Know About Australian Football League

AFL

The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport’s governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the game. The league was founded as the Victorian Football League (VFL) as a breakaway from the previous Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season commencing in 1897. Originally comprising only teams based in the Australian state of Victoria, the competition’s name was changed to the Australian Football League for the 1990 season, after expanding to other states throughout the 1980s.

The league currently consists of 18 teams spread over five of Australia’s six states (Tasmania being the exception). Matches have been played in all states and mainland territories of Australia, as well as in New Zealand and China to promote the sport abroad.

The AFL season currently consists of a pre-season competition (currently branded as the “JLT Community Series”), followed by a 23-round regular (or “home-and-away”) season, which runs during the Australian winter (March to September). The team with the best record after the home-and-away series is awarded the “minor premiership.” The top eight teams then play off in a four-round finals series, culminating in the AFL Grand Final, which is held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground each year. The grand final winner is termed the “premiers” and is awarded the premiership cup. The current premiers are the West Coast Eagles.

AFL Club

The AFL operates on a single table system, with no divisions and conferences, nor promotion and relegation from other leagues.

Current Club

The league was founded as the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897, consisting of eight teams only based in the Australian state of Victoria. Over the next century, a series of expansions, a relocation, a merger, and a club withdrawal saw the leagues teams expand to the 18 teams there are today.

In 1990, the national nature of the competition resulted in the name change to the Australian Football League. Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, and Tasmania are the only states or territories not to have AFL clubs, although at least two games per year are played in each of these parts of the country. The current 18 teams are based across five states of Australia; the majority (ten) still remain in Victoria, nine of which are located in the Melbourne metropolitan area. The states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia have two teams each.

Former Club

Since the league commenced in 1897 as the VFL, only one club, University, has withdrawn from the competition. It last competed in 1914 and withdrew because, as a strictly amateur club, it became unable to remain competitive in a time when player payments were becoming common;[28][29] the club still competes to this day in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Two other clubs, Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears, merged in 1996 to form the Brisbane Lions. However, after coming out of financial administration in 1998, Fitzroy resumed its playing operations in 2009 and also competes in the VAFA.

Source: https://sportsw3ar.blogspot.com/2019/04/everything-about-australian-football.html

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