Introduction to AFL

Australian Rules Football is a sport with a great history in which the league, AFL (Australian Football League) was formed. Founded by Tom Wills, it has grown throughout Australia to become one of the most popular played and watched sports, not only in Australia, but the world. The Age newspaper (Australian Newspaper), published statistics of the most popular sports in the world in which AFL is 4th, ahead of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 5th.

Founder of Australian Rules Football. Tom Wills

The first recorded AFL game was played in Melbourne with the first league formed called the VFL. The VFL had teams only from Melbourne. As popularity grew, teams from out of Melbourne became interested in the sport. In 1990, the VFL was renamed to the AFL to accept the growth of the league to include non-Melbourne teams. Currently, the league contains 18 teams, and the possibility of this increasing in the future. 

AFL is sport full of pace, agility, heavy bumps and amazing skill.

Andrew Walker from the Carlton Blues (Navy Blue) takes a spectacular mark (Specky) over
Jake Carlisle from the Essendon Bombers (Black with red stripe)

The aim of Australian Rules is to pass an oval shaped ball from player to player by kicking (dropping the ball towards the ground and kicking) or hand passing (putting the ball flat on the palm of your hand and punching the ball with your other hand using the thumb side of your hand). If you catch the ball from a kick it is a mark and the player is allowed given a set shot kick (a kick with no pressure from a player on the opposing team). 

The goal posts showing the points
awarded when a ball is kicked through.

Players gain points when the ball is kicked between two of four goal posts.

Kicking the ball between the taller of the four posts is a goal with the team receiving 6 points. Any kick between a tall and shorter post is a behind with the team receiving 1 point. The scoreboard is presented with the number of goals kicked, the number of behinds kicked, followed by the total score. 

Example: 5 . 8 . 38

The game lasts for 120 minutes with breaks at quarters (quarter time, half time, three-quarter time, full time) like in a game basketball. The teams with the most points by the end of the game is declared the winner.

This video goes through the basic rules (above) plus a little more about the Australian Football League Premiership Season.