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The AFL then began work to establish a club on the Gold Coast as a new expansion team; the Gold Coast Suns were established, and they joined the AFL in 2011 as the 17th team; they finished last on the ladder. The same year, Collingwood played Geelong in the 2011 grand final. Collingwood had only lost to one team all year, Geelong, and now faced ...
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football.It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897.
Gillian Hibbins in the AFL's official account of the game's history published in 2008 for the game's 150th celebrations sternly rejects the theory: Understandably, the appealing idea that Australian Football is a truly Australian native game recognising the indigenous people, rather than deriving solely from a colonial dependence upon the ...
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. [167]
The AFL governs the code nationally through the AFL Commission based in Melbourne. The AFL originated in Victoria and changed its name from Victorian Football League in 1990 after a successful program of national expansion and for these reasons the governing body is often seen by those from other states as having a strong Victorian bias.
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. [61]
Between the 1850s and 1880s, there was a strong Irish Australian involvement in the early history of the game and officials regularly moved between the two countries, for example, Melbourne's Thomas H. Smith and the Brisbane Football Club's first presidents in 1868 and 1870 were all Irish, and Dr Kevin O'Doherty returned to Ireland in 1885, the ...
Australian rules football is popular amongst indigenous communities. Australian rules football has attracted more overall interest among Australians (as measured by the Sweeney Sports report) than any other football code, and, when compared with all sports throughout the nation, has consistently ranked first in the winter reports, and most recently third behind cricket and swimming in summer.