Australian football, often known as "Aussie rules" or just "footy," is Australia's most popular sport. An estimated 600,000 people play Australian rules football across the country. The game works like a cross between rugby and soccer -- with a touch of basketball. In Australian football, players can't throw the ball -- they can only kick or punch it.
Origins
Popular legend has it that the game developed from cricketers and schoolboys experimenting with the classic English game of soccer. The game also includes aspects of rugby, which was a relatively recent creation at the time. The first record of an Australian football match dates back to 1858 in a game between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School, according to Seniors.gov.au. Cricketer Thomas Wentworth Wills and several other sportsmen drew up the first recorded laws of the game in 1859. Due to its connection with the state of Victoria, Australian football was originally known as Victorian, or Melbourne, rules football.
Early Rules
Early Australian football rules included the law that players could carry the ball, but not run farther than they needed to kick a ball. This soon changed into the rule that a player must bounce the ball on the ground at least once every 33 feet, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Players also agreed to ban the leg hacking common to early rugby games in a bid to avoid injury. By the 1880s, team numbers were set at 20 players. Unlike rugby, Australian rules football players must kick the ball through the posts to score, not just carry it over the touch line. The game also includes no offside rules.
Leagues And Expansion
The Victorian Football Association was founded in 1877 with eight-member clubs, according to Fullpointsfooty.net. In the same year, eight other teams formed the South Australia Football Association. Teams in other areas of Australia created several other leagues over the next decade. The enormous distances between cities in Australia meant that interstate competition was impossible for most of the 20th century.
AFL
In the 1980s the Victorian Football League encouraged teams across Australia to join in a national competition. The competition was to include teams from as far north as Queensland and as far west as Perth. In line with this new cross-territory competition, the league officially changed its name to the Australian Football League, or AFL, in 1990. The league had 16-member teams in 2005.
Famous Players
According to Seniors.gov.au, famous Australian players through the 20th century include Dick Reynolds in the 1930s, Ron Barassi and Graham Farmer in the 1960s and Alex Jesaulenko in the 1970s. Aussie rules stars in the 2000s include Gary Ablett and Chris Judd, winners of the Brownlow Medal in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The Brownlow Medal is awarded to the best AFL player in a particular year.
References
- Seniors.gov.au: Australian Rules Football
- Monash University: Eras Edition 10, November 2008
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Australian Rules Football
- Full Points Footy
- "The Australian": Aussie Rules Has Turned Us Into a Nation of Losers; Luke Slattery; 2011
- "The Daily Telegraph": Gary Ablett Wins Precious Brownlow Medal that Eluded Dad; Lauren Wilson and Courtney Walsh
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