179-465: The Australian National Football Council (ANFC) was the national governing body for Australian rules football in Australia from 1906 until 1995. The council was a body of delegates representing each of the principal leagues which controlled the sport in their respective regions. The council was the owner of the laws of the game and managed interstate administrative and football matters. Its function
358-638: A dominion , leagues were also established in the major cities. This renewed popularity helped encourage the formation of the Australasian Football Council , which in 1908 in Melbourne staged the first national interstate competition, the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival , with teams representing each state and New Zealand. The game was also established early on in the new territories. In
537-571: A playoff match to determine the season's premiership; this was the first time this had occurred in VFA history. The match took place on 3 October 1896 at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground . Collingwood won the match, six goals to five, in front of an estimated crowd of 12,000. This grand final would be the last match South Melbourne would play in the VFA, as the following season they would be one of eight founding clubs forming
716-645: A Sydney team, dismissed the Canberra bid publishing a scathing report on the development of football in the ACT, stating that the VFL might consider Canberra for a licence in another 10 years. Aylett's view was that Sydney offered a much bigger television audience and the most potential to add to the league's lucrative television rights. The league had also estimated that the club could initially draw support from an estimated 300,000 ex-Victorians living in and around Sydney. With
895-591: A VFL club to Sydney. The idea began to gain traction and in 1977, Ron Barassi proposed the VFL setting up a club in Sydney, which he offered to coach believing that it would help spread the code in the state. Upon becoming league president, Aylett had the league investigated playing Sunday matches at the SCG. The VFL scheduled 2 premiership matches for the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1979. One of them, between
1074-682: A binding national governing body persisted, and after an agreement was reached at a conference of state delegates in November 1905, the Australasian Football Council was formally established during 1906, with its inaugural meeting taking place at the Port Phillip Hotel in Melbourne on 7 November 1906. The council's initial structure was that each state and New Zealand would have two delegates who would discuss and vote on matters. The decision to appoint two delegates
1253-507: A century, it had strategically scheduled matches in Sydney and through the Australian National Football Council – had allocated a significant share of its marketing budget to developing the code in Sydney, showcasing interstate tournaments and encouraging its clubs to play against the state representative side. At one point, it even attempted to negotiate a hybrid code with rugby league . However interest in
1432-517: A century. State of Origin rules, introduced in 1977, stipulated that rather than representing the state of their adopted club, players would return to play for the state they were first recruited in. This instantly broke Victoria's stranglehold over state titles and Western Australia and South Australia began to win more of their games against Victoria. Both New South Wales and Tasmania scored surprise victories at home against Victoria in 1990. The term " Barassi Line ", named after VFL star Ron Barassi ,
1611-490: A certain number of matches depending on the severity of the infringement. The game features frequent physical contests, spectacular marking , fast movement of both players and the ball, and high scoring. The sport's origins can be traced to football matches played in Melbourne , Victoria , in 1858, inspired by English public school football games . Seeking to develop a game more suited to adults and Australian conditions,
1790-516: A founding member in 1897. Originally known as the "Bloods" in reference to the red colour used on players' guernseys , the Swan emblem was adopted in 1933 after a journalist at the time referred to them using the moniker following a large influx of Western Australian players. In 1982, it became the first professional Australian football club to permanently relocate interstate (from Victoria to New South Wales). Initially playing in Sydney as "The Swans", it
1969-508: A full senior team, may have contributed to its absence during the football season competition begun in the 1870s. Throughout this period South Melbourne, along with neighbouring Cup member club Albert Park, had experimented with rugby football rules which in May 1874 had advocated strongly for their widespread adoption in Victoria; however, this did not meet favour with the more powerful clubs in
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#17327730777282148-419: A game for either medical or tactical reasons. Players on the playing surface can be swapped with those on the interchange bench at any time. They must though pass through a designated "Interchange Area". In the event a player fails to pass through this area correctly, or if too many players from one team are found to be on the ground at a time, a free kick will be awarded to the opposing side. While there
2327-577: A goal before travelling to Sydney where it defeated Sydney by just a single goal in front of a large crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground and East Sydney Football Club by a goal in front of 600 spectators. In May 1889, the Swans lost narrowly to a touring Maori team from New Zealand . At the end of the 1896 season, Collingwood and South Melbourne finished equal at the top of the VFA's premiership ladder with records of 14–3–1, requiring
2506-467: A key part of the Sydney side, at a league-determined total fee of $ 240,000 (less than the $ 500,000 Geelong demanded and even the $ 300,000 Sydney offered). The likes of Gerard Healy , Merv Neagle and Paul Morwood were also poached from other clubs, and failed approaches were made to Simon Madden , Terry Daniher , Andrew Bews and Maurice Rioli . During the Edelsten years, the Swans were seen by
2685-402: A loss of at least $ 150,000 for the previous five years. News of the proposal broke on 2 July 1981, after which a letter was sent to members justifying the board's reasons for making the proposal and noting that the coach and current players were in favour of the move. On 29 July 1981, the VFL formally accepted the proposal, and paved the way for the Swans to shift to Sydney in 1982. Inevitably,
2864-399: A mark is taken, a small protected zone is established on the field, extending 10 metres (11 yd) either side of "the mark" and the player who marked the ball, with a small protected corridor between "the mark" and the player. The opposition player is permitted to jump, but is not allowed to move from their position on "the mark". Any other movements result in a distance penalty (50 metres in
3043-772: A meeting was held at the Clarendon Hotel in South Melbourne to establish a junior football club, to be called the South Melbourne Football Club . The club commenced playing in 1874 at its home ground, Lakeside Oval in Albert Park . Playing as South Melbourne, it participated in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) competition from 1878 before joining the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL) as
3222-522: A player breaks a rule, a free kick is awarded to the opposing team, from the location that the misconduct occurred, or the ball's current location—whichever is closer to the team's scoring zone. As when a mark is taken, this location is called "the mark", and the same protections regarding the space apply. Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney , New South Wales . The men's team competes in
3401-485: A possible 14th team. The VFL was under strong pressure from interests in Adelaide to admit a South Australian club and from the ACT for a new Canberra license, however VFL president Allan Aylett was convinced that Sydney was the most viable option. By 1981, Canberra's ACTAFL had edged out rugby league in popularity with an increase in participation it had become the number one sport. Under significant pressure from
3580-566: A proposed hybrid code of Australian football and rugby league , the predominant code of football in New South Wales and Queensland, was trialled without success. In Queensland, the state league went into recess for the duration of the war. VFL club University left the league and went into recess due to severe casualties. The WAFL lost two clubs and the SANFL was suspended for one year in 1916 due to heavy club losses. The Anzac Day match ,
3759-888: A pupil at Rugby School in England, and returned to his homeland a star athlete and cricketer. 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
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#17327730777283938-404: A rugby league junior development push and fearing the impact on its strong local competition of entry of a Sydney team made a formal bid for licence to enter a Canberra team into the VFL. With corporate backing and strong public support including local legend Alex Jesaulenko , the Canberra bid was confident it would be a successful expansion club. Aylett however, determined to pursue the entry of
4117-456: A second-tier status. The VFA merged with the former VFL reserves competition in 1998, adopting the VFL name. State of Origin also declined in importance, especially after an increasing number of player withdrawals. The AFL turned its focus to the annual International Rules Series against Ireland in 1998 before abolishing State of Origin the following year. State and territorial leagues still contest interstate matches, as do AFL Women players. In
4296-513: A select few ways as defined by the Laws of Australian Football, published by the AFL. The ball can be propelled in any direction by way of a kick or a clenched fist (called a handball )—deemed a correct disposal. Failure to dispose of the ball in one of these two methods will result in a free kick to the opposing team. If the ball is not currently in a player's possession, it can be moved legally through
4475-485: A shift was typical of many football bodies during the 1980s, which had replaced delegate-based boards of management with independent commissions to both streamline and remove self-interest from decision-making. The new rules commission comprised two VFL delegates, one SANFL delegate, one AAFC delegate and the NFL president. As the football landscape shifted in the 1980s, the NFL's utility and relevance declined. The relocation of
4654-567: A similar situation existing in Western Australia in the sport, the VFL pursued a more national competition. Two more non-Victorian clubs, West Coast and Brisbane , joined the league in 1987 generating more than $ 8 million in license revenue for the Victorian clubs and increasing broadcast revenues which helped the Victorian clubs survive. In their early years, the Sydney and Brisbane clubs struggled both on and off-field because
4833-498: A slightly modified version of the Victorian game in 1879. The South Australian Football Association (SAFA), the sport's first governing body , formed on 30 April 1877, firmly establishing Victorian rules as the preferred code in that colony. The Victorian Football Association (VFA) formed the following month. Clubs began touring the colonies in the late 1870s, and in 1879 the first intercolonial match took place in Melbourne between Victoria and South Australia . To standardise
5012-406: A technique known shepherding when the ball is within 5 metres (5.5 yd) of an opposition player. Shepherding involves the use of a player's body to push, bump or otherwise block an opposition player, providing they do not have possession of the ball. If a player takes possession of the ball that has travelled more than 15 metres (16 yd) from another player's kick, by way of a catch within
5191-427: A uniform code known as "Victorian rules". In 1866, the "first distinctively Victorian rule", the running bounce , was formalised at a meeting of club delegates chaired by H. C. A. Harrison , an influential pioneer who took up football in 1859 at the invitation of Wills, his cousin. The game around this time was defensive and low-scoring, played low to the ground in congested rugby-style scrimmages. The typical match
5370-414: Is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field , often a modified cricket ground . Points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts (worth six points), or between a central and outer post (worth one point, otherwise known as a "behind"). During general play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their bodies to move
5549-405: Is analogous to a basketball center and as such rucks are typically the tallest player on the team. Lifting teammates is not allowed so the ruck may only jump to reach the ball. If the ruck does not take possession of the football, it must must be tapped or fisted, which is known as a hit-out. An effective hit-out that passes the ball to a teammate is known as a hit-out to advantage. In the event
Australian National Football Council - Misplaced Pages Continue
5728-481: Is known about these early one-off games, evidence does not support a causal link with Australian football. In Melbourne , in 1858, in a move that would help to shape Australian football in its formative years, private schools (then termed " public schools " in accordance with nomenclature in England) began organising football games inspired by precedents at English public schools . The earliest match, held on 15 June,
5907-460: Is known as the Goal Line. Around the perimeter of the field, two white lines are drawn between the set of behind posts in an arc-shape, marking the field of play. Other field markings include: The 50m arcs, centre square, centre circle and goal square are used at the beginning of each quarter or after each goal. With each team permitted a maximum of six players in each 50m arc, with one in
6086-470: Is no set uniform, the basic equipment for Australian football consists of a guernsey, shorts, socks and boots, with additional pieces of apparel such as headbands and gloves additionally being permitted. Players may wear certain pieces of protective equipment, such as helmets or arm guards, if approved by the relevant controlling body. Mouthguards are strongly recommended for all players. Players are not permitted to wear jewellery, or other materials which
6265-493: Is officiated by at least five match officials, known as an umpire . These match officials are placed into three categories based upon their roles and responsibilities, with varying minimum numbers of Umpires required depending on position: At AFL level, a video score review system is utilised. Only umpires are permitted to request a review, and only scoring shots and potential scoring shots are permitted to be reviewed. An Australian rules football may only be propelled forward in
6444-563: Is the second-highest-attended club championship event in the world . The sport is also played at amateur level in many countries and in several variations . Its rules are governed by the AFL Commission with the advice of the AFL's Laws of the Game Committee. Australian rules football is known by several nicknames, including Aussie rules, football and footy. In some regions, where other codes of football are more popular,
6623-783: Is used. The ball must be inflated to a pressure of 69 kilopascals (10.0 pounds per square inch). There are no defined laws regarding what material a ball must be made from, but standard AFL match-used balls are produced by Sherrin using cowhide leather. While there is no standard colour of the ball, red and yellow are most common and the only colours used at AFL level. Yellow is used for games beginning after 3 pm or in an enclosed stadium, due to its greater visibility, and to assist score reviews. Unlike other forms of football which are played on rectangular fields, Australian rules football playing fields are oval-shaped, and are between 135 and 185 metres (148 and 202 yd) long and 110 and 155 metres (120 and 170 yd) wide. At either end of
6802-485: The ACTAFL initially proposed to buy the failed club and shift it to Canberra, however the VFL claimed this was too extreme a move. The league compromised and along with Aylett, who had denied Canberra a license in 1981, proposed that the Swans play away games in the ACT with a dual aim of giving the club a sustainable supporter base and helping resurrect the code in the ACT which had lost enormous ground to rugby league since
6981-697: The Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The Sydney Swans Academy, consisting of the club's best junior development signings, contests Division 2 of the men's and women's underage national championships and the Talent League . The club's origins trace back to 21 March 1873, when
7160-614: The Essendon Football Club . Both games were at the SCG. The Swans remain one of only two clubs to have scored consecutive team tallies above 200 points, the only other being Geelong in 1992. However, this was followed by several heavy losses, including defeat by Hawthorn by 99 points in the Qualifying Final and by 76 points against Melbourne in the First Semi-final. The club's form was to slump in
7339-494: The Melbourne Football Club published the first laws of Australian football in May 1859. Australian football has the highest spectator attendance and television viewership of all sports in Australia, while the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's only fully professional competition, is the nation's wealthiest sporting body. The AFL Grand Final , held annually at the Melbourne Cricket Ground ,
Australian National Football Council - Misplaced Pages Continue
7518-407: The field umpire has deemed to be either potentially dangerous or increase the risk of injury to other players. Australian rules football is played with an ellipsoid ball, between 72 and 73 cm (28 and 29 in) in long circumference, and 54.5 and 55.5 cm (21.5 and 21.9 in) in short circumference. For women's competitions, a smaller ball size of 69 and 53 cm (27 and 21 in)
7697-426: The previous year's grand finalists North Melbourne and Hawthorn drew a record 31,395 to the gates. In 1979 the financially struggling Fitzroy Lions conducted a feasibility into the possibility of moving to North Sydney and a proposal was put forward, but was voted down by its board in 1980. To test the market further, the VFL scheduled 4 matches for the SCG in 1980 with an average attendance of 19,000. In April 1980,
7876-399: The "Bloods", in reference to the bright red diagonal sash on their white jumpers The colourful epithet the "Bloodstained Angels" was also in use. Following the 1880 amalgamation it became the strongest in metropolitan Melbourne. Over its first decade as an amalgamated club, South Melbourne won five VFA premierships – in 1881, 1885 (undefeated) and three-in-a-row in 1888, 1889 and 1890 – and
8055-409: The "Swanettes", becoming the sole such American-style cheerleading group among VFL teams following the disbandment of Carlton's Blue Birds in 1986. The Swanettes did not get much performance time, owing to the short intervals between quarters of play in the VFL and the lack of space in which they might perform while other activities take place on the field. The Swanettes were rapidly discontinued. During
8234-545: The 1908 Carnival and was the strongest of the three rugby territories; and while the game had proliferated at the amateur and schoolboys' level with New Zealand having spent all of its propaganda disbursements on its junior game, New Zealand's strength as a senior body with council representation was questioned. A motion to exclude New Zealand from the council was raised and defeated in 1910; funding to New Zealand ceased in 1913, with its funds diverted to New South Wales and Queensland; before finally another motion to expel New Zealand
8413-477: The 20,000 average crowds predicted by the VFL's 1980 Hennessy Report). Television ratings and sponsorship revenue in Sydney were also far below the league's expectations. Operating at a loss well short of the VFL's predicted $ 750,000 a year profit poor financial performance continued to drown the club in 1984, with the club flagging pay cuts to its players in order to survive. Coach Ricky Quade resigned and caretaker coach Bob Hammond, despite showing some promise,
8592-612: The 2010s, the AFL signalled further attempts at expanding into markets outside Australian football's traditional heartlands by hosting home-and-away matches in New Zealand, followed by China. After several failed bids since the early 1990s for a Tasmania-based AFL team, the Tasmania Football Club secured the 19th AFL license in 2023, and is set to compete by 2028. In a standard match, a team may consist of anywhere between 14 and 18 players who may be permitted on
8771-530: The AAFC) voted in favour. During this period, the ANFC made a further efficiency improvement with the establishment of a standing committee in 1947. The three-man committee, comprising Melbourne-based delegates from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, did not have the power to make changes but did have the power to carry out administrative matters which had previously required full council approval, such as
8950-537: The AFL rejected this. There were also strong rumours that the AFL intended to merge the club with the Brisbane Bears to form a combined New South Wales/Queensland team, fold altogether, or even move back to South Melbourne. Without adequate alternatives the AFL Commission instead decided to step in and save the club, offering substantial monetary and management support, with the 15 clubs asked to cover
9129-464: The AFL). The player who was awarded the mark may then choose to either dispose of the ball over "the mark" or may choose to attempt disposal via a different method, in which case the field umpire will call "play on"—a verbal instruction to continue play. "Play on" may also be called if the umpire deems the player awarded the mark to be taking an unreasonable amount of time to dispose of the football. Once
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#17327730777289308-472: The AFLW using 17 minutes per quarter. For any given match, two timekeepers are appointed to officiate the duration. The timekeepers record all relevant statistics for the match, such as total quarter duration and score by each team. Additionally timekeepers are required to sound a siren prior to and at the conclusion of each quarter until such time they are acknowledged by the field umpires. To stop and recommence
9487-435: The ANFC was the top level administrative body for the sport of Australian rules football . In this capacity, it served four main functions: The structure of the council mirrored that of most football leagues in Australia at the time: each affiliated full member league appointed a delegate (or, in the early years, two delegates) to the council to act on its behalf in discussions and votes. The decision-making process followed by
9666-471: The ANFC's transfer rules by switching to an un-affiliated league without a clearance would be banned from affiliated leagues. Any penalties imposed by the council were inherently valid only within the council-affiliated competitions, and there was nothing to stop a league or player from ignoring council rules and carrying on in an unaffiliated system – and the Victorian Football Association spent much of its history operating in this manner – however, by virtue of
9845-590: The ANFC, and later the Australian Football Championships (AFC) ran a night series , which invited clubs and representative sides from around the country to participate in a knock-out tournament parallel to the premiership seasons, which Victorian sides still dominated. With the lack of international competition, state representative matches were regarded with great importance. Due in part to the VFL poaching talent from other states, Victoria dominated interstate matches for three-quarters of
10024-484: The Bloodbath ", due to the player brawl that overshadowed the match, with a total of 9 players being reported by the umpires. Carlton won the match by 28 points, and from then on, South Melbourne struggled for many years. Following the end of the second world war, South Melbourne consistently struggled, as their traditional inner-city recruiting district largely emptied as a result of demographic shifts. The club missed
10203-539: The British Isles, "others by no rules at all". Another milestone in 1858 was a 40-a-side match played under experimental rules between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College , held at the Richmond Paddock. Umpired by Wills and teacher John Macadam , it 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
10382-540: The Edelsten era, the club's owner and the private company Westec are reported to have sunk more than $ 10 million in additional private capital to keep the club afloat. When the Southern Cross club went bankrupt in 1987, the club relocated to the newly built Sydney Football Stadium . In 1987, the Swans scored 201 points against the West Coast Eagles and the following week scored 236 points against
10561-531: The Goldfields Football League lost its representation on the council, and in the bitter aftermath it temporarily broke off its relationship with the WAFL, choosing to affiliate with the VFA rather than the WAFL and resulting in the annual Western Australian State Premiership not being contested for the next two years. With the reduction in delegates and the expulsion of New Zealand, the council
10740-527: The Irish game evolved in a similar direction. Another theory, first proposed in 1983, posits that Wills, having grown up among Aboriginals in Victoria, may have seen or played the Aboriginal ball game of Marn Grook , and incorporated some of its features into early Australian football. There is only circumstantial evidence that he knew of the game, and according to biographer Greg de Moore's research, Wills
10919-465: The Keep South at South board resigned and a board in favour of the move to Sydney was installed. In 1982, the club was still technically a Melbourne-based club which played all of its home games at the Sydney Cricket Ground . Its physical "home club" was the "Southern Cross Social Club" at 120a Clovelly Road, Randwick In response to the move, the club's sponsors, Bond Corporation pulled out and
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#173277307772811098-752: 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 club aimed to create a simple code suited to the hard playing surfaces around Melbourne, and to eliminate the roughest aspects of English school games—such as "hacking" (shin-kicking) in Rugby School football—to reduce the risk of injuries to working men. In another significant departure from English public school football,
11277-503: The MCG, and the two schools have since competed annually in the Cordner–Eggleston Cup , the world's oldest continuous football competition . Since the 1920s, it has been suggested that Australian football may have been derived from the Irish sport of Gaelic football . However, there is no archival evidence in favour of a Gaelic influence, and the style of play shared between the two modern codes appeared in Australia long before
11456-576: The Melbourne rules omitted any offside law . "The new code was as much a reaction against the school games as influenced by them", writes Mark Pennings. The rules were distributed throughout the colony; Thompson in particular did much to promote the new code in his capacity as a journalist. Following Melbourne's lead, Geelong and Melbourne University also formed football clubs in 1859. While many early Victorian teams participated in one-off matches, most had not yet formed clubs for regular competition. A South Yarra club devised its own rules. To ensure
11635-406: The NFL was met with anger in other states, and resulted in the SANFL ceasing to play matches against the VFL for the next few years (clubs from the two states had often faced each other in practice matches in previous years). To maintain Victorian representation in its Night Series, which was important for its television deals, the NFL invited the top VFA clubs to compete, despite the fact that the VFA
11814-498: The NFL's historical interstate player transfer system obsolete. By the end of the 1980s, the VFL was so comfortably established as the pre-eminent national competition and was so wholly self-reliant that the NFL had become powerless to impose any meaningful control over it. The NFL was renamed the National Australian Football Council in 1989, then finally dissolved in 1995. The AFL Commission , which
11993-409: The SANFL's Port Adelaide (1997), the only pre-existing club outside Victoria to join the league. In 2011 and 2012, respectively, two new non-Victorian clubs were added to the competition: Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney . The AFL, currently with 18 member clubs, is the sport's elite competition and most powerful body. Following the emergence of the AFL, state leagues were quickly relegated to
12172-600: The Swans had made successive finals appearances for the first time since relocating. His consistently spectacular aerial exploits earned him the Mark of the Year award in 1987 while his goalkicking efforts (amassing 103 goals in 1987) made him runner up in the Coleman Medal two years running. The Swans' successive finals appearances saw crowds during this time peak at an average of around 25,000 per game. Edelsten also introduced
12351-704: The Swans in Sydney was so bad that by the start of the 1985 season, the VFL began to backflip and the league's administrators, having sunk large amounts of money into the club began looking to offload it. On 31 July 1985, for what was thought to be $ 6.3 million, Geoffrey Edelsten "bought" the Swans; in reality it was $ 2.9 million in cash with funding and other payments spread over five years. Edelsten resigned as chairman in less than twelve months, but had already made his mark. He immediately recruited former Geelong coach Tom Hafey . Hafey, in turn, used his knowledge of Geelong's contracts to recruit David Bolton , Bernard Toohey and Greg Williams , who would all form
12530-405: The Sydney public as a flamboyant, flashy club, typified by the style of its spearhead, Warwick Capper , his long bright blond mullet and bright pink boots made him unmissable on the field and his pink Lamborghini, penchant for girlfriends who were fashion models and his general showy eccentricity made him notorious off the field – all somewhat fashionable in the 1980s . During Capper's peak years,
12709-408: The VFA and vice versa . Canberra, where the game had made great progress over the previous decades, was also upgraded from a non-voting delegate to a voting delegate in 1949; and the constitution was amended such that a motion could be carried on a simple majority of the eight voting delegates, provided at least four of the five major delegates (Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and
12888-619: The VFA remained unaffiliated, refusing to affiliate with the league which had seceded from it ten years earlier. Victoria's Con Hickey was made the inaugural president of the council. It was initially decided that clubs affiliated with the state controlling bodies would be charged a levy equal to 5% of their income to finance the council's activities, which included the expense of holding meetings, and for propaganda campaigns and developing school football in Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand, all of which were rugby football territories;
13067-412: The VFA's rules as a matter of preference, and others adopting the amateur rules due to their close association with their Old Boys ' amateur football clubs. This made the ANFC's national administrative role increasingly difficult to carry out, particularly as the schism was centred in the sport's heartland state of Victoria. Ending this schism was the priority of the ANFC throughout the 1940s, and in 1949
13246-494: The VFL ceased recognition of VFA clearances in retribution for the VFA's introduction of excessive transfer fees on its players. The ANFC initially found itself powerless to stop the clearance war, as it had jurisdiction only over interstate clearances; so a regulation change was approved at the council before the 1969 season to force two Victorian bodies to recognise each other's clearances again. The VFA refused to comply, and after continuing to field VFL players without clearances, it
13425-530: The VFL in 1987, and finally the Adelaide Crows in 1991, gave the VFL (which was renamed the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990) a further national influence. The Silvio Foschini restraint of trade case in 1983, the introduction of the VFL Draft in 1986, increasing professionalism and the consolidation of the AFL as the highest level competition in all states of Australia gradually made much of
13604-432: The VFL paid Powerplay just $ 10 to transfer ownership of the club in an attempt to keep it afloat until a buyer could be found. The VFL would wait months for the club to regain financial security. The VFL had reported that it needed to find a buyer willing to pay at least $ 4 million in order to make the club financially viable in the medium to long term. In the meantime, the league had secured a sponsor which helped underwrite
13783-404: The VFL stated that its market study showed there was sufficient support for a Sydney team, finding that there was an increase in television ratings in Sydney and sustained attendance at matches and that it intended to have a team in Sydney, possibly as soon as 1982. A 1981 report by Graham Huggins concluded that there was an "untapped market in Sydney which represented an excellent opportunity for
13962-544: The VFL's South Melbourne Football Club into Sydney to become the Sydney Swans in 1982 gave the VFL a strong influence in New South Wales, and it began to seek recruiting zones and therefore player transfer controls in New South Wales and the ACT, eroding the traditional notion of state controlling bodies. In 1985, in a bid to stay relevant, the NFL proposed a move of its head office to Canberra , to improve its access to federal sports funding to stay relevant in light of
14141-494: The VFL's Night Series in 1979, and the SANFL clubs switched in 1980, bringing an end to the NFL's Night Series. This power play, coupled with the election of VFL president Dr Allen Aylett – who had been heavily involved in the rival night series – to the NFL presidency, left the VFL with a more powerful position in national football administration. In 1981, the Northern Territory Football League
14320-461: The VFL's expansion to Sydney. The National Football League in 1985 began to advocate for a 12 team national club competition to begin in 1987 as an expansion of the VFL. Much of this masterplan was later followed by the AFL with the notable exceptions being the recommended reduction of Victorian teams and removal of the independent national governing body. In its final years, the NAFC was instrumental in
14499-629: The VFL) the controlling bodies took names ending with 'Australian National Football League' – resulting in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), Western Australian National Football League (WANFL), Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL), etc. Through the 1920s and into the 1930s, the council's ability to manage the game was hindered by conservative procedural provisions, so some changes were made to streamline its operation: Through
14678-487: The allocation of propaganda funds. The VFA was granted a voting delegate in 1953, bringing the council to nine voting delegates. However, the VFA's time in the council was short-lived following a domestic clearance dispute in Victoria: in 1965, the VFA ceased recognition of VFL clearances in retribution for two takeovers of VFA club grounds by VFL clubs ( St Kilda at Moorabbin and North Melbourne at Coburg ); then in 1967,
14857-489: The annual game between Essendon and Collingwood on Anzac Day, is one example of how the war continues to be remembered in the football community. The role of the Australian National Football Council (ANFC) was primarily to govern the game at a national level and to facilitate interstate representative and club competition. In 1968, the ANFC revived the Championship of Australia , a competition first held in 1888 between
15036-472: The ball and re-introduced the boundary throw-in, and by aggressively recruiting VFL players without clearances, causing a football schism in Victoria and Tasmania. The AAFC also played with different rules to the ANFC, although its differences were not as significant as in the VFA. This meant three distinct variants of Australian rules football were being played in Victoria, and this lack of uniformity filtered down to developmental levels, with many schools adopting
15215-473: The ball from a kick (with specific conditions) are awarded unimpeded 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
15394-413: 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 . 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
15573-494: The best features of Australian rules football. Progress was made, but the escalation in 1915 of World War I put any efforts to amalgamate on hold; interest in the amalgamation waned after the war and efforts were not revived. In 1919, the council met for the first time in five years. At that meeting, the council voted to reduce representation for each state from two delegates to one, deciding that it would be preferable for each state to have only one controlling body. This meant that
15752-408: The breakaway Victorian Football League joining St Kilda , Essendon , Fitzroy , Melbourne , Geelong , Carlton and Collingwood . South Melbourne was one of the original founding clubs of the Victorian Football League that was formed in 1897. The club had early success and won three VFL premierships in 1909, 1918 and 1933. However, they were the subject of some off-field difficulties, and
15931-442: The case of Sydney , denial of access to grounds, the influence of university headmasters from Britain who favoured rugby, and the loss of players to other codes inhibited the game's growth. In 1896, delegates from six of the wealthiest VFA clubs— Carlton , Essendon , Fitzroy , Geelong, Melbourne and South Melbourne —met to discuss the formation of a breakaway professional competition. Later joined by Collingwood and St Kilda ,
16110-491: The champion state. Considered a great success, interstate carnivals were held approximately triennially (except during periods of war) until the 1970s, and were the main on-field events for which the council was directly responsible. In 1911, the SAFL was threatened with expulsion from the council for arranging matches with the unaffiliated VFA. The VFA and SAFL had an existing five-year arrangement for annual interstate matches when
16289-435: The clock, the field umpires are required to signal to the timekeepers to indicate when the clock should be stopped or restarted. Between each quarter, a break is observed to allow players a rest period. Two six-minute breaks are observed between the first and second quarters, and the third and fourth quarters. A longer 20-minute break is observed between the second and third quarter, commonly known as half-time . Each game
16468-404: The club in droves, including Brownlow Medalist Greg Williams , Bernard Toohey and Barry Mitchell . The careers of stars such as Dennis Carroll , David Bolton , Ian Roberts , Tony Morwood and David Murphy wound down, while promising young players like Jamie Lawson , Robert Teal and Paul Bryce had their careers cut short by injury. Attendances consistently dropped below 10,000 when
16647-436: The club until the sale. At the end of 1988 the VFL re-tendered the Swans license and a group of financial backers including Mike Willesee , Basil Sellers, Peter Weinert and Craig Kimberley, purchased the licence and bankrolled the club. Morale at the side plummeted as players were asked to take pay cuts. Coach Tom Hafey was sacked by the club in 1988 after a player-led rebellion at his tough training methods (unusual in
16826-552: The club was left without a major backer. At a major launch in Sydney, Aylett vindicated the league's decision, announcing it had signed a new sponsor, Ward Transport, and that on-field success for the Swans would soon follow. The Swans experienced success in the 1982 Escort Championships with 1,000 supporters packing out the Chevron Hotel ballroom in King Cross in response to the win, however Channel Seven did not broadcast
17005-477: The club's AUD$ 1.2 million annual expenses including license fee and hire of the SCG. With draft and salary cap concessions in the early 1990s and a series of notable recruits, the team became competitive after the early part of the decade. During this time, the side was largely held together by two inspirational skippers, both from the Wagga Wagga region of country New South Wales, Dennis Carroll and later
17184-426: The clubs formed the Victorian Football League (VFL), which held its inaugural season in 1897 . The VFL's popularity grew rapidly as it made several innovations, such as instituting a finals system, reducing teams from 20 to 18 players, and introducing the behind as a score. Richmond and University joined the VFL in 1908, and by 1925, with the addition of Hawthorn , Footscray and North Melbourne , it had become
17363-453: The code in Sydney remained the poorest in the country (where it was behind three other football codes). In the late 1970s, however, with increasing professionalism of the sport there was an overall increase in national interest in the VFL competition. In 1976, Melbourne journalist Jim Main began to break a story that a leading Melbourne businessman who had relocated to Sydney, Mannie Bongornio, had been meeting with Allen Aylett about luring
17542-490: The code took hold during a series of gold rushes . Likewise, when New Zealand experienced a gold rush , the sport arrived with a rapid influx of Australian miners. Now known as Australian rules or Australasian rules, the sport became the first football code to develop mass spectator appeal, attracting world record attendances for sports viewing and gaining a reputation as "the people's game". Australian rules football reached Queensland and New South Wales as early as 1866;
17721-556: The colony. Despite not being part of the big league of clubs, South Melbourne by the mid-1870s is recorded to have enough senior players to field two teams of twenty and played matches against non-Cup clubs during this time against nearby clubs including Fawkner Park, Elwood, West Melbourne , Southern Rifles in 1875 and Sandridge Alma, St Kilda Alma, Victoria Parade, and Williamstown in 1876 among others. Many of this group of clubs most of which had primarily juniors had also begun to discuss starting their own cup competition. South
17900-420: The conference; New Zealand was also invited to send a delegate. After debating rule differences which existed at that time between the colonies (including Tasmania's desire to have a crossbar on the goal posts, or South Australia's desire to have behinds count towards the final score of matches), a uniform set of rules was agreed to; the decisions were not binding, but were adhered to due to the collective desire of
18079-498: The council decided that the game had a chance to prosper in the new city, and that it could be better developed there if it had its own controlling body, rather than a New South Wales body preoccupied with competing with rugby league in Sydney – thus a non-voting delegate was granted. In a rebranding exercise, the council was renamed the Australian National Football Council, and (with the exception of
18258-419: The council was established, and that agreement was allowed to stand but could not be renewed without permission; when the SAFL renewed the agreement in 1911, the council issued an ultimatum that the agreement be cancelled or the SAFL would be expelled from the council, and the SAFL acquiesced. The tenability of New Zealand's representation on the council quickly came into question. A New Zealand team had attended
18437-468: The council was that delegates would meet, generally every one to three years, to discuss and vote on proposed changes. All changes to on-field or off-field laws needed to be passed by a supermajority vote – this was originally a three-quarters majority, then later became a double majority which required an overall simple majority plus minimum number of the designated major states to vote in favour. The council also elected an executive committee which managed
18616-400: The council's size, the number of options for unaffiliated leagues and players was sufficiently small to encourage most competitions to adhere to council rules and remain affiliated. Australian rules football was first played in Melbourne, Victoria in 1858, and developed over the following decades. The game was spread to other cities, but due to the large distances between cities in Australia,
18795-465: The courageous captain Paul Kelly . However coach Gary Buckenara was sacked after 18 straight losses, managing to register just 2 wins and a draw during his term. Desperate to hang on, the club was keen to enlist the biggest names and identities in the AFL, and recruited Ron Barassi as coach who helped save the club from extinction while serving them as coach from Round 7, 1993 to 1995. At roughly
18974-428: The decision that had been made on 29 July required a three-quarters majority in a vote of all twelve clubs, and at a meeting on 14 October it failed to obtain this majority. The new board, whilst representative of most fans, lacked the support of the players, many of whom were in favour of a long-term move to Sydney; in early November, after the board promised that it would try to bring the club back to Melbourne in 1983,
19153-416: The delegates. Over the following decade, delegates from the different colonies or regions (Northern and Southern Tasmania, for example, were separately represented) met most Novembers to make adjustments to the playing and administrative rules of the game, coming to agreements based on a vote of attending delegates. Western Australia, where Australian rules football was not prominent until the mid-to-late 1880s,
19332-542: The early favourites to win, South Melbourne were a notable exclusion from the Challenge Cup competitions of the 1870s with entry to this competition strictly limited to clubs playing under the Melbourne Football Club 's rules. The club's lack of adherence to the Victorian Rules (and insistence on playing by its own rules) resulted in some controversial early wins. This, along with ability to regularly field
19511-462: The eligibility of Essendon player Robert Byers, the VFA concluded that the council had not been legally and procedurally established; the VFA ceased to recognise the council, and returned to using the 1890 set of rules. After formal written communication from the VFA in 1895 that it did not recognise the existence of the council, national administration of the game returned to the informal process which had existed since 1883. The desire to re-establish
19690-424: The elimination final. In that time, they "won" three wooden spoons . Between Round 7, 1972 and Round 13, 1973, the team lost 29 consecutive games. By the end of the 1970s, South Melbourne were saddled with massive debts after struggling for such a long period of time. The VFL had been actively seeking an audience in Sydney since its first exhibition match in 1903 drew 20,000 people. For more than three quarters of
19869-623: The establishment and coordination of the International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland in Canberra between 1984 and 1990. The NAFC which was funding junior development to form a pathway to the state leagues was openly critical of the AFL's restructuring of junior leagues focus on a pathway to the elite competition, the NAFC believed that there should be career options for senior players who didn't aspire to play at professional AFL level. The establishment of Perth's West Coast Eagles and Queensland's Brisbane Bears in
20048-409: The field of play, it is deemed as a mark . To be awarded a mark, it must be deemed that the player sufficiently controlled the ball and took possession prior to it being touched, touching the ground, or in the case of a contest, being spoiled by an opponent. Upon a mark being taken, one opposition player may choose to stand on the point on the field where the mark was taken, known as "the mark". When
20227-413: The field, two sets of posts are erected in a straight line to indicate the scoring areas on the field, each with two kinds of posts, named the goal posts and the behind posts respectively. The goal posts are placed first, located 6.4 metres (7.0 yd) apart from each other, with a behind post being placed a further 6.4 metres to the side of each goal post. The name for the field line between two goal posts
20406-418: The finals in 1946 and continued to fall such that by 1950 they were second-last on the ladder. They narrowly missed the finals in 1952, but from 1953 to 1969, they never finished any higher than eighth on the ladder. By the 1960s it was clear that South Melbourne's financial resources would not be capable of allowing them to compete in the growing market for country and interstate players, and their own local zone
20585-420: The finals, and some good wins at home and respectable home crowds against league leaders Carlton and Richmond, the lack of success and cold reception in Sydney led to the lustre quickly leaving the league's glamour team. It was officially renamed the "Sydney Swans" in 1983. In 1983 average crowds in Sydney continued to plummet to 12,000 and Swans supporter packages dropped to as low as 100 members (well short of
20764-424: The finals, including four successive grand final appearances from 1933 to 1936, albeit with only one premiership in 1933. The collection of players recruited from interstate in 1932/1933 became known as South Melbourne's "Foreign Legion". On grand final eve, 1935, as the Swans prepared to take on Collingwood, star full-forward Bob Pratt was clipped by a truck moments after stepping off a tram and subsequently missed
20943-627: The first match in Darwin . The game went on to become the most popular sport in the Territory and build the highest participation rate for the sport nationally. Both World War I and World War II had a devastating effect on Australian football and on Australian sport in general. While scratch matches were played by Australian " diggers " in remote locations around the world, the game lost many of its great players to wartime service. Some clubs and competitions never fully recovered. Between 1914 and 1915,
21122-425: The following season 1934. The name stuck, in part due to the club's association with nearby Albert Park and Lake , also known for its swans (although there are no longer any non-native white swans and only black, indigenous swans in the lake). After several years with only limited success, South Melbourne next reached the grand final in 1945. The match, played against Carlton, was to become known colloquially as "
21301-502: The following year. Losses were in the millions. It was obvious to most that the Swans were struggling financially, though the owners, Sydney Rules Pty Ltd a subsidiary of Powerplay International Ltd were not selling. In early 1988 the company advised the Australian Securities Exchange to cease trading its shares as it could not continue to trade until it had offloaded the Swans. A Canberra consortium including
21480-536: The formation of the Adelaide Football Club , the oldest football club in Australia outside Victoria. It devised its own rules, and, along with other Adelaide -based clubs, played a variety of codes until 1876, when they uniformly adopted most of the Victorian rules, with South Australian football pioneer Charles Kingston noting their similarity to "the old Adelaide rules". Similarly, Tasmanian clubs quarrelled over different rules until they adopted
21659-541: The game developed independently in each city. Until the 1870s, football in each city or colony was administered in an ad hoc manner by the participating clubs, before colony-level administrative bodies began to be established, with the Victorian Football Association (VFA) and South Australian Football Association (SAFA) formed in 1877 and the Tasmanian Football Association (TFA) in 1879. The first effort towards higher-level administration of
21838-529: The game took place in 1883, with an informal intercolonial football conference which took place on 9 November in Melbourne. With a growing desire to have a uniform set of rules across the country to facilitate intercolonial play and development of the sport, invitations were sent to all of the major football clubs or leagues. The meeting was attended by delegates representing Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania; delegates from New South Wales also travelled to Melbourne but due to communication errors missed
22017-426: The game's administrative matters. The affiliated full members of the council, which were the various state leagues such as the Victorian Football League and South Australian National Football League , became the controlling administrative bodies for football in their states. Smaller leagues within each state would affiliate with the controlling body, bringing all affiliated leagues in the country hierarchically under
22196-435: The goal square and four players in the centre square with one in the centre circle. If this is breached, a free kick is awarded. A game lasts for 80 minutes, split into four-quarters consisting of 20 minutes playing time, with the clock being stopped for stoppages in play such as scores, or at the umpire 's discretion, e.g. for serious injury. Leagues may choose to employ shorter quarters of play at their discretion, such as
22375-449: The influence of the ANFC. The council maintained control by forbidding its affiliates from competing in matches against unaffiliated bodies without permission, and with the threat of excluding from the council any leagues, players or clubs who defied its rules. This meant that leagues could face exclusion if they played representative matches against un-affiliated leagues or their clubs without permission. It also meant that players who broke
22554-469: The introduction of the Canberra Raiders. However the VFL blocked the move feeling that the club would lose its identity if it were to play matches in Canberra. By mid year the VFL had revoked the Swans license and took over ownership of the club, after an investigation under VFL CEO Ross Oakley determined that it was unable to continue operating. However, there were no buyers. On 6 May 1988
22733-424: The knees (a low tackle or a trip ) or above the shoulders (a high tackle ), the team with possession of the football gets a free kick. Furthermore, tackles deemed to be dangerous by the umpire and those conducted from front-on while an opposition player has their head over the football are deemed to be prohibited contact, and will incur a free kick against the offending player. Additionally, players may perform
22912-511: The late 1920s, the South Melbourne Districts Football Club donated 40 guineas to South Melbourne to stop them from folding. The Districts also often provided assistance payments to players when needed. In 1932, the red sash on the guernsey was replaced with a red "V". The club was at its most successful in the 1930s, when key recruits from both Victoria and interstate led to a string of appearances in
23091-547: The late 1930s and the 1940s, the ANFC faced the first serious challenge to its ability to maintain uniform rules and a nationwide permit and transfer system for players, owing to the actions of two unaffiliated bodies: the Australian Amateur Football Council (AAFC) – which was a body similar in structure to the ANFC but in charge of amateur football – and the VFA. The VFA made a bold step in 1938 by making major rule changes which legalised throwing
23270-467: The league floated a radical proposal for Carlton or Collingwood to play all of their away games in Sydney, however it was felt that even the leagues most popular clubs wouldn't be able to draw a sufficient audience in Sydney to cover for the loss of the Swans. The AFL extended an offer for a Tasmanian license which was declined, and received an offer from the ACTAFL to relocate the club to Canberra, however
23449-417: The league." The report claimed that 60,000 people in Sydney had stated that they would regularly support the new club and 90% of these supporters would watch VFL on television from Sydney and 80% of these supporters had not attended rugby and 92% believed that Australian rules could become popular in Sydney. In 1981 the VFL had decided that it would establish an entirely new 13th VFL club in Sydney along with
23628-406: The match for South. Ironically, the truck driver was a South Melbourne supporter. It was during this period that the team became known as the Swans. The nickname, which was suggested by a Herald and Weekly Times artist in 1933, was inspired by the number of Western Australians in the team (the black swan being the state emblem of Western Australia), and was formally adopted by the club before
23807-406: The match in Sydney. The club won their first official Sydney home game against Melbourne in front of 15,764. In June 1982, it dropped the name "South Melbourne", officially becoming "the Swans" for the rest of the season. The name change, however, did not endear either the Sydney media or the Sydney public, and after successive games at home, began to draw as few as 10,000. Despite just missing
23986-402: The matter was solved by expanding the council. The AAFC was given a full voting delegate on the council, and the VFA was given a non-voting delegate – the latter owing to the council's reluctance to have separate controlling bodies in the same state. This brought all bodies under the same set of rules, and it brought the VFA into the national transfer system and ended the poaching of VFL players by
24165-508: The most recent of which came in 2024 . According to Roy Morgan , the Swans are one of the most supported clubs in the AFL with more than a million fans in 2021. The club's origins trace back to 21 March 1873, when a meeting was held at the Clarendon Hotel in South Melbourne for the purpose of establishing a junior football club, to be called the South Melbourne Football Club. According to club historians, it
24344-407: The move caused very great internal difficulties as a large supporters' group known as Keep South at South campaigned against the move throughout the rest of 1981; and, at an extraordinary general meeting on 22 September, the group democratically won control of the club's board. However, the new board did not have the power to unilaterally stop the move to Sydney: under the VFL constitution, to rescind
24523-412: The nearby Albert-park Football Club , which had a senior football history dating back to May 1867 (Albert-park had, in fact, been known as South Melbourne during its first year of existence). Following the amalgamation, the club retained the name South Melbourne, and adopted the club's now familiar red and white colours from Albert-park. Nicknamed the "Southerners", the team was more colourfully known as
24702-568: The new national capital Canberra both soccer and rugby had a head start, but following the first matches in 1911, Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory became a major participation sport. By 1981 it had become much neglected and quickly lagged behind the other football codes. Australian rules football in the Northern Territory began shortly after the outbreak of the war in 1916 with
24881-401: The phasing out of many of the game's kicking styles and the increasing use of handball; while presentation was influenced by television. In 1982, in a move that heralded big changes within the sport, one of the original VFL clubs, South Melbourne, relocated to Sydney and became known as the Sydney Swans . In the late 1980s, due to the poor financial standing of many of the Victorian clubs, and
25060-407: The player has disposed of the ball, or "play on" is called, normal play resumes. Rucking is the only specialist skill and is performed by a ruck, the term for designated players from each side to which umpire sends the ball to commence play. Only a nominated ruck may contest ball-ups and throw-ins. They are the only player allowed within the 10 metre circle at a centre bounce. Functionally the role
25239-429: The player penalised for ' holding the ball ', except if the umpire deems there was a lack of prior opportunity to do so. The ball carrier may only be tackled between the shoulders and knees from the front or side. If the player forcefully contacts the opposing in the back while performing a tackle, the opposition player will be penalised for a push in the back . If the opposition tackles the player with possession below
25418-422: The players went on strike, seeking to force the new board to commit to Sydney in the long term as well as seeking payments that the cash-strapped club owed them from the previous season. The board ended up undermining its own position when it accepted a $ 400,000 loan from the VFL in late November in order to stay solvent, under the condition that it commit to Sydney for at least two years. Finally, in early December,
25597-436: The playing surface at any given time. Each team may have up to four interchange (reserve) players who may be swapped for those on the field at any time during the game. Although some leagues in less populated areas may use as few as 12 players. In addition, some leagues notably including the AFL, have each team designate one additional player as a substitute who can be used to make a single permanent exchange of players during
25776-479: The possibility of another club making Sydney a viable move, in 1981, the South Melbourne board, recognising the structural difficulties it faced with long-term viability and financial stability in Melbourne, decided not to miss what it saw as a strategic opportunity to capture an untapped market and save its club. The board made the decision to play all 1982 home games in Sydney. The club had been operating at
25955-668: The preeminent league in the country and would take a leading role in many aspects of the sport. The time around the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901 saw Australian rules undergo a revival in New South Wales, New Zealand and Queensland. In 1903, both the Queensland Australian Football League and the NSW Australian Football Association were established, and in New Zealand, as it moved towards becoming
26134-481: The premiers of the VFA and SAFA. Although clubs from other states were at times invited, the final was almost always between the premiers from the two strongest state competitions of the time—South Australia and Victoria—with Adelaide hosting most of the matches at the request of the SAFA/SANFL. The last match took place in 1976, with North Adelaide being the last non-Victorian winner in 1972. Between 1976 and 1987,
26313-494: The previous year. The event was mostly played on Tuesday nights, with night games at Norwood Oval in Adelaide, which was the premier night football venue in the country at the time. The event was the first fully national club competition in Australian rules football; and, as all games were televised live in colour on Channel 9 , the event opened unprecedented revenue streams from television rights and sponsorship opportunities for
26492-480: The same time, Dermott Brereton was also recruited from Hawthorn on a three-year contract becoming one of the swans highest paid players, and was considered to replace Paul Kelly as club captain. However Brereton's time in Sydney was marred by multiple tribunal appearances including 6 and 7 week bans and while he starred in some upset wins he spent more time off the field than on it; resulting in Barassi labelling
26671-509: The semi-professional days of that era). The Willesee consortia appointed Col Kinnear as the new coach. Capper was sold to the Brisbane Bears for AUD$ 400,000 in a desperate attempt to improve the club's finances. Instead, it only led to disastrous on-field performances. Instead of a 100-goal-a-season forward, Sydney's goalkicking was led by Bernard Toohey (usually a defender) with 29 in 1989, then Jim West with 34 in 1990. Players left
26850-439: The site of the club's senior men's team home matches since 1982. The Swans have won five VFL/AFL premierships including 1909 , 1918 , and 1933 , before experiencing a 72-year premiership drought—the longest of any team in the competition's history. This premiership drought ended with the 2005 premiership , which was later followed by another title in 2012 . Their five premierships are supplemented by fourteen grand final defeats,
27029-531: The size of levies and funds varied throughout the council's history. Changes to the council's laws or rules required a three-quarters majority to pass. Among its first orders of business, the Council arranged for the first Interstate Carnival to be held in Melbourne in 1908. Teams representing each state and New Zealand played several matches over a two-week period in August 1908, with Victoria emerging unbeaten as
27208-467: The sport across Australia, delegates representing the football associations of South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland met in 1883 and updated the code. New rules such as holding the ball led to a "golden era" of fast, long-kicking and high-marking football in the 1880s, a time which also saw players such as George Coulthard achieve superstardom, as well as the rise of professionalism , particularly in Victoria and Western Australia , where
27387-472: The sport experienced a period of dominance in the former, and in the latter, several regions remain strongholds of Australian rules, such as the Riverina . However, by the late 1880s, rugby football had become the dominant code in both colonies, as well as in New Zealand. This shift was largely due to rugby's spread with British migration, regional rivalries and the lack of strong local governing bodies. In
27566-406: The sport is most often called AFL after the Australian Football League , while the league itself also uses this name for local competitions in some areas. Primitive forms of football were played sporadically in the Australian colonies in the first half of the 19th century. Compared to cricket and horse racing , football was considered a mere "amusement" by colonists at the time, and while little
27745-479: The sport. The NFL had planned to expand from the twelve-team 1976 competition into a larger competition involving additional teams from the three major leagues and representative teams from the minor states in 1977. However, in November 1976 the VFL withdrew from the NFL's competition, having secretly arranged television and sponsorship deals for its own rival Night Series to be based at VFL Park in Melbourne, where it erected light towers. This act of openly opposing
27924-414: The substantial TV revenues they generated by playing on a Sunday went to the VFL. To protect these revenues the VFL granted significant draft concessions and financial aid to keep the expansion clubs competitive. The VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League (AFL) for the 1990 season , and over the next decade, three non-Victorian clubs gained entry: Adelaide (1991), Fremantle (1995) and
28103-613: The supremacy of the Melbourne rules, the first-club level competition in Australia, the Caledonian Society's Challenge Cup (1861–64), stipulated that only the Melbourne rules were to be used. This law was reinforced by the Athletic Sports Committee (ASC), which ran a variation of the Challenge Cup in 1865–66. With input from other clubs, the rules underwent several minor revisions, establishing
28282-403: The team performed poorly between 1990 and 1994. Kinnear in 1990 urged his players rally to support the club's loyal fans and stem their mass exodus however he was ultimately stood down in August 1991. The nadir came with three consecutive wooden spoons in 1992, 1993 and 1994. In October 1992, members from the 15 AFL clubs voted on axing the struggling Swans. To fill the void left by the Swans,
28461-412: The usage of other means, such as punching. While in possession of the ball, players may run with the ball, but are required to either bounce or touch the ball on the ground at least once every 15 metres (16 yd). Tackling is a technique employed by players used to force opposition players to dispose of the ball when they are in possession. Failure to dispose of the ball when legally tackled may see
28640-429: Was "almost solely influenced by his experience at Rugby School". A loosely organised Melbourne side, captained by Wills, played against other football enthusiasts in the winter and spring of 1858. The following year, on 14 May, the Melbourne Football Club was officially established, making it one of the world's oldest football clubs . Three days later, Wills, Hammersley, Thompson and teacher Thomas H. Smith met near
28819-556: Was a 20-per-side affair, played with a ball that was roughly spherical, and lasted until a team scored two goals. The shape of the playing field was not standardised; matches often took place in rough, tree-spotted public parks, most notably the Richmond Paddock ( Yarra Park ), known colloquially as the Melbourne Football Ground. Wills argued that the turf of cricket fields would benefit from being trampled upon by footballers in winter, and, as early as 1859, football
28998-445: Was admitted to the NFL as a full voting member, and in 1987, the VFA was re-admitted as a playing but non-voting member of the NFL, with a view to it potentially becoming the controlling body in Victoria if the VFL expanded to become a national league. In 1988, the nine-man Council board which needed to pass rule changes by supermajority vote was streamlined by establishing a semi-independent five-man commission to make rule changes; such
29177-485: Was allowed on the MCG. However, cricket authorities frequently prohibited football on their grounds until the 1870s, when they saw an opportunity to capitalise on the sport's growing popularity. Football gradually adapted to an oval-shaped field, and most grounds in Victoria expanded to accommodate the dual purpose—a situation that continues to this day. Football became organised in South Australia in 1860 with
29356-528: Was between Melbourne Grammar and St Kilda Grammar. On 10 July 1858, the Melbourne-based Bell's 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 while
29535-435: Was coined by scholar Ian Turner in 1978 to describe the "fictitious geographical barrier" separating the rugby-following parts of New South Wales and Queensland from the rest of the country, where Australian football reigned. It became a reference point for the expansion of Australian football and for establishing a national league. The way the game was played had changed dramatically due to innovative coaching tactics, with
29714-592: Was formed (as the VFL Commission) in 1985 and assumed full administrative control of the AFL in 1993, took over the role as the sport's national governing body. The following men served as president of the council during its existence: Four other notable men who served long periods with distinction in the council in roles with high administrative burden were: Australian rules football Australian rules football , also called Australian football or Aussie rules , or more simply football or footy ,
29893-673: Was given its current name in 1983. The club has a rivalry with the Greater Western Sydney Giants , with whom they contest the Sydney Derby . Their headquarters and training facilities are located in the Moore Park sporting precinct, with offices and indoor training at the Royal Hall of Industries and outdoor sessions conducted on the adjacent Tramway Oval and Sydney Cricket Ground , the latter being
30072-628: Was incorporated at the Temperance Hall, Napier Street at Emerald Hill 19 June 1874. It was first known as "Cecil Football Club" (after Cecil Street, South Melbourne , one of the early thoroughfares), but adopted the name "South Melbourne Football Club" four weeks later on 15 July. The club was based at Lake Oval alongside the lake in Albert Park, also home of the South Melbourne Cricket Club . While one of
30251-509: Was never strong enough to compensate for this. The introduction of country zoning failed to help, as the Riverina Football League proved to be one of the least profitable zones. Between 1945 and 1981, South Melbourne made the finals only twice: under legendary coach Norm Smith , South Melbourne finished fourth in 1970, but lost the first semi-final; and, in 1977, the club finished fifth under coach Ian Stewart, but lost
30430-417: Was not involved at this early stage. In November 1892, the conference recommended the formation of a formal administrative body known as the Australasian Football Council which could make binding decisions. The council was ostensibly formed, and continued to put out rules. However, the legal status of this council came under question in 1894, when, while attempting to resolve a protest by South Melbourne over
30609-429: Was one of Victoria's most prolific touring clubs. Seeking more regular senior competition in 1876 South Melbourne also went on one of its first regional tours playing against newly formed clubs at Beechworth , Blackwood , Taradale and Ballarat . South Melbourne was a junior foundation club of the Victorian Football Association in 1877, and attained senior status in 1879. In 1880, South Melbourne amalgamated with
30788-630: Was provisionally suspended from the ANFC in 1969, and formally expelled in March 1970. In 1975, the council changed its name to the National Football League (NFL), and embarked on an ambitious plan by establishing the NFL Night Series in 1976. The Night Series was a new competition, played concurrently with the premiership seasons, among twelve clubs from the VFL, SANFL and WANFL invited based on their finishing positions from
30967-507: Was raised and passed in 1914. In 1914, the Council held a conference with the New South Wales Rugby League , from which preliminary plans were drawn up for a hybrid between rugby league and Australian rules football known as universal football . It was thought that amalgamating with rugby league, rather than trying to supplant it, could be a more effective way to create a nationally popular sport which incorporated
31146-498: Was reduced to six delegates and its name was amended to the Australian Football Council. In 1927, Canberra was granted a non-voting position on the council. The city of Canberra was only about fifteen years old, Australian rules football had only been played in Canberra for a few years, and the council had originally intended to let Canberra fall under the New South Wales league's control; but after discussion,
31325-480: Was runner-up to the provincial Geelong Football Club in 1880, 1883 and 1886. The 1886 season was notable for its 4 September match against Geelong, which generated unprecedented public interest as both clubs had entered the match undefeated. The club was the second Victorian club to visit New South Wales in 1883 travelling to Newcastle where it also defeated the Northern Districts League by
31504-415: Was still not affiliated with the NFL, and for three years from 1977 until 1979, the NFL and VFL ran their rival Night Series separately. The VFL established a proprietary limited company called Australian Football Championships Pty Ltd in 1978 to run its Night Series, and offered shareholdings to the other state leagues in an attempt to completely supersede the NFL's Night Series. The WAFL clubs defected to
31683-651: Was superseded by the AFL Commission . The council underwent several name changes during its existence, and at different times it was also known as: the Australasian Football Council (1906–1919), the Australian Football Council (1920–1927 and 1973–1975), the National Football League (NFL) (1975–1989) and the National Australian Football Council (NAFC) (1989–1995). Throughout its history,
31862-453: Was to allow states which had more than one main league to be represented separately by each, resulting in each being a controlling body for a different region of their state. Several states could have adopted this approach, but only Western Australia did. The delegates were: Leagues not represented by delegates on the council would still come under the council's influence by affiliating under the umbrella of their state controlling body. Notably,
32041-425: Was unable to turn the club's poor performance around. In order to keep the club solvent during this time, the VFL began to write loans to the Swans that the club would have been unable to pay off on its own. The Swans were the league's most reliant on sponsorship and subsidies from the VFL to stay solvent and meet player payments due to its continued poor crowds, public apathy and poor TV ratings. Public support for
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