60 Fun Facts About Australian Rules Football

How many points is a goal worth in Australian rules football?

A behind, kicked between a goal post and a behind post, is worth one point.

How many players does each team have on the field in a standard AFL match?

The VFL cut teams from 20 to 18 after it formed; four interchange players sit on the bench.

A player running with the ball must bounce it or touch it on the ground at least once every how many metres?

The running bounce, formalised in 1866, was called the "first distinctively Victorian rule".

A player who cleanly catches a kick that has travelled at least 15 metres is awarded what?

A shorter kick caught cleanly is simply "play on"; a spectacular mark is a specky, screamer or hanger.

A standard match is split into four quarters of how many minutes of playing time?

The clock stops for scores and other stoppages; AFLW quarters are 17 minutes.

How far apart are the two goal posts?

Each behind post stands a further 6.4 metres to the side of a goal post.

Which company makes the standard match ball used in the AFL?

Thomas Sherrin made the first Australian rules ball in 1880 after being given a misshapen rugby ball to fix.

Which two ball colours are the only ones used at AFL level?

Yellow is used for games starting after 3 pm or under a roof, for visibility and score reviews.

Who wrote the July 1858 letter calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit in winter?

Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, had been educated in England.

Tom Wills was educated at which English public school, where he captained the cricket XI and played its early form of football?

His biographer Greg de Moore concluded he was "almost solely influenced" by his time there.

The 1858 match between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, umpired by Wills and John Macadam, was played how many a side?

It stretched over three Saturdays and ended one goal apiece; the schools still contest the Cordner-Eggleston Cup.

The Melbourne Football Club, one of the world's oldest football clubs, was officially established on 14 May of which year?

Three days later Wills, Hammersley, Thompson and Thomas Smith drafted ten rules at the Parade Hotel.

How many rules did the Melbourne Football Club draft at the Parade Hotel in May of its founding year?

They banned the shin-kicking "hacking" of English school games and were distributed throughout the colony.

The original Melbourne rules notably left out which law common to English school football?

Mark Pennings writes that the code was as much a reaction against the school games as influenced by them.

Which Aboriginal ball game, played with a possum-skin ball, has been proposed since 1983 as an influence on Tom Wills?

The evidence is only circumstantial; the Warlpiri played a similar game called pultja.

The running bounce was formalised in 1866 at a meeting chaired by which pioneer, Tom Wills' cousin?

He had taken up football at Wills' invitation.

The oldest football club in Australia outside Victoria was formed in 1860 in which city?

The South Australian Football Association, the sport's first governing body, followed in April 1877, a month before the VFA.

The Victorian Football League broke away from the VFA and held its first season in which year?

Six wealthy clubs led the split and were joined by Collingwood and St Kilda.

Which two clubs joined the VFL in 1908?

University later left the league during the First World War; three more clubs arrived in 1925.

Which VFL club relocated to Sydney in 1982 and became the Swans?

Two more non-Victorian clubs, from Perth and Brisbane, followed five years later.

The VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League for which season?

Three more non-Victorian clubs joined over the following decade.

Which club is the only pre-existing non-Victorian club to have joined the AFL, in 1997?

It came from the SANFL; the others were founded specifically for the national league.

Which two clubs were added to the AFL in 2011 and 2012, bringing it to 18 teams?

Tasmania Football Club secured the 19th licence in 2023 and is set to play by 2028.

The imaginary line dividing rugby-following New South Wales and Queensland from the rest of Australia is named after which VFL star?

Scholar Ian Turner coined the "Barassi Line" in 1978.

The AFL Grand Final is traditionally played on the afternoon of the last Saturday of which month?

The winners receive the premiership cup and flag, and each player a gold medallion.

What is the record Grand Final attendance, set at the MCG in 1970?

The winners came from 44 points down at half-time to win by 10 points.

Which forward took the famous 1970 Grand Final mark that prompted the commentator's cry of "...you beauty"?

The mark came in the record-crowd game his side won after trailing by 44 points at half-time.

The first drawn Grand Final, which forced a full replay the following week, took place in which year?

North Melbourne and Collingwood drew again in 1977, the year live telecasts began in Victoria.

Which three clubs shared the record of 16 VFL/AFL premierships after the 2025 season?

Essendon won two of its 16 before the Grand Final era began in 1898.

Which club became the first non-Victorian side to win a Grand Final, in 1992?

The Eagles had also been the first non-Victorian club to reach the decider, in 1991.

Which club won three premierships in a row from 2001 to 2003?

Between 1992 and 2006 non-Victorian clubs won ten of fifteen Grand Finals.

During the Second World War, the MCG was requisitioned and Grand Finals were played at which club's Princes Park in 1942, 1943 and 1945?

The 1944 decider was held at the St Kilda Cricket Ground.

The Brownlow Medal, awarded to the AFL's best and fairest, is named after a former secretary of which club?

Charles Brownlow died in January 1924, months before the first medal was struck.

Who casts the votes that decide the Brownlow Medal?

After each match the umpires confer to award 3, 2 and 1 votes; the fairest clause excludes anyone suspended during the season.

The SANFL's equivalent of the Brownlow, first awarded in 1898, is which award?

The WAFL's Sandover Medal dates from 1921; the VFL was the last of the three leagues to create such an award.

The Norm Smith Medal for best on ground in the Grand Final was first awarded in 1979 to which player from the premiership side?

Norm Smith won four premierships as a Melbourne player and six as its coach.

John Coleman, after whom the leading-goalkicker medal is named, kicked 537 goals in how many games between 1949 and 1954?

The Coleman Medal was first presented in 1981, to Richmond's Michael Roach.

Which club has won the most Norm Smith Medals?

Its players have taken the award eight times.

"Plugger" Tony Lockett holds the VFL/AFL career goals record with how many?

He passed Gordon Coventry's 62-year-old record with his 1,300th goal in 1999.

Tony Lockett became the first full-forward to win the Brownlow Medal in which year?

He also won four Coleman Medals and topped 100 goals in a season six times, a record shared with Jason Dunstall.

Gary Ablett Sr won the Norm Smith Medal in 1989 for kicking how many goals in a losing Grand Final?

It tied Gordon Coventry's outright Grand Final record; his nickname was "God".

Which great, nicknamed "Lethal", is officially recognised by the AFL as the best player of the 20th century?

He later coached two clubs to premierships.

Which North Melbourne captain, nicknamed "The King", was named the game's greatest-ever player in a 2008 AFL 150th-anniversary list?

He captained the Kangaroos to the 1996 and 1999 premierships before leaving in disgrace in 2002.

The MCG's total capacity, including standing room, is approximately how many?

It is the largest stadium in Australia and the second-largest cricket stadium in the world.

The Melbourne Cricket Club selected the current MCG site in which year?

The MCC itself was founded in November 1838 and still manages the ground.

How many teams played in the inaugural AFL Women's season in 2017?

The league reached 18 teams in 2022.

The hybrid International Rules Series pits Australia against which country?

It has been played intermittently since 1984, blending Australian rules with Gaelic football and using a round ball.

The annual Anzac Day match is played between Collingwood and which club?

It commemorates the heavy losses football suffered in both world wars.

The Origin rules introduced to interstate football in 1977 changed selection how?

It broke Victoria's stranglehold on state titles; the AFL abolished State of Origin in 1999.

Tom Wills, the game's founding figure, died in 1880 in what manner?

He was suffering from delirium tremens; earlier he had survived the 1861 Cullin-la-ringo massacre and captained an Aboriginal cricket team.

The football maker whose Collingwood workshop produced the first Australian rules ball was sold in 1972 to the Australian arm of which US sporting-goods firm?

Sherrin's Collingwood workshop had made footballs, cricket balls and boxing gloves since 1880.

How many interchange players may each team keep on the bench in a standard match?

They can be swapped with players on the field at any time; some leagues in remote areas field as few as 12 players a side.

Which Victorian club merged with the Brisbane Bears at the end of 1996 to form the Brisbane Lions?

A proposed Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos merger was voted down by the other clubs; Fitzroy resumed playing in the VAFA in 2009.

Which club joined the AFL in 1995 as the second team from Western Australia?

The Dockers were the fifth non-Victorian club in the competition, following the Eagles, Bears, Crows and Swans.

What may an umpire award for unsportsmanlike conduct after a free kick or mark has been paid?

Further penalties can be stacked if the behaviour continues, marching the ball ever closer to goal.

Since the 1920s it has been suggested the game derived from which Irish sport?

There is no archival evidence for the link; the shared style appeared in Australia before the Irish game evolved in that direction.

What free kick is paid against a legally tackled player who fails to dispose of possession?

The umpire can waive it if the player had no prior opportunity to get rid of it before being tackled.

The Dreamtime at the 'G match is the centrepiece of which themed week of the AFL season?

Every player wears a guernsey with a specially commissioned artwork, and some clubs adopt Indigenous names for the round.

Which league-owned venue at Waverley opened in April 1970?

The ground was meant to rival the MCG but was later sold off for housing.

In which decade did women's state leagues first emerge?

The AFL announced plans for a national semi-professional women's competition in 2013; AFLW kicked off in 2017.