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The AFL Competition
The AFL Competition
AFL/VFL History
2008 Season
Queensland AFL players
The Australian
Football League, commonly referred to as the AFL, is Australia’s national
Australian rules football competition.
Sixteen teams currently take part in the AFL. Of these, nine are based
in Melbourne, one in Geelong, two in Adelaide, one in Perth, one in
Fremantle, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane. It is expected that by
2012, new teams in Sydney and the Gold Coast will bring the total number to
eighteen.
Each season, there are 22 rounds of premiership matches known as
‘home-and-away’ games or the ‘minor round’, in which each team plays
each other either once or twice. It is commonly accepted that ideally
each team would play each other an equal number of times during the
home-and-away season. However, playing each other just once would
result in fifteen rounds, considered far too few games to satisfy
supporters, sponsors and television networks, while playing each other twice
would give thirty rounds, considered far too many games for footballers to
physically endure. After the home-and-away matches, the top eight
teams progress to the finals which take place over a further four weeks,
culminating in the Grand Final which is traditionally played on the last
Saturday in September.
Carlton and Essendon have each won sixteen premierships, the most of all the
clubs. Collingwood is next with fourteen.
The governing body of the competition is also known as the ‘AFL’, and
its roles are many and varied. These include administration of the
national competition, promotion and development of the game across the
country, and provision of funds to local competitions.
The AFL clubs have traditionally used a member-based system of ownership in
which the members, rather than shareholders, make decisions. Private ownership of footy clubs has been the exception
rather than the norm over the years. Sydney became the first club to
be privately owned when Dr Geoffrey Edelsten bought the club in July
1985. Shortly after, during their days at Carrara, the Brisbane Bears
were owned by Christopher Skase, then Reuben Pelerman, whose intervention
rescued the club from a likely demise. Both clubs had reverted to
traditional member-based structures by mid-1993.
And in late October 2008, North
Melbourne reverted to a member-based structure after 22 years of private
ownership.
As at 30th June 2009, there was a combined total of 586,748 members in the sixteen AFL clubs, translating to an average
membership of over 36,600 per club.
The AFL website is probably the best resource for keeping up-to-date with
the competition and all of the other AFL goings-on. Their home page is
here: AFL
website home page With
a slightly Queensland perspective, the Brisbane newspaper The
Courier-Mail’s online AFL section is also very good: The
Courier-Mail AFL section
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