the help of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, 2011 also saw the development of AFL Ontario's junior competition. 2012 saw the women's division double in size to 6 teams competing, and the junior competition continued over the summer holidays.
Division 2
In 2009, AFL Ontario launched a second division originally consisting of six founding teams. London (Ontario) AFC withdrew before the official start to the season and the team's players were absorbed into the Quebec Saints. Along with the Saints, the Toronto Central Blues, Broadview Hawks, Etobicoke 'Old Boys' Roos and Toronto Eagles made up the founding five teams of the new OAFL Division 2 competition. In honour of the first Canadian to ever play in the AFL the competition's premiership cup was named the Mike Pyke Cup (named after
Mike Pyke
Michael Anthony Patrick Pyke (born 24 March 1984) is a Canadian retired dual-code football player, who was a professional Australian rules footballer with the Sydney Swans.
Pyke is the first Canadian national and the first former rugby union pr ...
).
The OAFL Division 2 season was traditionally shorter than that of the OAFL. In 2009 due to teams playing different numbers of matches the ladder was determined by 'Match Ratio' rather than premiership points. In 2010 all teams competed in 8 rounds and thus the ladder reverted to determining positions by premiership points.
2010 also saw the introduction of hybrid teams. New team the Toronto Rebel Dogs (a partnership between the Toronto Downtown Dingos and the Toronto Rebels) and the 'DevilRoos' (a partnership between the Etobicoke Roos and High Park Demons). The Toronto Eagles withdrew their team from the 2010 season.
Clubs
Current clubs
Affiliated (non-league) clubs
Past Men's clubs
Past champions
Principal venues
*Margaret Green Park, Guelph: Grand River Gargoyles
*
Mohawk Sports Park Mohawk Sports Park, is a large park on the east mountain of Hamilton, Ontario, 1100 Mohawk Road East, also known as Commonwealth Park and Upper King's Forest Park.
Facilities
A number of sporting venues including:
* an 8 lane dedicated competitio ...
, Hamilton: Hamilton Wildcats
*Manotick Polo Club, Ottawa: Ottawa Swans
*
Humber College South, Toronto: Etobicoke Kangaroos, Toronto Dingos, High Park Demons, Toronto Rebels, Toronto Eagles and Central Blues
Participation
In 2006, AFL Ontario had around 330 senior players consisting of over 170 Canadian nationals.
League Annual Report
/ref> With the rapid increase in awareness and interest in Australian football in Ontario, this has increased in 2012 with almost 650 senior men and women members.
See also
*AFL Canada
AFL Canada (formerly the Canadian Australian Football Association, french: Association canadienne de football australien) is the governing body for men's and women's Australian rules football in Canada.
AFL Canada was formed on 30 July 2004, wh ...
*Australian Football Association of North America
The Australian Football Association of North America (AFANA) is a non-profit organization that formed out of the campaign to save television coverage of Australian rules football in the United States and Canada in 1996. AFANA has an emphasis on th ...
*Australian rules football in Canada
Australian rules football in Canada (commonly known as "Aussie Rules" or simply "footy") is played in seven provinces - Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The Ontario league, cen ...
*Countries playing Australian rules football
Note: In order to be recognised as a true national team and not simply expatriates (for the purposes of this entry), the list is subject to International Cup eligibility rules.
Australian Football League has official affiliation agreements wi ...
*United States Australian Football League
The United States Australian Football League (USAFL) is the governing body for Australian rules football in the United States. It was conceived in 1996 and organized in 1997. It is based in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.
As of 2011, there were over 1,00 ...
Notes
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Sport in Ontario
Australian rules football leagues in Canada
Sports leagues established in 1989
1989 establishments in Ontario