Football in Australia
Encyclopedia
Football
Football may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...
as there are regional variations of the use of the word "Football
Football (word)
The English language word football may mean any one of several team sports , depending on the national or regional origin and location of the person using the word....
" (and also the derived colloquialism
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
"footy") in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
There are four major football codes in Australia, Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
, rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
, association football and rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, with different levels of popularity based on different measures in different regions. In some areas, multiple codes of football are popular, in others there is a monopoly.
Nationally, the most important football matches in Australia are the Grand Final
Grand Final
Grand Final is a predominantly Australian sport term used to describe a match that decides a league champion.It originated in Victoria and South Australia and has become specifically significant Australian culture...
matches, particularly the AFL Grand Final
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia to determine the Australian Football League premiership champions for that year...
and the NRL Grand Final. Also important are major internationals featuring the Socceroos and the Wallabies
Australia national rugby union team
The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
(particularly FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
qualification and Tri Nations matches respectively). The Australian Kangaroos also compete in various Ashes, ANZAC
ANZAC Test
The Anzac Test is an annual rugby league football test match . The test match is played annually between Australia and New Zealand on or around Anzac Day for the Bill Kelly Memorial Trophy.-Origins:Australia and New Zealand had competed in Rugby League Tests since 1908...
, Four Nations
Rugby League Four Nations
The Rugby League Four Nations is an annual rugby league football tournament run in partnership between the Australian Rugby League, Rugby Football League and New Zealand Rugby League representing the top three nations in the sport: Australia, England and New Zealand. A fourth partner, France,...
and World Cup
Rugby League World Cup
The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...
rugby league test matches.
Participation
The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that soccer is the most played football code in Australia, with the highest number of total participants. Followed in order by Australian Rules Football, Rugby League, and Rugby union.Attendance
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the most attended football code overall in Australia is Australian rules football although Rugby League is more popular in QueenslandQueensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...
which together make up about 54% of the Australian population. Australian rules football currently holds the record for a football code in Australia for the highest individual match attendance (121,696) which was set at the 1970 VFL Grand Final
1970 VFL Grand Final
The 1970 VFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Carlton Football Club and Collingwood Football Club, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1970. It was the 74th annual Grand Final of the Victorian Football League, staged to determine...
and also league season attendance (7,083,015) which was set for the 2008 AFL season
2008 AFL season
-Round 1 :-Round 2:-Round 3 :-Round 4:-Round 5:-Round 6 :-Round 7:-AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match:-Round 8:...
.
Television
Rugby league and Australian rules football directly compete for the largest overall Audience measurementAudience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
and Media market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
share, primarily measured in terms of television ratings
OzTAM
OzTAM is an Australian audience measurement research firm that collects and markets television ratings data. It is jointly owned by the Seven Network, the Nine Network and Network Ten, and is the official source of television ratings data for all metropolitan television in Sydney, Melbourne,...
(these two codes share the most free-to-air
Free-to-air
Free-to-air describes television and radio services broadcast in clear form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscription or one-off fee...
broadcasting, with other codes being restricted mostly to pay tv
Pay TV
Pay television, premium television, or premium channels refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television...
) as well as popularity surveys and polls such as the Sweeney Sports Report. Australian rules tends to rate higher in metropolitan figures (major capital cities). In 2009 and 2010, the AFL Grand Final was slightly ahead of the NRL Grand Final as the most watched sporting telecast of the year. The annual Rugby League State of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
is the most viewed representative series of any sporting code, out-rating soccer and rugby union international matches.
Professional football codes in Australia
| Football code | Common names Football (word) The English language word football may mean any one of several team sports , depending on the national or regional origin and location of the person using the word.... |
Overview | Most players | Most spectators | Main Governing Body | National Competition | Australian Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian rules Australian rules football Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either... |
football, footy, Aussie rules, AFL | Australian rules football in Australia Australian rules football in Australia Australian rules football originated in Melbourne in 1858. It has continuously in every state and territory of Australia since 1915 and is particularly popular in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, where it is the most watched sport, and Northern Territory where it is the... |
VIC Australian rules football in Victoria, Australia Australian rules football in Victoria, Australia dates back to the origins of both the sport and the colony in the 1850s.Victoria remains the sport's spiritual home.... , SA Australian rules football in South Australia Australian rules football in South Australia has a history dating back to 1843, and it has long been the most popular sport in the state.-History:see South Australian National Football League for a more detailed history of the SANFL competition... , WA Australian rules football in Western Australia Australian rules football in Western Australia is the most popular sport in the state.-Early Beginnings:Organised football in the Perth/Fremantle region of Western Australia dates back to 1881. Back then though rugby union was the dominant football code... , TAS Australian rules football in Tasmania Australian rules football in Tasmania known as Football officially and locally has a history dating back to the 1860s, with the state having the distinction of being the first place outside of Victoria to play the sport.... , NT Australian rules football in the Northern Territory Australian rules football in the Northern Territory has a history dating back to the 1910s and is the most popular sport in the territory, particularly with indigenous Australian communities in Darwin, Alice Springs and the Tiwi Islands.... |
VIC, SA, WA, TAS, NT | AFL Commission AFL Commission The AFL Commission is the official governing body of the Australian Football League , the elite national Australian rules football competition.... |
Australian Football League Australian Football League The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football... |
17 |
| Rugby league Rugby league Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players... |
league, football, footy, rugby league, rugby | Rugby league in Australia Rugby league in Australia Rugby league football is one of the most popular sports in Australia. It is the dominant winter sport on the eastern seaboard of Australia, including the states of New South Wales and Queensland as well as the Australian Capital Territory, which together comprise around half of the country's... |
NSW Rugby league in New South Wales Rugby league has the highest spectator numbers of the various codes of football in New South Wales. It began in Australia in 1907, when the New South Wales Rugby League was formed as a professional competition, following the rules of the Northern Rugby Football Union in England... , QLD Rugby league in Queensland Rugby league is the most popular sport in the Australian state of Queensland.-History:The earliest record of rugby football being played in Queensland is in 1876... |
NSW, QLD, ACT, NT | Australian Rugby League Australian Rugby League The Australian Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league in Australia. It is made up of state bodies, including the New South Wales Rugby League and the Queensland Rugby League... |
National Rugby League National Rugby League The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand... |
15 (+1 in NZ New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership and are the League's only team from outside Australia... ) |
| Soccer | soccer, football | Association football in Australia | NSW Association football in New South Wales Association football in New South Wales describes the sport of association football being played and watched by people in the state of New South Wales in Australia.... , QLD Association football in Queensland -National Representation:The Brisbane Roar, who are not operated by the Football Queensland, were the only Queensland team to compete in the inaugural season of the national A-League... , ACT Association football in the Australian Capital Territory Association football in the ACT is predominantly amateur with local competitions organised by Capital Football involving teams from within the ACT and from the region of New South Wales... |
Football Federation Australia Football Federation Australia Football Federation Australia is the governing body for the sport of football in Australia. Before 1 January 2005, it was known as the Australian Soccer Association , which succeeded Soccer Australia in this role in 2003... |
A-League A-League The A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia , it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company... |
10 (+1 in NZ Wellington Phoenix FC Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. The club competes in the Football Federation of Australia A-League. Ricki Herbert has been the coach since the club's inception to the A-League in July 2007. The current club captain is... ) |
|
| Rugby union Rugby union Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand... |
rugby, union, rugger, football, footy | Rugby union in Australia Rugby union in Australia Rugby union is the third most popular winter sport in Australia, with its history dating back to 1864.The principal competition in Australian rugby union is Super Rugby, which is a multi-regional competition across the southern hemisphere... |
ACT | Australian Rugby Union Australian Rugby Union The Australian Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Australia. It was founded in 1949 and is a member of the International Rugby Board the sport's governing body. It consists of eight member unions, representing each state and territory... |
Super Rugby | 5 (+5 in both NZ New Zealand New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... , SA South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans... ) |
Minority and amateur codes
The following football codes are generally not referred to as "football" in Australia.- American footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and Canadian footballCanadian footballCanadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
— Generally known in Australia as "gridiron". The ruling body in Australia is Gridiron AustraliaGridiron AustraliaGridiron Australia is the governing body of American football in Australia. It is an approved sporting association under federal government regulations and is a member of the International Federation of American Football . The organisation was formed in 1996.Gridiron Australia oversees the...
. - Gaelic footballGaelic footballGaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
— The governing body is the Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of AustralasiaAustralasia GAAThe Australasia County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association , or Australasian GAA, or Gaelic Football & Hurling Association of Australasia is one of the county boards of the GAA outside Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games all across Australasia. It is also responsible for Australasian... - International rules footballInternational rules footballInternational rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players....
- a hybrid code between Gaelic football and Australian Football which is popular and draws notable attendances in Australia, particularly for the International Rules SeriesInternational Rules SeriesThe International Rules Series is a senior men's International rules football competition between the Australia international rules football team and the Ireland international rules football team...
See also
- Barassi LineBarassi LineThe Barassi Line was first suggested by Professor Ian Turner in his 1978 Ron Barassi Memorial Lecture to refer to a dividing line in Australia that divides areas where Australian rules is the dominant winter code of football from those where rugby football codes are most popular...
- Football in New South Wales (disambiguation)
- Football in Victoria (disambiguation)
- Football in Queensland (disambiguation)
- Football in South Australia (disambiguation)
- Football in Western Australia (disambiguation)
- Football in Tasmania (disambiguation)
- Football in the Northern Territory