Afl Football Programs' title='Afl Football Programs' />Australian rules football Wikipedia. Australian football. Highest governing body. AFL Commission. Nicknames. Football, footy, Aussie rules, AFLFirst played. May 1. 85. 9 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Registered players. Clubs. 25,7. 70 2. Provides news, previews, fixtures, results, statistics, awards and sponsor information. The official AFL website of the Adelaide Crows Football Club. The official AFL website of the Collingwood Football Club. Characteristics. Contact. Full contact. Team members. Mixed gender. Yes. Type. Outdoor. Equipment. Football. Presence. Olympic. Demonstration sport, 1. Melbourne Olympics. Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football,2 or simply called football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of eighteen players on an oval shaped field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval shaped ball between the opposing goal posts worth six points or behind posts worth one point. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins unless a draw is declared. During general play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their bodies to move the ball. The primary methods are kicking, handballing and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled for example, players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground. The home of the NAB AFL Womens. Who are you supporting in the 2018 NAB AFLW competition Our Stories, The Next Gen, Women of AFLW, The People. The official AFL website of the Melbourne Football Club. News, competitions, calendar, leagues and clubs, results and history. Australian rules football is known by several nicknames, including Aussie rules, football and footy. In some regions, it is marketed as AFL after the Australian. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick with specific conditions are awarded possession. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick or mark is paid. Players can tackle using their hands or use their whole body to obstruct opponents. Dangerous physical contact such as pushing an opponent in the back, interference when marking and deliberately slowing the play are discouraged with free kicks, distance penalties or suspension for a certain number of matches, depending on the seriousness of the infringement. The game features frequent physical contests, spectacular marking, fast movement of both players and the ball and high scoring. Building Construction Process Step By Step Pdf more. The sports origins can be traced to football matches played in Melbourne, Victoria in 1. English public school football games. Seeking to develop a game more suited to adults and Australian conditions, the Melbourne Football Club published the first laws of Australian football in May 1. Australian football has the highest spectator attendance and television viewership of all sports in Australia,78 while the Australian Football League AFL, the sports only fully professional competition, is the nations wealthiest sporting body. Its annual grand final is the highest attended club championship event in the world. The sport is also played at amateur level in many countries and in several variations. The games rules are governed by the AFL Commission with the advice of the AFLs Laws of the Game Committee. Etymology and nameseditAustralian rules football is known by several nicknames, including Aussie rules, football and footy. In some regions, it is marketed as AFL after the Australian Football League. HistoryeditOriginsedit. Statue next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the approximate site of the 1. Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College. Tom Wills is depicted umpiring behind two young players contesting the ball. The plaque reads that Wills did more than any other person as a footballer and umpire, co writer of the rules and promoter of the game to develop Australian football during its first decade. There is evidence of football being played sporadically in the Australian colonies in the first half of the 1. Compared to cricket and horse racing, football was viewed as a minor amusement at the time, and while little is known about these early one off games, it is clear they share no causal link with Australian football. In 1. 85. 8, in a move that would help to shape Australian football in its formative years, public schools in Melbourne, Victoria began organising football games inspired by precedents at English public schools. The earliest such match, held in St Kilda on 1. June, was between Melbourne Grammar and St Kilda Grammar. On 1. 0 July 1. 85. Melbourne based Bells Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle published a letter by Tom Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, calling for the formation of a foot ball club with a code of laws to keep cricketers fit during winter. Born in Australia, Wills played a nascent form of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School in England, and returned to his homeland a star athlete and cricketer. His letter is regarded by many historians as giving impetus for the development of a new code of football today known as Australian football. Two weeks later, Wills friend, cricketer Jerry Bryant, posted an advertisement for a scratch match at the Richmond Paddock adjoining the Melbourne Cricket Ground MCG. This was the first of several kickabouts held that year involving members of the Melbourne Cricket Club, including Wills, Bryant, W. J. Hammersley and J. B. Thompson. Trees were used as goalposts and play typically lasted an entire afternoon. Without an agreed upon code of laws, some players were guided by rules they had learned in the British Isles, others by no rules at all. Another significant milestone in 1. Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, held at the Richmond Paddock. This 4. 0 a side contest, umpired by Wills and Scotch College teacher John Macadam, began on 7 August and continued over two subsequent Saturdays, ending in a draw with each side kicking one goal. It is commemorated with a statue outside the MCG, and the two schools have competed annually ever since in the Cordner Eggleston Cup, the worlds oldest continuous football competition. Since the early 2. Australian football was derived from the Irish sport of Gaelic football, which was not codified until 1. There is no archival evidence in favour of a Gaelic influence, and the style of play shared between the two modern codes was evident in Australia long before the Irish game evolved in a similar direction. Another theory, first proposed in 1. Wills, having grown up amongst Aborigines in Victoria, may have seen or played the Aboriginal game of Marn Grook, and incorporated some of its features into early Australian football. This evidence for this is only circumstantial, and according to biographer Greg de Moores research, Wills was almost solely influenced by his experience at Rugby School. First ruleseditA loosely organised Melbourne side, captained by Wills, played against other football enthusiasts in the winter and spring of 1. The following year, on 1. May, the Melbourne Football Club officially came into being, making it one of the worlds oldest football clubs. Three days later, Wills, Hammersley, Thompson and teacher Thomas H. Smith met near the MCG at the Parade Hotel, owned by Bryant, and drafted ten rules The Rules of the Melbourne Football Club. These are the laws from which Australian football evolved. The document was signed by the rule framers and three other club office bearers Alex Bruce, T. Butterworth and J. Sewell. The clubs stated aim was to create a simple code that was suited to the hard playing surfaces around Melbourne, and to eliminate the roughest aspects of English school gamessuch as hacking shin kicking in Rugby School footballto lessen the chance of injuries to working men. In another significant departure from English public school football, the Melbourne rules omitted any offside law.