Australian Sport has two codes which officially call themselves 'Australian Football'. We have Aussie Rules (Australian Football) and Soccer (Australian Football)!
Hold on! Before the AFL (Aussie Rules) came along there was the VFL (Victorian Football) so Aussie Rules it seems has a claim to this name, Australian Football.
But, the entire world except Australian and the US refer to Soccer as Football. Australia's soccer people believed they should follow suit and hence, Australian Football.
Therefore there are two Australian Football codes. Are you confused a little by now?
The Australian Football season is almost over as Melbourne Victory plays Sydney City in the final in Melbourne this weekend.
The Australian Football season commences next weekend, with Richmond playing Carlton on March 25 (next Thursday) and Geelong playing Essendon on March 26 (next Friday) plus the other fixtures on the Saturday and Sunday.
Stop, stop. What are we talking about ?
First, there is Australian Football, each team has eleven players and it's played on a rectangular ground. To score points, each team tries to put a round ball through a goal which is made up of two vertical posts and a cross beam filled with netting. Scores are low, maybe 2 or 3 goals in total is normal, and if one team wins by more than three, the other team is said to have gone to sleep.
Second, there is Australian Football, each team has eighteen players and it's played on a oval shaped ground as is the shape of the ball. To score points, there are four vertical posts at each end, to score a goal means kicking the ball through the two centre posts (valued at 6 points) and the outer posts (valued at 1 point). Scores can be very high, sometimes 150 points or more.
In Australian Football a player must not touch the ball with one's hands. In Australian Football players can catch the ball (the term is a 'mark') and pass it to team mates by hand balling it (this means holding the ball in the palm of your hand and with the other, in a clenched fist, hitting it boldly to a team mate). This is referred to as a hand pass.
Australian Football doesn't allow a player to touch the ball. A key component to Australian Football is catching the ball and hand passing.
Spectators are increasingly attending Australian Football matches, some routine matches see 25,000 and matches are televised on pay television. The spectators turn up in their droves to watch Australian Football, generally over 60,000, sometimes 90,000 in Melbourne and televised on free to air television and pay television.
This writer is similarly bemused by the Pentecostal Churches coming together forming an over arching representative body, which they named for themselves exclusively as the: 'Australian Christian Church'.