AFL FAQs - The AFL

Until 1982 the League, then known as the Victorian Football League, had 12 clubs, all based in Victoria - 11 of them in Melbourne and the 12th 75 kilometres away in the provincial city of Geelong.

The national spread started with the relocation of the South Melbourne Football Club to Sydney in 1982. The club, now the Sydney Football Club, plays its home games at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

This move and the addition of four new clubs between 1987 and 1995 were the first major club moves since 1925 when North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Footscray entered the competition.

The competition grew to 14 in 1987 when the League spread its wings to Western Australia and Queensland. This saw the birth of West Coast in Perth (WA) and Brisbane in Carrara, on Queensland's Gold Coast. In 1993, Brisbane moved into headquarters in Brisbane and made a permanent base at the famous Gabba.

Twenty-two players make up a senior team with 18 on the ground at any one time. They are each given positions and the public know who are the goalkickers, the play-makers and the players who defend the goals.

The clubs announce their teams in positions before each game. After a designated deadline, the teams' personnel cannot be changed, but players can be moved as the coach sees fit.

This is one of the great strategies of Australian Football - the art of trying to outfox the opposite coach with swift positional moves of players.

Clubs can interchange their players at any time provided there are only 18 from each team on the field at one time. An interchange steward checks the movements of players in this area.

Player numbers and positions are published each week in the AFL Record, the AFL's official publication.

Each game consists of four quarters of 20 minutes each, plus time on. At the direction of the field umpires, who use special signals, timekeepers add extra time to make up for lost play, usually after a goal or if the ball goes out of bounds. Most quarters run for between 26 and 30 minutes.

There is a five-minute break at the end of the first quarter and a six-minute break at the end of the third quarter. During this time players stay on the field and are addressed by their respective coaches. At half-time the players leave the field for 20 minutes.

Each game is controlled by seven umpires - three field umpires, two boundary umpires and two goal umpires. There is also an emergency umpire.

In 2001, each AFL club will play 22 home-and-away matches. Because only eight clubs play in the finals, clubs with the same number of points often have to be separated by percentage, which is calculated according to the total points for and total points against a team.

The finals are conducted over four weekends and in 2000 attracted many spectators.

With 16 premierships apiece, Carlton and Essendon lead the the list of flag-winners. The new clubs Brisbane and Fremantle are still waiting to win a flag, but Adelaide stole the show in 1997 to take home its first premiership. Sydney is also without a premiership but South Melbourne, the club it superseded, won three.

A record number of spectators watched home-and-away games in 2000. Football on television also reached record levels, outlining the strength and popularity of the game in a climate that has seen several others sports slide from prominence.

Each November, the AFL draw for the following season is constructed. This is no mean feat, as 16 teams are drawn to compete in a season that lasts 22 rounds.

Obviously it is not possible for each team to play another twice: thus the draw is 'weighted'. Each team plays eight others once and seven others twice. The teams playing twice are more likely to come from the opposite end of the finishing order from the previous season; thus if a team finished 11th last season, it is likely that team will be drawn to play teams 1-8 twice in the current season.

Since 1994, eight clubs have contested the AFL finals. The number has doubled since the early 1970s when only 12 clubs made up the competition.

In the early days of the League there were varying ways of finding the premier club, but from 1931 until 1971, the four top clubs played in a finals series consisting of four games « a first semi-final, second semi-final, preliminary final and grand final.

The grand final is the highlight of the season. The game that decides the premier team is played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in late September or early October.

The match is always a sell-out, with crowds usually in the region of 95,000. Many seats are pre-booked and some areas of the ground are set aside for AFL members and Melbourne Cricket Club members.

Grand finals receive blanket coverage from the media. They are tense battles even if the scores are not close. Before the game and at half-time spectators are treated to spectacular entertainment.

Until 2002 the Seven Network has exclusive TV rights to AFL matches. Seven broadcasts matches played interstate live to most Australian cities - other than the city of origin. Seven has onsold Pay-TV rights to Optus Vision, which is broadcasting every AFL match on a 24-hour exclusive football channel, Sports AFL. The ABC provides radio broadcasts of AFL matches in all capitals. Other radio stations broadcast games in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney.

In March 1998, the AFL, the Seven Network Limited and News Limited launched www.afl.com.au - the official AFL website. It is not only the most visited sports site in Australia but won the best sports site at the Telstra-Financial Review internet awards in 1999.

The AFL logo is a great sales tool for all sorts of merchandisers. During the last decade it has become a powerful marketing tool for manufacturers of footwear, knitwear, collectors cards, CD-ROM, watches, games, posters, magazines, and more. There are officially sanctioned AFL drinks, airline and foods.

In 1991, another club was born - the Adelaide Football Club - with its home at Football Park in South Australia. The number of clubs swelled to 16 in 1995 with the admittance of Fremantle, which plays at Subiaco - the same venue used by West Coast.

In 1997, a second South Australian team, Port Adelaide, joined the League and foundation club Fitzroy merged with Brisbane to keep the number of teams at 16.

Television has played a major role and the national competition has seen it take an even stronger hand with games being beamed across Australia each weekend, on public holidays and on some Friday and Monday nights.

With the expanded competition, the League had to make adjustments to the system of playing the finals. From 1931 to 1971 four clubs made up the finals each year, but in 1972 the final five was introduced. It remained that way until Adelaide joined in 1991 - thus creating a final six. In 1994, a system was introduced whereby the top eight teams played off for the premiership.

Only the field umpires can award free kicks, but all umpires can report players they believe have committed an offence. The charges are heard by an independent AFL Tribunal.

A player found guilty of striking - the most common offence - is usually suspended for between two and four matches.

When the field umpire bounces the ball in the middle of the ground the game is on in earnest. The coaches' messages during play are conveyed to the players via runners. If a player has erred, is being out-played or is injured, the coach will tell a runner to remove the player from the ground and replace him with an interchange player.

Each side changes ends after each quarter and the side with the biggest score at the final siren is the winner.

The clubs play for premiership points - four points for a win, two for a draw, none for a loss. At the end of each round a ladder ranks the teams in points order and percentage. Percentage is calculated by dividing total points for by total points against and multiplying that figure by 100, and charts each club's progress from week to week. At the end of the home-and-away season the eight top clubs play in the finals. The last match of the AFL season is the Grand Final.

Below is the final ladder of the 2000 season, following the completion of the home-and-away season (and before the start of the finals). Essendon finished on top of the ladder and were declared minor premiers. The team that finished last, St. Kilda, received the wooden spoon.

The AFL also conducts a summer competition which usually finishes a week before the major premiership season. Most matches are played at night. The 2000 Ansett Australia Cup Grand Final was won by Essendon.

The major individual medals in the AFL are: the Brownlow Medal, awarded to the player judged by the field umpires as the fairest and best player in the home-and-away season; the Norm Smith Medal, awarded to the best player in the grand final (judged by a special panel), and the John Coleman Medal, awarded to the leading goalkicker in the home-and-away season.

Every effort is made to even out the number of times each club plays every other club, so all fixtures from the previous six seasons are taken into account. There's more: Melbourne clubs are guaranteed nine home games, interstate clubs 11 home games.

The draw is never easy and requires dedicated computer time by mathematics experts each year to get it right. Even then, it takes half a dozen drafts to get it close to satisfying the clubs and their fans.

In 1972, the final five came into being and 1991 saw the birth of the final six when Adelaide entered the competition. At this point there were 15 clubs in the League. In 1994 - the season before the entry of Fremantle took the number of clubs to 16 - the final eight came into being.

The final eight allows for nine games played over four weekends.

There are four qualifying finals, two semi-finals, two preliminary finals and the grand final.

If the scores are level at the final siren, the competing clubs return the following week for a replay. The most recent replay was in 1977.

The first 100,000-plus crowd at a grand final was in 1956 when 115,802 fans saw Melbourne play Collingwood. A record crowd of 121,696 attended the clash between Carlton and Collingwood in 1970, when the MCG held more spectators than it does today.

The strategy has been to improve the comfort of patrons by adding several thousand more individual seats and corporate boxes. A crowd of 100,000 cannot be achieved again at the MCG with the ground in its present form.

The AFL website carries information on all players, and clubs. It also provides real time scores during the football season and Channel 7 coverage.