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The matches were played with a hybrid set of rules based on Australian rules football and Gaelic football. It also began to pave the way for Gaelic footballers to convert to Australian football; pioneered by Melbourne and known as the Irish experiment, Irish players Sean Wight and Jim Stynes began their successful VFL/AFL careers in the mid-1980s.
The AFL also plays a leading role in developing the game outside Australia, with projects to develop the game at junior level in other countries (e.g. South Africa) and by supporting affiliated competitions around the world (See Australian football around the world). The players of the AFL are represented by the AFL Players Association, the ...
In 1993 an official "AFL For Canberra Bid" led by Ron Cahill and backed by the ACT government was launched. [30] The Fitzroy Football Club expressed interest to the AFL in playing home games in Canberra, and the first premiership match to be played in Canberra for Round 9, 1995 match between the Fitzroy and the West Coast Eagles. The match was ...
The AFL also hope to develop the game in other countries to the point where Australian football is played at an international level by top-quality sides from around the world. The AFL has hosted an International Cup regularly every three years, beginning in 2002, with the third game in 2008 corresponding to the 150th anniversary of the code.
The Australian Football World Tour visited New York on Sunday, 5 November 1967 with the Australian Galahs playing International Rules at Gaelic Park against the New York GAA at Gaelic Park, New York City. The Galahs lost the match 4-8 (20) to 0-5 (5), the visitors not managing a score after half time. [158]
Football is the most highly attended spectator sport in Australia. Government figures show that more than 2.5 million people (16.8% of the population) attended games in 1999. [5] In 2005, a cumulative 6,283,788 people attended Australian Football League (AFL) premiership matches, a record for the competition. [6]
There is documentary evidence of "foot-ball" being played in Australia as early as the 1820s. These games were poorly documented but appear to have been informal, one-off affairs. In 1858, cricketers, sports' enthusiasts and school students began to regularly play variants of English public school football in the parklands of Melbourne.
The Australian Football League, currently an 18 team competition, has a history of expansion since 1908 when its 8 club competition, formed as an 1897 breakaway from the rival Victorian Football Association, grew to 10 teams. Many clubs have been proposed since this time, particularly since the 1980s when the league began to expand nationally.