Few Interesting Facts About AFL
AFL is the most popular tournament in Australia. Fans waited with bated breath to catch the latest season of AFL. The AFL is the most watched football tournament in Australia.
Visit the AFL shop near you to buy official merchandise of your favourite teams and go through the article for interesting facts on AFL.
- In the Early days, the football fields were large and rectangular. The fields were spotted trees which were used as goals.
- During 1850s the game was popularly known as footy. The name changed to Victorian Rules, during the 1870s and the game slowly started gaining popular among the people of Australia.
- The Australian Football Council, the national governing body formed in the early twentieth century. The game was called as Australasian game of football. The name slowly evolved to Australian football.
- In the initial days, there were no umpires. The captains of both the competing teams acted as umpires for the match. The game did not have any pre-set playing time. The team which scored two goals first was declared as the winner of the match.
- During the early days, the matches ended because of a quarrel between the players or when it turned dark.
- Footballs were very expensive and players did not have a spare ball during the match. Most of the matches ended when the football burst.
- The first game to be reported was held on 7th August 18. The match was between Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College. The match was played on a ground that was six hundred metres long. On the first day, the score was levelled with one goal for both the teams. The match was further extended and teams played on the next two Saturdays to decide the winner. But both the teams failed to score a goal and the match was pronounced to be a draw.
- The first ANZAC day match was held during 1960. From then on, AFL football match on ANZAC day has become a tradition. The match is most awaited by fans and is considered the biggest day after the AFL Grand finale. Fans flock to AFL shop to buy the jerseys of their favourite team and watch the match with family and friends.
