Australian Football League (AFL) - News, videos, fixtures, scores, and results

Australian Game of Football, abbreviated as Australian Football or Aussie Rules, is a sport that originated in Victoria, Australia in the 1850s. This sport shares some similarities with rugby and American football, but has its own unique rules and gameplay.

Venue: The Australian Football venue is oval shaped, with a length of approximately 135-185 meters and a width of approximately 110-155 meters. There is a circular area in the center of the venue called the 'center circle', with a radius of approximately 45 meters.

Match time: The game is divided into four quarters, each lasting 20 minutes, with a 15 minute halftime break. The total duration of the competition is 80 minutes.

Number of players: Each team has 18 players, including 1 goalkeeper and 17 players on the field.

Game rules: The goal of the game is to kick the football into the opponent's goal and score. Players can touch the ball with their hands, feet, or any part of their body, but cannot run with the ball. During the game, players can compete with their opponents by hitting, blocking, and stealing. If a player violates the rules during the game, they will be shown a yellow card or red card warning by the referee or sent off the field.

Overall, Australian Football is an intense and challenging sport that is deeply loved by the Australian people.

In 2008, AFL published "Football Matches in Australia Since 1858", which examined the development and growth of the sport in Australia, its position in communities across the country, and its great heroes and moments as the leading sport invented here.

This book covers various aspects of the entire Australian competition, and it is not possible to summarize them briefly here.

The key moments in the early stages of the competition revolved around the names of William Hammersley, Tom Smith, James Thompson, Tom Wells, and Jerry Bryant.

Wells publicly called for a game to be held in the winter of 1858 to maintain the health of cricket players, and on August 7th of the same year, Melbourne Grammar School began a "football" match against Scottish College, which lasted for three Saturdays before ending.

On May 17, 1859, Hammersley, Smith, Thompson, and Wells gathered at the Bryant Hotel in East Melbourne and formulated 10 rules that formed the basis of today's game. You can access the original rules and handwritten documents here.

Melbourne and Giron were founded in 1858 and 1859 respectively, making them one of the oldest continuous sports clubs in the world. Many clubs in Australia, whether they are AFL, state leagues, or local/national/regional level clubs, have a history dating back over 140 years, as this new sport began to take root in the colonies in the late 1850s.

The first club was established in South Australia in 1860 and in Queensland in 1866.

Since 1877, both the Victoria Football Association (VFA) and the South Australian Football Association (SAFA) have operated in the form of eight teams, with the first inter colonial match held in the late 1870s.

The South Tasmanian Football Association and the Queensland Football Association were both founded in 1879, the New South Wales Football Association was founded in 1881, and the Western Australian Football Association was founded in 1885.

In 1896, VFA clubs Geelong, Essendon, Collingwood, Fitzroy, Melbourne.

Since 1897, Victoria has collaborated with two senior leagues within the state, namely the newly established VFL and the ongoing VFA.

The first national carnival of state leagues was held in 1908, and until the late 1980s, matches across Australia were mainly centered around state leagues, with representative football matches between senior leagues. The national carnival is usually held every 3-4 years, and although almost all high-level leagues were suspended for a period of time during World War I, full competitions quickly resumed afterwards.

In 1982, the VFL team South Melbourne relocated to a base in New South Wales called the Sydney Swans, marking a significant period of change in the competition and the first step towards establishing a national competition. They moved away from the dominant position of their respective state leagues and are still in place today. Since this time in the 1980s, the VFL competition has strengthened relative to other state leagues, as top players from across the country are increasingly participating in this competition or joining it in their senior careers.

In 1987, further significant changes occurred when VFL games expanded to 14 teams, including the West Coast Hawks and Brisbane Bears.

VFL was renamed AFL in 1990 and further expanded in 1991 (Adelaide Ravens), 1995 (Fremantle), and 1997 (Adelaide Harbour). In addition, the merger of Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy in 1996 resulted in two teams each in Western Australia and South Australia, and one team each in Queensland and New South Wales.

The second wave of expansion in the second decade of this century, coupled with the Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants, now AFL has two teams in every continental state.