Australian Rules Football
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Australian rules football is a sport created in Australia. The main league of Australian rules football is the Australian Football League.
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[change] History
Prior to the arrival of Europeans to Australia, Aboriginal tribes played a form of the game where, two groups of men would kick a possum skin "ball" around. The Aboriginals would drop the ball onto their foot to kick it, and if a person caught the ball on the full he would get a free kick. It was noted that some players jumped as high as five foot to take spectacular catches, much like modern day players soaring for a mark.
In 1858, Tom Wills, a former student of the Rugby school and Cambridge College created a set of football rules that were like a cross between rugby, soccer and Gaelic football. He made them for cricketers to keep in shape during the off-season. The game was soon made more clearly (Rules for example). Wills had help from other people like his cousin H.C.A. Harrison , W.J. Hammersly and J.B. Thompson . The Melbourne Football Club was founded on May 14, 1859- Making the Melbourne Football Club is one of the oldest surviving football clubs in the world.... A game of football was played between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School. It was played over three days on an oval next to the present day MCG, and the two schools have played an annual game ever since. This game became known as Melbourne Rules Football, one of many local varieties of football that existed at that time, another notable one being Sheffield Rules Football. Than following its decision to not join either the association rules(1863) or rugby rules(1871), it became known as Victorian Rules, although it still resembled closely to the former two rule sets. Than in the 1880s as rugby and association rules began to diverge in a much greater way, Victorian Rules which resembled the 1850s type of football that both rugby and the association had based their rules on remained much the same except for moving to oval fields from rectangular fields and eventually introducing more posts. Than Victorian Rules proclaimed that it was now "Australian Rules", although people from NSW and QLD reject this name utterly.
The Victorian Football League ( VFL ) was created in 1896. The next year, the first official games were played. The first clubs were Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda, and South Melbourne . In 1908, Richmond and University joined. University left after the 1914 season. In 1925, Footscray (now the Western Bulldogs ), Hawthorn and North Melbourne (now the Kangaroos ) joined the VFL .
Years later other teams joined in:
- West Coast Eagles (joined in 1987),
- Brisbane Bears [(1987) after 1996 Fitzroy joined the Brisbane Bears and the are now know as the Brisbane Lions )
- Adelaide Crows (1991)
- Fremantle Dockers (1995)
- Port Adelaide (1997).
In 1989 the Victorian Football League was changed to the Australian Football League ( AFL ).
[change] What is Football?
Football is the most popular sport in Australia, with crowd attendances of 50-80,000 people comon to normal home and away matches and capacity crowds of 100,000 people at the home of football the MCG during the finals and special matches.
There are 16 teams in the AFL . Each team has 22 players during game day with team lists of 40-45 players.During the game, each team has 18 players on the field, constisting of 6 forwards, 3 centres, 6 backmen, and 3 followers. The 4 remaining players are reserves the can interchange with any other player in the team as often as the coach wants.
Every game consists of 4 quarters, being 20 minutes and overtime (stoppage time, time-keepers acting upon central umpire signals to determine how long). After every quarter the teams swap direction. The quarter is started when the umpire blows his whistle and bounces the ball in the middle of the field (similar to a basketball "tip")and opposing players try to tap or punch the ball to their team-mates.
The idea of the game is to kick more goals than the other team. At each end of the field are 4 poles. Players score points by kicking the ball between the poles. A goal is a kick between the centermost posts. It is worth 6 points. A Behind (worth 1 point) is a kick that goes between the outer posts. Players can bounce the ball and hit it with their hand (handball it) to other players . And is the only "football" code where the major score can ONLY be scored with the foot.
[change] Present Teams
| Club | City, State | Home Ground |
| Adelaide Crows | Adelaide , South Australia | AAMI Stadium |
| Brisbane Lions | Brisbane , Queensland | Brisbane Cricket Ground (The 'Gabbaâ' ) |
| Carlton Blues | Carlton , Victoria | Telstra Dome/ Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) |
| Collingwood Magpies | Collingwood , Victoria | Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) |
| Essendon Bombers | Essendon , Victoria | Telstra Dome |
| Fremantle Dockers | Fremantle , Western Australia | Subiaco Oval |
| Geelong Cats | Geelong , Victoria | Skilled Stadium |
| Hawthorn Hawks | Hawthorn , Victoria | Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) |
| Kangaroos | North Melbourne , Victoria | Telstra Dome |
| Melbourne Demons | Melbourne , Victoria | Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) |
| Port Adelaide Power | Port Adelaide , South Australia | AAMI Stadium |
| Richmond Tigers | Richmond , Victoria | Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) |
| St Kilda Saints | St Kilda , Victoria | Telstra Dome |
| Sydney Swans | Sydney , New South Wales | Sydney Cricket Ground ( SCG)/ Telstra Stadium |
| West Coast Eagles | Perth , Western Australia | Subiaco Oval |
| Western Bulldogs | Footscray , Victoria | Telstra Dome |
[change] Individual Major Awards
- Brownlow Medal (best and fairest )
- Coleman Medal (most goals )
- AFL Rising Star (best young player)
- Leigh Matthews Trophy (most valuable player voted by the players )
- Norm Smith Medal (best player in Grand Final)
- Michael Tuck (best player in pre -season Grand Final)
- AFL Mark of the Year (award for best mark in season)
- AFL Goal of the Year (award for best goal in season)
- All Australian Team (team made up of the best players from all clubs )
- Club Best and Fairest Awards (best player in a club)
