Australian Rules football

Australian Rules football
a variation of rugby played almost exclusively in Australia, engaging two teams of eighteen players each on an oval-shaped field about 180 yards (165 m) long with four upright posts at each end, the object being to kick a rugby ball between these posts.
[1930-35]

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Variety of football played between two teams of 18 players.

The field is oval, 148–202 yd (135–185 m) long, with four goalposts at each end. A six-point goal is scored when the oval ball is kicked through the two central goalposts. A one-point "behind" is scored when the ball is kicked over the behind line extending between the central and outer goalposts. The game's finest spectacle is the "mark" in which competing players leap, sometimes riding on the back of an opponent, in order to catch the ball directly from the kick of another player. The player making such a catch is awarded a mark, an unhindered kick from behind the spot of the catch. The sport, Australia's foremost, was developed in Melbourne. The Victorian Football League was established in 1896 as the first professional league. It was renamed the Australian Football League in 1990 to reflect the addition of franchises outside of Victoria state.

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sport
Introduction
 a football sport distinctive to Australia that predates other modern football games as the first to create an official code of play. Invented in Melbourne, capital of the state of Victoria, in the late 1850s, the game was initially known as Melbourne, or Victorian, rules football and was an amalgam of various football rules that were in use at English public (independent) schools. Although Australian rules football is one of several football sports played today in Australia, the national professional Australian Football League (formerly known as the Victorian Football League), is the the country's most popular sports competition in terms of attendance and television viewing.

History of the game

Origins
      Melbourne was a burgeoning city built on the riches of the 1850s gold rush by the time Australian football first appeared in 1858. As with other areas of British settlement during the 19th century, cricket emerged as the primary summer sport. Concerned about off-season fitness, cricketer Thomas Wentworth Wills (1835–80), who was born in Australia but educated at Rugby School in England—where he captained the cricket team and excelled in football—believed that a football club should be formed to keep his teammates fit during winter. The Melbourne Cricket Club agreed with Wills's suggestion and, as there were no standardized football codes at that time, appointed a committee to devise a set of rules. The Melbourne and Geelong football clubs were established in 1858 and 1859, respectively, and are two of the oldest football clubs in the world. The rules agreed to by the committee on May 17, 1859, were a compromise between those of several English public schools, notably Winchester, Harrow, and Rugby. Players were allowed to handle the ball but not to run farther than necessary to kick it. In 1866 H.C.A. Harrison (1836–1929), a cousin of Wills, rewrote the rules. These rules imposed no limit on the number of players, though in the 1880s, 20 men per team became standard.

      Concerned about the possibility of injury on the hard Australian grounds, players were reluctant to commit to the tackling and hacking (kicking or tripping an opponent) rules of the Rugby School game, and hacking was banned. Distinctive aspects of Australian football rapidly appeared. At the outset, a provision was made that players who caught, or “marked,” a ball cleanly in the air were allowed a free kick. Players could also retain possession of the ball while running, but after some dispute it was agreed in 1865 that the player with the ball had to bounce it off the turf at least every 10 metres (33 feet). Most crucial, and in contrast to other football sports, there was no offside rule, which meant that players from each team were located behind and in front of the ball during play. By 1874 players no longer scored by carrying the ball between goal posts but scored by kicking the ball through them.

      Australian rules football also developed a unique set of goalposts, comprising two large goalposts flanked by two shorter “behind” posts. The centre bounce used by umpires to start games and to restart play after a goal was instituted in 1891 and also remains unique to Australian football. Goal umpires were first mentioned in 1874 in accounts of the game. The practice of the goal umpire's waving a flag to signal a goal began in Tasmania in 1884 and was adopted in Victoria in 1886.

      The game expanded rapidly during the 1870s and '80s. In the'70s, matches between the Melbourne and Carlton football clubs attracted as many as 10,000 spectators, who at that time watched for free. Spectators often encroached on the playing surface, and this led to the enclosure of grounds for ease of play. The first facility built specifically for Australian football use appeared in 1876 on land leased by Carlton from Melbourne University. The first Carlton-Melbourne game at the ground attracted 5,000 spectators. By the mid-'80s crowds approaching 34,000 were attending matches between leading clubs.

      On May 7, 1877, representatives of the Albert Park, Carlton, East Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong, Hotham, Melbourne, and St Kilda football clubs met to form the Victorian Football Association (VFA) for the “promotion and extension of football throughout the colony” and the organization of intercolonial matches. During the 1870s over 125 clubs appeared in Melbourne, and another 60 senior clubs were established elsewhere in Victoria. A regular schedule of matches was developed; additional grounds were enclosed; and VFA clubs were able to charge admission.

      The game continued to spread throughout the colonies. In 1877 the South Australian Football Association was formed. Tasmania accepted VFA rules in 1882, and in 1885 the Western Australian Football Association was established. Despite these successes, the game struggled to gain a foothold in the northeastern parts of Australia. The first game in Sydney took place in 1877, but rugby union (rugby), with its imperial connections, was favoured by the 1890s. A similar process occurred in Queensland and New Zealand. The great distances that separated colonies and the capital cities meant that regular competition between clubs from different areas was not possible, and indeed the first participation of an interstate team in the main Victorian competition did not occur until 1982. However, because road games between Victorian teams were often only a tram ride away, many fans could go to all of their team's games in any given season at little expense.

Rise of the Victorian Football League
      The depression of 1893–95 caused attendance at games to decline, and the VFA proposed a revenue-sharing scheme to assist struggling clubs. Leading clubs, which wanted more control over the game, opposed the scheme. In 1896 those eight leading clubs—Melbourne, Essendon, Geelong, Collingwood, South Melbourne, Fitzroy, Carlton, and St Kilda—came together to form the Victorian Football League (VFL). The VFL allowed open payment of players and reduced the number of competitors on the field from 20 per side to 18. With economic improvement, VFL clubs were able to pay most players by 1899. A national body, the Australasian Football Council, was formed in 1906 to regulate interstate player movement and develop contests on the national level, though it remained under the auspices of the VFL. As the council's name suggests, efforts to keep the game alive in New Zealand were part of its mission.

      While the VFL moved into the 20th century as the leading competition, the VFA remained nearly as strong into the 1920s. In 1925 the VFL added VFA clubs Footscray, Hawthorn, and North Melbourne, giving the league 12 teams.

      After the South Melbourne club relocated to Sydney (in New South Wales) in 1982, the VFL sought further national expansion, founding teams in Queensland, Western Australia, and South Australia from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. In 1990 the VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League (AFL) to reflect its new national focus. In 2005 the AFL comprised 16 teams: the Adelaide (S.Aus.) Crows, Brisbane (Queen.) Lions, Carlton Blues, Collingwood Magpies, Essendon Bombers, Fremantle (W.Aus.) Dockers, Geelong Cats, Hawthorn Hawks, (North Melbourne) Kangaroos, Melbourne Demons, Port Adelaide (S.Aus.) Power, Richmond Tigers, St Kilda Saints, Sydney Swans, West Coast (Perth, W.Aus.) Eagles, and Western (Footscray) Bulldogs.

      National expansion has not been easy, with large interstate clubs seen by Melbournians as a threat to their clubs and supporters of interstate teams arguing that the league is still too focused on Melbourne. Despite these problems, Australian rules football is the most popular spectator sport in Australia, and, with championships having been won by West Coast, Adelaide, and Brisbane by 2001, the AFL began the millennium its strongest ever. Australian rules football is also being played in leagues as far afield as Denmark, England, The Netherlands, and the United States, and AFL preseason matches have been played in Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Football and its fans
      Australian rules football is woven deeply into the fabric of Australian society, particularly outside the rugby zones in New South Wales and Queensland. Until 1983 competitions remained state-based, with clubs largely forming in suburban areas that matched parliamentary electorates. Unlike American professional sports franchises, AFL teams are (and always have been) membership-based clubs rather than private franchises, which means that members control their club. When clubs have been threatened with mergers, as Footscray and Hawthorn were in 1989 and 1995, respectively, members were able to save their clubs from amalgamation. A brief flirtation with private ownership in the 1980s failed. In 1995, in order to prevent hostile takeovers, which had occurred in rugby league that year, the AFL amended its constitution to ban any one interest from controlling more than 5 percent of a club.

      Early VFL teams developed loyal fans, known as “barrackers,” many of whom were club members. Unique among football sports, Australian football has always had a large number of female supporters who attend matches, and by 1900 women formed one-third or more of audiences. By the 1930s each team had theme songs, some derived from popular American tunes.

       AFL Grand Final AFL Grand FinalThe league's championship, known as the Grand Final, began in 1898 and starting in 1904 was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). It became, after the Melbourne Cup horse race, the most significant sporting and cultural event on Victoria's annual calendar. The league's popularity continued to rise, particularly with the advent of radio broadcasts of matches in 1925. Live broadcasts of Grand Finals began only in 1946, owing to reluctance of the cricket officials, who controlled the MCG, to allow them. After World War II, radio coverage expanded, and match attendance also boomed as nearly all workers had Saturday afternoons free by 1946. With the arrival of television coverage in 1957, radio stations intensified their coverage in order to compete. Seven stations covered matches that season. For many years television coverage was allowed for only the final quarter of a game or on delay.

      In 1957 a record 2.5 million fans attended VFL matches (Melbourne's population at the time was only 1.7 million), and 100,324 fans attended the Grand Final between Melbourne and Essendon. Final attendance peaked in 1970, when 121,696 fans showed up at the MCG to see Carlton defeat Collingwood. Concerns over the Melbourne Cricket Club's control of the main stadium, the MCG, however, had led the VFL to buy land for its own ground in 1962. The league built a 70,000-seat stadium (an original plan called for 157,000 seats) in central Melbourne, which opened as VFL Park in 1970. The stadium proved unpopular with fans and was abandoned by 2001 for a new inner-city stadium. While most teams played at their own grounds before the mid-1960s, between 1965 and 2001 a process of stadium rationalization took place, with all games in Melbourne eventually held at two stadiums, the MCG and the Telstra Dome.

Play of the game
      Australian rules football is played with an oval ball that weighs between 450 and 480 grams (16 and 17 ounces) and has a short circumference of 545–555 mm (21.5–22 inches) and a wide one of 720–730 mm (28–29 inches). Australian football is one of the few field sports that does not use a uniform-sized ground; it is played on an oval field that can vary in width between 110 and 155 metres (120 and 170 yards) and in length between 135 and 185 metres (145 and 200 yards). Two goalposts not less than 6 metres (20 feet) in height are placed 6.4 metres (21 feet) apart at each end of the ground. Two shorter posts, called behind posts, rise to a minimum height of 3 metres (10 feet), with each one placed at the side of a goalpost at a distance of 6.4 metres. The line between the goalposts is called the goal line, and this line's extension from each goalpost to its behind post is called the behind line.

      A goal is scored when the ball is kicked clearly through the goalposts by a member of the attacking team; a goal registers 6 points. A “behind” is scored when the ball crosses a behind line in any event or when the ball crosses the goal line without meeting all the required conditions for a goal to be scored (e.g., when the ball touches a goalpost). A behind is worth one point. The four posts are distinctive of Australian rules football. Scores are written in the format of goals followed by behinds followed by total points, for example, 20.11.131.

      A team consists of 18 players on the field. Players may run with the ball but must bounce or touch it on the ground at least once every 15 metres (50 feet), a change from the sport's early rules, which required the ball to be bounced once every 10 metres. A player may hold the ball and run with it until he is held by an opponent, upon which he must dispose of the ball immediately. Players pass the ball off to teammates either by punt-kicking it or by handballing, in which a player holds the ball in one hand and hits it with the clenched fist of the other hand. Throwing the ball is illegal, and there is no offside rule.

      A major difference from other types of football is the awarding of a set kick, or mark, when a player manages to catch the ball directly from the kick of another player who is not less than 15 metres away. The player who makes the mark is allowed an unhindered kick at the goal from anywhere behind where he marked. The game's finest spectacle is the high mark, in which three or four competing players leap, sometimes riding on the back or shoulder of an opponent, in order to catch the ball and receive the resultant mark.

      Each match is controlled by one field umpire, a goal umpire at each end, and a boundary umpire on each side. The game begins with the field umpire bouncing the football in the centre of the arena and players leaping in order to knock it down to a teammate. After a goal, the ball is bounced again at the centre of the playing field. After a behind is scored, the scored-upon team kicks the ball into play from its own goal area. A match consists of four 20-minute quarters.

      Australian rules football entails more body contact than association football (soccer) but less than rugby or gridiron football. A player may be “shepherded,” or checked, by an opponent by the use of a hip, shoulder, chest, arms, or open hand, provided the ball is not more than 5 metres (16 feet) away. Penalties known as free kicks are assessed against players who tackle opponents above the shoulders, below the knees, or in the back. Free kicks are also awarded to the defending team when an attacking player is deemed by the umpire to have held the ball too long or to have run with the ball without bouncing or touching it on the ground.

John Nauright

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Universalium. 2010.

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