Australian Football

Australian football (aka Australian rules, Aussie rules, AFL, football, footy or Aussie football) has been played in Australia for more than 150 years. Australian football both reflects and helps maintain Australia’s culture, history, and identity. Due to the fact that it has been a part of Australia’s history, the rules, the players and the spectators have all evolved with Australia. As Australia changed so did the sport, as Australia grew the sport did too, when Australia went through hard times sport the sport did also, and now as Australia is globalizing so is the sport. If you were to look at the history of Australian football you would be able to infer what Australia was like at the time. The code is a major part of the culture for many Australians.  For the indigenous people for example the sport brings them hope for careers playing football, but also playing Australian football is a way of life. The history of Australian football has been intertwined with Australia. Australian football spread at first around Australia and then the world. The sport is played by all kinds of Australians, from indigenous populations, to immigrant populations.

Australian football was invented because Australians wanted a game that they could call their own, but that was multicultural, and incorporated many different sports from many different cultures into one. One source notes that, “The first recorded game of Australian rules took place in Melbourne on 7 August 1858 between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar” (Schmik). Another source notes that “The game was played with 40 or more students on each side and was umpired by Tom Wills, who is universally acknowledged as the founder of Australian football” (Poulter). Thomas Wentworth Wills invented the game because he believed that cricketers, him being one himself, needed a sport to keep them fit during the off-season. Since cricket is a summer sport, they needed a sport for the winter. Wills had lived in England where they played rugby in the winter. So he decided they needed a similar sport, but one they could call Australian. Also because of the convict heritage that many Australians shared, they decided against playing rugby, since rugby is an English invention and the English were responsible for sending the convicts to Australia. Another reason that rugby was not chosen was due to the fact that Australia was an immigrant nation, meaning that people came from all over the world and from places that had not heard of rugby. So players brought with them prior experiences with other ball games such as Gaelic football, and soccer. A game that was Australian seemed like a good idea. “The first rules for Australian football were written in 1859 by Tom Wills, W.J. Hammersley, J.B. Thompson, and H.C.A. Harrison”(“The Inventors”). It is not known exactly from what previous sports these rules were derived, but beliefs over the years have ranged from rugby, the Irish sport of Gaelic football and an Aboriginal sport called marn-grook.

            Wills may not have based the game entirely on Aborigine sports, but he took some ideas from the Aborigines and their different sports, particularly marn-grook and kick to kick. As the article “The Inventors of Australian Football” states “An etching of Aborigines playing ‘kick-to-kick’ by William Blandowski in 1857 bears some similarities to kick-to-kick today”. Kick-to-kick involves kicking the ball from one person to another, this is a very common game played by Australians before a match, when there are not enough people to play a game or just when they can’t be bothered playing anything else. This means that Australian football is related to Aboriginal games. Tom Wills and H.C.A Harrison had close connections with the Aborigines (Thompson). Wills “grew up with the Chapurong… group; the Aboriginal group that frequents that area and he certainly played a lot with the children. He, soon after that, was then sent to boarding school in Melbourne and then at the age of 14 was sent alone to Rugby School (in England) where he spent five years”(“The inventors”). The fact that he had connections with Aborigines shows that he could have seen these Aborigines playing kick-to-kick and implemented it into the rules of Australian football. Also he may have seen Aborigines playing marn-grook where “The players of this game do not throw the ball as the white men do” in rugby “but drop it and at the same time kicks it with his foot” (“The Inventors”). Kicking the ball is a major part of Australian Football, and so is catching it, called “marking,” which was another part of marn-grook. In marn-grook “The person who secures the ball kicks it” (“The Inventors”). In Australian Football the person who catches the ball is rewarded with a free kick, this is the same as securing the ball and kicking it. This rule is different to all other sports, so it is very likely that Wills got the idea from the Aborigines. Because the Aborigines have played a major part in Australia’s history it makes sense that they would have an involvement in the sport.

            Because of Tom Will’s history with playing rugby in England it is to be expected that he would have borrowed a few of the rules from this sport. The oval shaped ball for example, no other sports at the time used an oval ball, so this must have come from rugby.  Another similarity is that “Both rugby and Australian football in the 1850’s started with a kick-off” (“The Inventors”). This rule has been changed now and Australian football begins with a bounce in the centre. But this shows that perhaps that Will’s and the other inventors took ideas from rugby to implement into the game.

            “In 1843, Irish settlers celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day in South Australia played some kind of football” (“Relationship”). It is believed that this sport was a form of traditional football called caid. The different rules and varieties of this sport were codified in Ireland in 1887, and the sport was named Gaelic football (“Relationship”). Since both “Both Gaelic football and Australian rules are distinct from other codes in elements such as the lack of limitations on the direction of ball movement and the absence of an offside rule,” Australian football must have copied some of the rules from the different varieties of caid (“Relationship”). In Australian football the ball can be passed in any direction and teams are not penalized. This is different to rugby where the ball can only be passed backwards. Also there are no offside rules so players can be anywhere on the field without being penalized. These things distinguish Australian football and Gaelic football from all other sports. This shows that Australian football has elements of different cultures in it and that some of the elements came from Australia itself, because it has roots that came from the Indigenous populations. It shows that Australian football is a true Australian game because Australia is a mixing bowl of many different cultures. It is a mixing bowl because of the many different people that came to Australia in its early days

The rules of Australian football today reflect Australia’s identity. The rules of the sport reflect its uniqueness, many of the rules are completely different to those of football codes played around the world today. Australian football is a team sport played between two teams of 18 players with an oval shaped ball. the oval ball reflects that the sport evolved from rugby. It is played on large oval shaped grass fields that are also often used as cricket grounds, (cricket and football are played in separate seasons so there are no clashes between scheduling games) with two goal posts and two behind posts at each end, this shows that Australians also play cricket which shows our ties to England. The primary aim of the game is to score goals by kicking the ball between the middle two goal posts. Kicking goals is a part of all football codes this shows that Australian football evolved from earlier football codes. 6 points are awarded if this is done 1 point is awarded if the ball hits the middle goal posts or if the ball goes between one of the goal post and the outer behind posts. This means that more points are scored for more difficult shots. This is similar to Gaelic football where you get one point if you go over the top of the goals and 3 points if you get it in. This shows that the sports are related.  The winning team is the team who has the higher total score at the end of the fourth quarter. If the score is tied then a draw is declared. Unlike most similar sports, there is no offside rule and players can roam the field freely. This is the same in Gaelic football. This allows for a fast paced game. Throwing the ball is not allowed. This is similar to Gaelic football where they dispose of the ball in a very similar way to Australian football. The only ways to dispose of the ball legally are via kicking it and by handballing it (punching it with a fist).  Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick is paid. It is a contact sport so tackling is allowed but only between the knees and shoulders. Tackling is not allowed in Gaelic football or soccer so this rule could have only been stolen from rugby. Unlike other codes of football in other countries the players do not wear padding. This shows the toughness of Australian football players. Also because it is a fast paced game padding would greatly slow it down. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field that catch a ball from a kick are awarded a free kick. This is similar to Gaelic football where players who make a fair catch are rewarded with a free kick this shows how the Irish play a part in the identity of Australia. Australian football’s rules reflect the identity of Australia as it shows the countries that the sport evolved from and this in turn shows that Australia evolved from these countries.

The culture of Australia is shown by some aspects of the sport today. One of the most spectacular aspects of this sport is the high mark or the specky. A high mark is when the player catches the ball in the air above his head. A specky, if done well, is the biggest crowd pleaser of the game, it involves 2 or more players, one player jumps and pushes off the back of another player as high as they can to mark the ball. If performed correctly, the player then catches the ball in the air and is given a free kick. The specky is the most famous part of Australian football and Australians love to try taking speckys over their friends, they play games to try to take marks one such game is Mark of the Day this game involves one player kicking the ball into a pack of other players. The aim is for one of the players in the pack to mark the ball. The player who marks the ball then gets to kick it to the pack.  This game greatly promotes speckys as the player who kicks the ball usually kicks the ball high and into the middle of the pack which is the perfect recipe for a specky. This game is usually played by kids but occasionally adults can be seen playing it. The game can be seen played all the time during recess or lunch at a school on weekdays and on football ovals and parks during weekends. Other crowd pleasers involve players kicking long goals from more than 50 metres. This is also a popular thing to attempt and can be seen in Mark of the Day or Kick-to-Kick, where if there is space the person kicking the ball moves as far as they can away from the people they are kicking it to and kicks it as hard as they can. Another few crowd pleasers are kicking freak goals from almost impossible angles, fast agile play, and good solid tackles. These can also be seen imitated by people all around the country. The sport is a part of the culture because it is played a lot of the time for enjoyment.

 “Sport has been a central part of the Australian experience since the country was first colonised. Press reports of the endeavours of sportsmen and sportswomen played a fundamental role in the way that the developing country viewed and understood itself, and the influence of the sporting media continues to this day… Just how important sport is in Australian society is illustrated by government legislation to keep certain events, such as the Olympic Games, on free to air television. Other events on this list include the Australian Open tennis tournament and the Australian Masters, also known as the ‘Mastercard Masters’ golf tournament”(Sport).Australian football is the most popular sport to be watched by Australians with the average attendances for 2008 being 38,287 at each of the 185 games (“Attendances”). Although Australians love to watch Australian football, read and hear about it they do not like to play it as much. As the code has the fifth highest participation rate behind soccer, cricket, basketball and netball. Australian football has had 322,812 stories in the media over the 26 week season. Which is almost double that of cricket at only 179,526 stories in the media(“Australia’s Battle”). Australians do not play Australian football as much “due to Saturday becoming a work day so less people are able to play” (McFarlane). This reflects the identity of Australia in that as people have to work more they cannot play as much. So as Saturday is becoming more of a work day people cannot play football and this is reflected in football in attendances. Another reason is because sport in Australia is mostly played amongst the younger population. Children find soccer much easier to play as there is less skill involved. “AFL takes more skill and is less popular with the kids”(McFarlane)

 Over the years Australian Football has changed greatly with the country of Australia. At first it was a man’s sport aggressive, rough, dangerous and chaotic. But as Australia grew and became more civilized the sport became less of a man’s game and more of a game for everyone.  It “was first played in the parklands near the Melbourne Cricket Ground on a very large rectangular field three or four times as big as the grounds of today. It quickly became the ‘game of the people’. Right from the beginning big crowds turned up to watch these games, and by the 1870s crowds of several thousand were common. This was quite remarkable when you consider Melbourne the small population at the time” (“How it All”). This was a much different version of the game today because there was no time limit in matches and “the first team to score two goals was declared the winner” (“Did You Know”). There was also no limit on the amount of players that were allowed to play but the teams had to be somewhat equal. This made it very hard for goals to be scored because of the chaos and because people did not have enough time to control the ball and kick a goal before being tackled. So teams could play for hours until any goals were scored. Games stopped only when it was too dark. In fact one of the earliest games of football was played for four hours until it got dark. The two teams were tied with one goal each; they then played another 8 hours over two consequent Saturdays. Yet no other goals were scored and the game was declared a draw. There were no umpires as the captains of each team officiated (“Did You Know”). Tactics that are not allowed in the sport today such as “tripping and pushing in the back (were) allowed”  (“The First Written”) back then.  It was probably a very chaotic game with many injuries. As time went on the game began to change. New rules were introduced in “1866 time limits were introduced (in) 1872 umpires were introduced (in) 1873 team uniforms were introduced (by) 1877 games were regularly being played on cricket ovals” rather than rectangular fields. (“Chronology”) Australian football was becoming more and more accepted by the people of Melbourne and the surrounding area and it was beginning to spread.

Before 1877 games were not allowed to be played on cricket ovals, probably because they believed it would wreck the ground. But as more people wanted to see the games the owners of ovals most likely saw a source of income for the winter. As more people were getting involved more rules were introduced to keep people interested. Over the years more clubs were being formed over all states. The game even established itself in New Zealand (“Chronology”).

When the sport (became more popular leagues began to form this shows that as Australia was developing the sport was developing. In 1877 two major leagues were formed. The first one despite the fact that the sport originated in Victoria, was started in South Australia, called the South Australian Football Association; SAFA (currently known as the South Australian National Football League; SANFL)(“About the SANFL”), the second one was started in Victoria called the Victorian Football Association; VFA (currently called the Victorian Football League; VFL, and the Australian Football League; AFL)(“History of the VFL”). In the early 1900’s major leagues were formed in each state and in the two major territories. In 1990 the VFL changed its name to the Australian Football League because teams from interstate had joined the league. The VFA then renamed itself the VFL. The AFL controls many of the state leagues and also sponsors many international leagues.

The game was quickly becoming a national pastime and a major part of the culture as it spread across Australia. But in 1916 “the game lost many of its great players to wartime service” (“Australian rules”). The war could have had been a good thing though because “scratch matches were played by Australian “diggers” (soldiers) in remote locations around the world” (“Australian Rules”). But the scratch matches didn’t really catch on with anyone else, because the game was uniquely Australian and did not appeal to anyone else who already had their own games to play. A good thing about this is that it shows that Australians back during World War 1 used the sport to pass the time and to enjoy themselves. This shows that the sport had become a part of Australian culture. After the war “some competitions and leagues never fully recovered. After WW1 popularity in the game in NZ declined and the game went into recess for three quarters of a century. 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” of players (“Australian Rules”). The war caused Australian culture to stop for a few years in that during the war attendances of spectators at games fell. Before the war, people had loved going to the footy to barrack (root) and cheer for their favourite team, drink a beer or two with friends and eat meat pies, but now that the war was on people could not indulge in these common cultural practices. Life changed a lot during the war; lots of spectators and players went off to fight. This affected attendances because people who would usually have gone to the football games were no longer there to go to the football games. Football ovals that were regularly used before the war were no longer allowed to be used as they had been taken over by the government and used as barracks. The grounds that games were now played on had less room for spectators. This also affected attendances. Also because the teams had lost some of their star players, games were not as exciting. So people did not enjoy going as much, this reflected the moods of Australians at the time, people were not happy that their family members were going off to war, so because attending Australian football games was not as enjoyable this also added to the depressed moods. Also people did not enjoy the games as much, this affected attendances as well as the fact that many spectators had left.

After the war people wanted to get back to normal life as soon as possible and attendances quickly went back up to what they had been before the war. Attendances at the VFL games after the First World War rose from 1,341,331 in 1921 with 76 games played by 9 teams, to 2,053,432 with 112 games played by 12 teams in 1928. (“Attendances”) World War 2 also brought attendances down greatly. Attendances in 1942 and 1943 were 791,000 and 971,159 respectively (“Attendances”). 84 games were played each of these years as the season was shortened and one team, Geelong could not compete due to war time restrictions on rail and road travel. After the war attendances quickly rose again and two years later in 1946 attendances reached 2,391,237. . This reflects how Australian football is a part of tradition and culture, because people could not get back to their normal lives without Australian football. Attendances gradually grew over the years as the AFL became more popular and more teams were introduced into the league. Attendances for 2008 were 7,083,015 this was the highest attendance for a year ever. This reflects the culture of Australia in that as the population grows more people are following cultural traditions.

As the years were going by slowly the rules were getting more refined. The game in the 1920’s and 30’s was very different to the first games of the code, this shows how Australia was modernizing. For example there were more umpires, there were better uniforms, and they were played on ovals, a push in the back rule existed where players were not allowed to be shoved from behind while in a marking contest, nor were players allowed to tackle players with the ball by pushing them in the back, tripping was not allowed and high tackles were illegal as well. Although all these measures were taken to make the sport safer, it didn’t really work as fights amongst players were common. The game was not as chaotic as it had been but it was still aggressive, which reflected society at the time, the people of the time loved the aggressiveness of the sport. The sport remained aggressive until the 1990’s and 2000’s when further rules were introduced and umpires became stricter. So as the country got more civilized and globalized more the rules got stricter. This reflects the identity of Australia because as the country developed so did the sport. Rules such as the blood rule, introduced in 1994, which required bleeding players to leave the field for immediate treatment, were introduced (“Chronology”). Before this rule players had been allowed to continue playing if they were bleeding, adding to the perceived toughness of players. In 2007 a rule was introduced that elaborated on an old rule introduced in 1897 that was put in place to protect players in a marking competition from being knocked off balance while trying to catch the ball by a player behind them. The rule of 2007 states “any player who placed his hands upon an opponent’s back in a marking contest, whether there was a visible push or not, would be penalized” (Push). This rule changed the way the game was played quite a lot and created a lot of debate, because players could no longer use their hand to feel where their opponent was, nor use their hand on the players back to hold their position. The umpires award more penalties for rough conduct and breaking the rules, because there are more rules. A common penalty is a 50 metre penalty where the opposing team is awarded a free kick 50 metres towards their own goal, from the place where the rule breaking took place. Before the 1990’s players could get away with a lot of rough conduct they could even swear at and abuse the umpires without getting penalized.

The game is much different today from what it was in the 1800’s. The game is a lot more civilized and adapted for modern times. There are now many women competitions as the game has become less aggressive. To make the game even more appealing to women additional rule changes have been put into place, although not all female competitions use them. “The main rule differences in Women’s Footy as opposed to men’s Australian football involves modified tackling rules. Typically aggressive slinging (swinging a player by the jumper or throwing the player to the ground) of oppositions players in a tackle is not allowed… Another main difference is the size of the ball. A smaller ball to the men’s version is often used to minimise hand injuries when catching (marking) the ball” (“Modified”). This shows that the country has changed alot and it represents the identity. “Today it is more common for young women and girls to play Australian Football. Women’s football has quietly gained in popularity and confidence over the past five years” (“Granny”). Women are no longer content to simply watch the boys playing now and have decided that they want to play more. Part of this growth followed a “2003 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal case. Penny Cula-Reid, Emily Stanyer and Helen Taylor challenged Football Victoria’s rule forcing girls to stop playing against boys when they turned 12. The case saw the age limit increased to 14. Since then, Football Victoria has appointed a full-time female development manager, Nicole Graves. In 2004, Ms Graves started an under-18 Youth Girls competition that has 12 teams this year. About 14,000 girls play in high school competitions and a primary school version, which started last year, already has 75 teams and 2,000 players. So females are playing more Australian football, but they are getting involved in all other aspects of the sport as well “An increase in female participation was recorded in all sectors including Auskick, Junior Youth, Secondary School and Senior Women’s competitions and programs in 2004. Initial 2005 figures suggested that all sectors again show significant participation increases” (“Women”). So as women are getting more freedom in Australia they are playing more Australian Football. But still because of the fact that men are scared of letting women play with them because they are considered weaker, girls above the age of 14 are not allowed to play amongst the boys. Two girls Evelyn Rannstrom and Toni Wilson both want to play in the under-14’s boy’s team but because they are 14 and 15 they are not allowed to play alongside the boys. “Toni, who turned 15…  has played 93 games for the outer eastern suburbs club the Gembrook Cockatoo under-14s  in six years” (Drill). The girls coach, Mark Fitzgerald, who coaches the Gembrook Cockatoo under-14s, (the team the girls played for) said the girls were integral players. Those two girls can handle it. They are both really hard at the ball and definitely in the top half of our team”, he said (Drill). Even the Dandenong Ranges Junior Football League secretary Judy Orren said the league would love to have the girls playing, but because it was against AFL Victoria rules, insurance would not cover them if they were injured(Drill). Recently there has been a lot of debate over whether girls should be allowed to play Australian rules football with boys, some people have been against the idea because of the risk of injury, and sexual abuse, whereas others have been for the idea because they believe that girls should be allowed to do what they and their parents want. So although women are able to do a lot more than they were allowed to do in the past they still have certain restrictions. Also another issue is that men are scared of sexual harassment law suits that could be held against them. They are scared to treat the girls like they would treat boys because they are scared that there may be consequences.  This shows that Australian football is reflecting the fact that men are scared to let women play because of lawsuits against men for sexual harassment in Australia in general.

The game and variations of it are not only becoming more playable for women but also for children of all ages and backgrounds, There are variations to the normal code that allow children of all ages and backgrounds, women and also people looking for safer alternatives to the games. For children in the junior competitions there are extra rules that make the game safer. One of these rules is that soccering of the ball, or kicking the ball off the ground without using the hands, is not allowed. This rule is used because someone who kicks the ball off the ground has a good chance of kicking another player’s hands or face that is bending over to pick the ball up.  For those who want to stay away from any tackling at all “AFL Recreational Football has been recently developed to provide an opportunity for all Australian Football enthusiasts to enjoy participating in a modified game that has strong parallels with the traditional game. AFL Recreational Football is designed so that everyone can play; it is less physically demanding, has minimal time commitment with no risk of serious injury and a major emphasis on fun and safety (non-contact).” (“Rec Footy”). Recreational Football games are shorter as they consist of two twenty minute halves, whereas a normal game does for four twenty minute quarters. It is a much slower version of normal Australian football as goals cannot be scored on the run; they can only be scored from set shots by offensive players (“Rec Footy FAQS). This game gets everyone more involved, this means that anyone who plays has a higher chance of getting involved than in the normal game. This is shown in that in mixed competitions women who score a goal get 9 points rather than 6 points if a man scores, so this gives the team more incentive to pass the ball to a woman rather than a man who may have better accuracy. So those new to the sport can play this version first to understand the rules of the normal game and have fun, or people concerned about injury can play it instead of normal football. Played in a friendly, social environment, the game enables people of all ages and ability levels to participate in male, female or mixed competitions” (“Rec Footy”). Recreational Football is a great example of how the AFL is adapting the sport to fit the needs of everyone. As Australia is getting more diverse, Australian football is getting more diverse. This is because of immigration, today there are people from all over the world living in Australia. This makes Australia diverse with many different cultures, foods and sports. Australian football appeals to most of these as it has many peoples favourite sports incorporated into it.

Today Australian football is still spreading throughout the country and the world. Because Australia is very multicultural, this sport, being multicultural itself represents Australia. Because the history of Australia and Australian Football has been intertwined since the beginning, the fact that Australian Football is following the path of Australia right now in globalizing makes sense Australia is also following the path of Australian football in that it is maintaining the identity of Australia. In Australia the code is growing due to growth of the Australian Football League. The sport has always been popular in all states except for Queensland and New South Wales. This is because “Rugby holds weight in the northern eastern states (Queensland and New South Wales) simply because that it where it grew” (Durnan). Although recently the code has been growing in these states “20 years ago, when the AFL forced itself into the Sydney sporting market, and then nearly 10 years later into the Qld/Brisbane market” (Durnan), people from these states could watch this sport, and follow a team closer to them. It was hard for the AFL to get a team in Sydney and “The introduction of the Swans was a real challenge and full of mistakes, but with lots of money and effort and AFL focus they remained and have a reasonable presence in Sydney” (Durnan). This was probably because of the popularity of rugby in this state, so it was probably hard to find players or convince players from Melbourne to move to Sydney. But now they have “a reasonable presence” (Durnan) and compete well against rugby. In Queensland the introduction of the Australian football team of the Brisbane bears/lions was a lot easier than the introduction of the Swans in Sydney “as there were many ex-Victorians that had migrated to Queensland so the population were and are still footy friendly” (Durnan). Also it was probably easier because the AFL had experience with setting up a club in a harder environment to crack into. But the hard work paid off as “popularity has grown in these states, probably more so in Brisbane because of the ex-Victorian population and the lifestyle (the lifestyle being much more laid back compared to Sydney. People in Queensland had much more time to play and watch the sport and were more open to Australian football), and the fact that it seemed safer than rugby with meat-head branding (where only the big dumb guys play it) – neck injury hazards” (Durnan). Also the AFL has clubs from the states of South Australia, and Western Australia. These are states that have always traditionally played Australian football, so all that the AFL had to do was take clubs that already existed in these states, and implement them into the AFL. Although it still has to compete mainly against the rugby codes, Australian football now has another enemy, “in both in Queensland & NSW, and the rest of Australia -  the game is competing with soccer, which again due to ‘safety’ less injuries, and international potential is a growing code, that seeks to attract young players” (Durnan). “I have read where soccer is making a big advance in Australia. Very popular with the kids as it is easy to kick the ball…  As kids turn to teenagers they drift back to AFL and Rugby” (McFarlane). Because Australia is globalizing different sports are becoming more popular like soccer. This shows that as Australia is globalizing It is becoming more diverse and the culture less concentrated on Australian football. This makes it easier for a sport like soccer to take hold in Australia. Another reason is Australians are less aggressive and more modernized, and play soccer which has a low risk of injury.  The most aggressive sports such as rugby are no longer as popular as ones that are less aggressive like soccer, or Australian football.

Media has and is played/playing a major role in the spread of Australian football. “As Australia developed economically, so too did technology and literacy rates. This meant that more Australians had the leisure time in which to play and watch sport, and more time to read about it. The first newspaper devoted entirely to sporting news was The Referee, published in Sydney in 1886” (“Sport”). The Referee most likely told very little of Australian football because it was located in Sydney where Australian football was rarely played. But this most likely started a trend for the rest of Australia to talk about sports more in newspapers. Newspapers spread sports really well. Although it is not about Australian football, this excerpt from the article “Sport and the Media” from the governments culture website, shows how media affected the popularity of sport in Australia. “When the first (Melbourne) Cup (horse racing) was held in 1861, 4,000 people watched. In the years following, telegraph and print media across the country popularised the event and by 1881 over 100,000 people were in attendance to witness the running of that year’s Cup. By 2003, ‘the race that stops a nation’ (this has become the term by which the Cup is broadly known in Australia) was broadcast using twenty-five cameras crewed by 120 people. In total, 856 media representatives were accredited to cover an event that was transmitted to a potential global audience of 700 million.

The code is very popular amongst the indigenous populations of Australia. This shows that Australian football is truly Australian because of the fact that different Australian cultures in Australia play it.  This is particularly true for the indigenous populations due to the fact that they have inhabited Australia for longer than anyone else. In the newspaper The Age the writer John Borthwick states “For the population of Bathurst and Melville islands (the Tiwi Islands, 100 kilometres north of Darwin; the capital city of the Northern Territory), football is one of their ‘religions.’” On the website realfooty.com.au the writer Lindsay Murdoch states “Australian rules football on Melville and Bathurst islands… is not a sport but an obsession”. Also in the travel section of the website ninemsn.com.au the writer states “We are football mad on this island” (“Footy Fever”). Obviously the inhabitants of these islands are crazy about their footy. They are the most Australian football crazy place to be in the world, as Borthwick states in his article, “with 900 participants men, women and children – out of a community of about 2600, the Tiwi Islands can claim the highest football participation, at 35 per cent, of any community in Australia”. Tiwi’s have been playing football for more than 60 years as “Tiwi football began in the 1940s, when Brother John Pye introduced the AFL game… It was not long before the islanders were hooked on the game” (“Footy Fever”). They have played the game ever since. Nowadays Tiwi people will do anything to get to their footy even after “torrential monsoon rains… blocked roads on Melville Island… nothing will stop the Imalu Tigers and supporters reaching Nguiu for the grand final clash with Bathurst’s Tapalinga Super Stars. ‘They’ll ignore the crocodiles and swim if necessary,’ said Bill Toy, an official of the Tiwi Islands Football League” (Murdoch). This shows how much love these people can have for the sport that has not even been with them that long. “For the Tiwi people football means hope it means pride and most importantly it means life” (Murdoch). The Tiwi islanders love for football shows that the game is loved in remote areas of Australia; it also shows that the islanders have adopted footy as part of their unique culture. It also gives job opportunities for Tiwi islanders not just to play in the AFL but in other leagues as well such as the Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL).

It is not only in the Tiwi Islands that the code is popular amongst indigenous Australians it is also popular amongst mainland aborigines. There are a few places where it is popular, “It is extremely popular in far north… and throughout Western Australia (WA), Northern Territory (NT).” (Durnan). One example of another population of aborigines is the Martu Aborigines living in the middle of Western Australia in the central and western deserts. The Martu “execute their passion for Australian Rules Football barefoot with a fast running style as open as the Great Sandy desert” (Taylor). They play Australian football in their own unique way because they don’t have any big powerful guys their games are faster and more fluid styled play. “The Martu love to play footy but the extreme isolation of Western Australia’s… deserts means that matches come just once a year for the Martu and their far neighbours” (Taylor). It is such an important part of their lives that some people “drove for more than 10 hours… to get to the annual footy carnival in the indigenous community of 180 people in Punmu. Hundreds arrived by 4WD bus and in Land Cruisers for the two-day carnival on Punmu’s sports oval” (Taylor). Now to make the people even happier the “carnival sponsor Newcrest Mining, which owns the Telfer gold mine about two hours by dirt road from Punmu” is planning to set up a six round season for teams from each of the communities of Warralong, Ligalong, Kiwirrkurra, Parnngurr, Punmu and Nullagine (Taylor). This “idea came from community leaders eager for their young men to play more sport” (Taylor). It is a dream of many of the young men of these communities to play in the AFL, “But their distance from Perth,” the capital city of Western Australia, “and a lack of football in their region has worked against them”(Taylor). “For years, the annual football carnival has been the means for choosing the Western Desert Warriors team, which plays a curtain-raiser at the West Coast Eagles’ annual home game against the (Fremantle) Dockers”(Taylor). The West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers are both AFL teams hailing from Western Australia. So players that play in the annual football carnival are watched closely and the best are chosen to compete for the Western Desert Eagles in the curtain raiser game for the AFL. This is a great career opportunity for many young men.  The fact that a new league is being started for these people is even better because it is believed that it “will encourage frequent training and help the most talented players from the desert lands shine at the… annual match”(Taylor). This is great because there are not many career opportunities available for these people living in remote places. “In many cases it has provided individuals with career potential and workplace hope, with a launching pad to fame and financial success”(Durnan). “For others, such as 31-year-old Lazarus Lillias from Kiwirrkurra, football is not a career path but very important all the same. Though the father of two usually speaks in his first language, Kintor, his joy at kicking a goal against Parnngurr on Saturday was obvious, ‘It’s fun to put a goal,’ he said simply” (Taylor). This illustrates that although he doesn’t speak the language of most Australians he enjoys the sport of them. Australian football is a major part of life for the aborigines in most of Australia. This shows that the indigenous populations of Australia, although they have decided to stay in their own lands and stay away from western civilization, have or are attempting to assimilate Australian football into their culture. Since the indigenous populations are a part of Australia’s culture and identity, it makes sense that this game which has evolved with them and partly from them is played by them.

Australian football is a major part of Australian society and new immigrants from many different cultures who want to integrate themselves into Australian society. With this in mind “the AFL in partnership with Football Victoria (an organization that promotes football in Victoria) and the Department for Victorian Communities has established the Multicultural Program to assist people from diverse cultural backgrounds to integrate into Australian society through Australian Football. The program focuses mainly on school children from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) backgrounds. A program is implemented in schools, where students learn the skills of Australian Football. It is an introduction, while also providing an avenue by which they can become involved in Auskick or join a local junior football club. The program is not limited to children. High School students and adults from CLD backgrounds also have the opportunity to participate in the Multicultural Program” (Brett). This shows that as Australia is becoming more diverse the sport is becoming more diverse with people from many different cultures playing the sport to become a part of an Australian community. Muslims for example are taking up the sport “the Australian Muslim community is only 1.5 per cent of the Australian population, but they go about their business and they are playing in the local football club, taking their children to the beach in summer and they definitely have adopted the tradition of the great Aussie barbecue” (Nowell). So Muslims who are adapting to the Australian lifestyle are taking up Australian football. “Sheik Fehmi Naji el-Imam, the spiritual leader of Australia’s 300,000 Muslims… holds up Essendon’s recruit Bachar Houli, a Muslim, as a role model and pin-up boy of his multicultural philosophy” (Nowell). Australian Football and footballers like Bachar Houli bring hope to immigrants looking forward to assimilating into Australian culture and society.

            Racism was a problem in Australia’s past and also in the past of Australian football. In the past it was very uncommon for aboriginal players to play in the major leagues. It was uncommon for aborigines to be involved in anything that the white people were involved in. So when Australia’s identity was one where aborigines kept to themselves, Aborigines did not play football with everyone else.  But today this has all changed as Australia has become more accepting towards everyone. An article from 2000 in the “Australian newspaper revealed the existence of a 1988 Geelong recruiting report in which the only information recorded next to the names of two Aboriginal players was the fact that they were, quote, ‘coloured,’ unquote.” (Mcleod). Racism has always been present in Australia. The first white people came in the 1780’s more than 200 years ago were prejudiced against the Aborigines and they killed many of them. Aborigines did not get the right to vote until 1967. Before the 1980s “Aboriginal footballers had starred periodically at the elite level.” The first of these players was Joe Johnson who played 55 games and played in the premierships of 1904 and 1905 (“Influence of”). “It has… taken great courage for many Aboriginal players to play Australian Football as they have had to overcome racial prejudices and a lack of cultural awareness in order to excel at their chosen sport” (“Influence of”).  Aboriginal players have had a big hand in changing the way that Australia thinks about racism. “In 1995, the AFL became the first sport group to introduce rules against racism. At an elite level players such as Michael Long have been successful at raising an awareness of the issue” (Morrone). Players like the Krakouer brothers, who played from 1982 to 1989, had to put up with racism, Phil Krakouer “remembers offering his hand to an opponent, who replied icily: ‘I don’t shake hands with black people’” (Rintoul, Stewart. “After”) It was very hard for these players to put up with the racism they were encountering, Jim Krakouer “would be called a coon, a nigger or a black c…(often when he was winning the ball), and he would stop and deal with it with his fists, then would be reported (punished). ‘I had to put up with it as a kid; being an adult, I wasn’t prepared to put up with it,’ he says. ‘I didn’t like being called a black c… and that. It used to really cut me deep, so I reacted the only way I knew how to.’ It was not only in the football world that these players had to put up with racism after a best-on-ground performance for WA against South Australia, Jim was refused entry to a Perth nightclub because he was Aboriginal. “No, mate, not you,” said the bouncer” (Rintoul, Stewart. “After”). The fight against racism was set off with one act by a certain player “Early in the 1993 season, (aboriginal player Nicky Winmar’s) match-winning performance against Collingwood at Victoria Park brought on some racist taunts from the Magpie cheer-squad. At the end of the game, Nicky responded by lifting his jumper and pointing to his black skin saying ‘I’m proud to be black’” (Neil Elvis).” “Winmar’s defiant act led to a push by former Essendon player Michael Long to create a racial and religious vilification policy adopted by the AFL. Long, now chairman of the AFL Indigenous Foundation,said: ‘At Victoria Park, where he showed his skin to the crowd, was a defining moment in the history of the AFL’” (Shaw).  Indigenous players who encountered racism, instead of putting up with it for the next generation to endure, fought against it. Today because of their “magic skills” people see them in a different light. They were originally seen as good for nothing, but now they are seen as a joy to watch and a force that help bring teams to victory. Australian football has played a part in shaping Australia’s identity as a multicultural nation that accepts everyone. Today in the AFL “something like 15-18% of players are indigenous” and many of these players have come from places like the Tiwi islands (Durnan). These players “have a natural ball instinct and athleticism, and in the last 20-30 years many indigenous players have brought some special magic skills to the game” (Durnan). The AFL has provided “individuals with career potential and workplace hope, with a launching pad to fame and financial success” (Durnan). The Aboriginal players have brought different skills to the game in the last 20 years, this reflects the relationship between Aborigines and whites and it shows the respect that many Australians now hold for Aborigines.

Because the world is globalizing, more and more Australians are heading overseas and showing off the sport to people. The Australian government has an article titled “Living and Working Overseas” on its website on travelling. It states that “at any one time there are about one million Australians living and working overseas.” The entire population of Australia is around 21,000,000 so that is a very large percentage of Australians outside of Australia. Although, recently the amount of Australian overseas travellers has risen greatly, due to cheapness of flights and such, Australians have had a long history of travelling. While they travel around or live in another country they may get homesick and the best way to cure this is to go and play some footy with mates. So the sport is becoming more and more played outside of Australia. This shows that as Australia is evolving and globalizing and Australians are moving around, Australian football is following. Aussie Rules is not a new sport to the world as there have been a many international exhibition matches of the sport, since 1916 when an exhibition match in England during World War 1 was held “Over 3,000 people watched a football match at Queen’s Club on Saturday between team from an Australian Division (division of the Army) and another representing Training Details (another division of the Army). The game was played under Australian rules, and was a novelty to most of those present” (“Australian Football”).  Other than the exhibition game between the soldiers, other exhibition matches include a game played by AFL teams last year when a preseason match was played between two AFL teams in Dubai.

Other examples of the spread of Australian football are an annual game played by Oxford and Cambridge universities. After the war in 1920 Oxford and Cambridge started an annual Australian Football game. In 2008 “Oxford and Cambridge… met for their 88th consecutive annual Australian football match, with Oxford winning 8.11 (59) to Cambridge’s 5.2 (32)” (Roffey). The match was first played “by a group of expatriates studying at the universities after World War I… and (it) continues to attract Australian scholars homesick for their code. In recent years, players from Ireland and Canada have become common as the game’s reach extends internationally (playing in the Cambridge Oxford match)” (Roffey). This shows that the game is spreading and becoming more popular as people who are not from Australia are playing in this game. “The game is an all-day affair that emulates the Australian country town tradition of hosting football, netball and post-match celebrations. It’s quite a big day. We have obviously the game between the men and there’s also an annual varsity netball match between the two Australian-New Zealand societies at Oxford and Cambridge” (Roffey). In Australia it is common in small country towns in the Australian football states for the whole town to turn up at the footy to watch the men play football and the women to play netball which is “is by far the most popular female sport in Australia and is played by women of all ages. It is an extremely fast paced and very skilful sport and like cricket it is most popular in the countries of the Commonwealth”(“Australia”). So this Cambridge vs. Oxford game is a great opportunity for Australians to experience their own culture, while it also serves to spread the game.

The sport is quite common in Asia as that is where many Australians travel and live, because of the proximity to Australia, this shows that Australia’s identity is becoming more globalized. There are also many development programmes set up by the AFL and other organisations that help to develop Australian football in these countries.  An example of this is in Indonesia, where “a new development program kicked off… thanks to a grant from the Australia-Indonesia Institute and the placement of AYAD (Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development) volunteer development officer Chris Bandy. Around 4000 Indonesian school kids and quite a few expat kids have since taken part in Australian football clinics. Bandy is optimistic of seeing a local-run organisation off the ground in the near future, with a Jakarta school-based league of around 10 teams in regular competition” (Aaron). Australians are moving overseas and trying to aid in the development of other countries. Because they play and know the rules for Australian football this is the sport that they play with the other countries. Countries that play Australian football are countries that have had close ties with Australia. “Australian football has been played in PNG since the 1930s and remains popular across the country. Fourteen senior clubs compete under the AFLPNG banner as well as junior clubs, less formal senior teams and school competitions. AFLPNG is fostering player development through its talented player pathway programs and scholarships awarded through AFL Queensland. Expect the Mosquitoes (Papua New Guinea’s Australian football team) to be boosted in the International Cup (the Australian football International Cup held in Melbourne in 2008) by the 21 players currently playing in Australia on scholarship” (“Papua”). This is a great example of Australian globalization and Australia’s ties with the nations surrounding it. It also contributes to multiculturalism as some Papuans have moved to Australia on football scholarships. This adds to the diversity of Australia. Australian football is played in many developed countries and countries in Asia and the pacific, teams that played in the AFL International cup in 2008 consisted of Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Samoa and a Palestinian/Israeli team (“Teams”). These are all developed nations or countries close to Australia and although Israel is developed the Israeli/Palestinian team is there because of the amount of immigrants in Australia from those places. These are the main countries that Australians live in.

So Australian Football is a major part of Australia in that it brings people together in this diverse multi-cultural society. Australian football was invented as a multicultural sport that could be played by all people in Australia. The population of Australia at the time of the invention of the code consisted of mainly English, Scottish, Irish, and Aboriginal. So the white people in Australia had encounters with aborigines. Thus the rules of the sport were mainly developed around these groups. As Australia has changed from what it was in the 1850’s so has Australian football changed from what it was in the 1850’s. The sport has changed as Australia has changed. As media evolved in Australia the sport became more popular, because people could learn about the sport and where it was happening, Nowadays people all over Australia can watch the football and it is even shown around the world. As racism towards aborigines and immigrants became less prominent, more and more multicultural players became a part the game, this is due to the hard work of Aboriginal players who fought against racism. As sexism diminished in the country more women became involved in the sport, now there are lots of leagues for women, but because there is still a small amount of sexism in the country it is reflected in that girls cannot play against guys after they turn 14, even if they and others believe they can. As Australia is globalizing, footy is played in more and more countries by more and more people. Also as immigration to Australia increases immigrants can be accepted into Australian society by playing football. Australian football also plays an important part in giving hope to aboriginal footballers who live in poor communities with their tribes, these players only way of leaving these communities is by playing Australian football.

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