Australian Rules Football Trivia
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60 free Australian Rules Football trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Australian rules football trivia quiz covers the game from Tom Wills' 1858 letter to the modern AFL. The easy questions are the ones any footy fan knows: how many points a goal is worth, how many players a side, what a mark is, how far you can run before bouncing, where the Grand Final is played and which company makes the ball. From there it moves into the history: the Melbourne Football Club's ten rules of 1859, the running bounce of 1866, the VFL breakaway of 1897, South Melbourne's move to Sydney and the renaming to the AFL in 1990. The hard end covers the record books and the honours: the 1970 Grand Final crowd of 121,696 and Jesaulenko's mark, the drawn deciders of 1948 and 1977, the Brownlow's 3-2-1 votes and the fairest clause, the Norm Smith and Coleman medals, Tony Lockett's 1,360 goals, Gary Ablett's nine in a losing Grand Final, Leigh Matthews' player-of-the-century status, the Marn Grook theory, the Barassi Line, AFLW's first premiers and the international rules series with Ireland. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the sport, the AFL, its awards, grounds and players, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many points is a goal worth in Australian rules football?
Six
A behind, kicked between a goal post and a behind post, is worth one point.
Q 02How many players does each team have on the field in a standard AFL match?
18
The VFL cut teams from 20 to 18 after it formed; four interchange players sit on the bench.
Q 03A player running with the ball must bounce it or touch it on the ground at least once every how many metres?
15
The running bounce, formalised in 1866, was called the "first distinctively Victorian rule".
Q 04A player who cleanly catches a kick that has travelled at least 15 metres is awarded what?
A mark
A shorter kick caught cleanly is simply "play on"; a spectacular mark is a specky, screamer or hanger.
Q 05A standard match is split into four quarters of how many minutes of playing time?
20
The clock stops for scores and other stoppages; AFLW quarters are 17 minutes.
Q 06How far apart are the two goal posts?
6.4 m
Each behind post stands a further 6.4 metres to the side of a goal post.
Q 07Which company makes the standard match ball used in the AFL?
Sherrin
Thomas Sherrin made the first Australian rules ball in 1880 after being given a misshapen rugby ball to fix.
Q 08Which two ball colours are the only ones used at AFL level?
Red and yellow
Yellow is used for games starting after 3 pm or under a roof, for visibility and score reviews.
Q 09Who wrote the July 1858 letter calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep cricketers fit in winter?
Tom Wills
Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team, had been educated in England.
Q 10Tom Wills was educated at which English public school, where he captained the cricket XI and played its early form of football?
Rugby
His biographer Greg de Moore concluded he was "almost solely influenced" by his time there.
Q 11The 1858 match between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College, umpired by Wills and John Macadam, was played how many a side?
40
It stretched over three Saturdays and ended one goal apiece; the schools still contest the Cordner-Eggleston Cup.
Q 12The Melbourne Football Club, one of the world's oldest football clubs, was officially established on 14 May of which year?
1859
Three days later Wills, Hammersley, Thompson and Thomas Smith drafted ten rules at the Parade Hotel.
Q 13How many rules did the Melbourne Football Club draft at the Parade Hotel in May of its founding year?
Ten
They banned the shin-kicking "hacking" of English school games and were distributed throughout the colony.
Q 21The VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League for which season?
1990
Three more non-Victorian clubs joined over the following decade.
Q 22Which club is the only pre-existing non-Victorian club to have joined the AFL, in 1997?
Port Adelaide
It came from the SANFL; the others were founded specifically for the national league.
Q 23Which two clubs were added to the AFL in 2011 and 2012, bringing it to 18 teams?
Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney
Tasmania Football Club secured the 19th licence in 2023 and is set to play by 2028.
Q 14The original Melbourne rules notably left out which law common to English school football?
Offside
Mark Pennings writes that the code was as much a reaction against the school games as influenced by them.
Q 15Which Aboriginal ball game, played with a possum-skin ball, has been proposed since 1983 as an influence on Tom Wills?
Marn Grook
The evidence is only circumstantial; the Warlpiri played a similar game called pultja.
Q 16The running bounce was formalised in 1866 at a meeting chaired by which pioneer, Tom Wills' cousin?
H. C. A. Harrison
He had taken up football at Wills' invitation.
Q 17The oldest football club in Australia outside Victoria was formed in 1860 in which city?
Adelaide
The South Australian Football Association, the sport's first governing body, followed in April 1877, a month before the VFA.
Q 18The Victorian Football League broke away from the VFA and held its first season in which year?
1897
Six wealthy clubs led the split and were joined by Collingwood and St Kilda.
Q 19Which two clubs joined the VFL in 1908?
Richmond and University
University later left the league during the First World War; three more clubs arrived in 1925.
Q 20Which VFL club relocated to Sydney in 1982 and became the Swans?
South Melbourne
Two more non-Victorian clubs, from Perth and Brisbane, followed five years later.
Q 24The imaginary line dividing rugby-following New South Wales and Queensland from the rest of Australia is named after which VFL star?
Ron Barassi
Scholar Ian Turner coined the "Barassi Line" in 1978.
Q 25The AFL Grand Final is traditionally played on the afternoon of the last Saturday of which month?
September
The winners receive the premiership cup and flag, and each player a gold medallion.
Q 26What is the record Grand Final attendance, set at the MCG in 1970?
121,696
The winners came from 44 points down at half-time to win by 10 points.
Q 27Which forward took the famous 1970 Grand Final mark that prompted the commentator's cry of "...you beauty"?
Alex Jesaulenko
The mark came in the record-crowd game his side won after trailing by 44 points at half-time.
Q 28The first drawn Grand Final, which forced a full replay the following week, took place in which year?
1948
North Melbourne and Collingwood drew again in 1977, the year live telecasts began in Victoria.
Q 29Which three clubs shared the record of 16 VFL/AFL premierships after the 2025 season?
Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon
Essendon won two of its 16 before the Grand Final era began in 1898.
Q 30Which club became the first non-Victorian side to win a Grand Final, in 1992?
West Coast
The Eagles had also been the first non-Victorian club to reach the decider, in 1991.