Related Research Articles
Martin Pike is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played in four Australian Football League (AFL) premiership sides. A tough, versatile wingman, Pike has been described as a "natural player" of the game. Highlights of his career included a premiership with the North Melbourne Football Club, three more with Brisbane, the final AFL best-and-fairest winner with Fitzroy in 1996, and selection in the 1998 South Australian State-Of-Origin side.
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals series. Synonymous with a championship game in North American sports, grand finals have become a significant part of Australian culture. The earliest leagues to feature a grand final were in Australian rules football, followed soon after by rugby league. Currently the largest grand finals are in the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL). Their popularity influenced other competitions such as soccer's A-League Men and A-League Women, the National Basketball League, Suncorp Super Netball and European rugby league's Super League to adopt grand finals as well. Most grand finals involve a prestigious award for the player voted best on field.
Byron Pickett is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club, Port Adelaide Football Club and Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was known as a big game player as well as for his strength, hard bumps and tough approach to the game. Pickett is one of 12 players with two premiership medallions, a Norm Smith Medal and over 200 AFL games. In 2005 Pickett was acknowledged as one of the finest Aboriginal players in the history of the game, with his selection to the Indigenous Team of the Century. He announced his retirement from AFL at the end of the 2007 season.
Simon Goodwin is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He has been the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club of the Australian Football League (AFL) since 2017.
Bryan Beinke is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League.
Matthew Connell is a former Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League for the Adelaide Crows and West Coast Eagles. Educated at Newman College, he has now returned there as a teacher.
Chris Groom is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club, Fremantle Football Club and North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian rules football organisations.
The 1991 AFL season was the 95th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), which was known previously as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season ran from 22 March until 28 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top six clubs, an increase from the top five clubs which had contested the finals since 1972.
The 1996 AFL season was the 100th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured sixteen clubs and ran from 29 March until 28 September. It comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top eight clubs, as well as several celebrations of the league's centenary.
The 1998 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Adelaide Crows and the North Melbourne Kangaroos, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 26 September 1998. It was the 102nd annual grand final of the Australian Football League, staged to determine the premiers for the 1998 AFL season. The match, attended by 94,431 spectators, was won by Adelaide by a margin of 35 points. This was the second consecutive premiership for the Crows.
The 1996 AFL Ansett Australia Cup was the Australian Football League competition played in its entirety before the Australian Football League's 1996 Premiership Season began. It culminated the final in March 1996. The AFL Ansett Australia Cup is also sometimes referred to as the pre-season cup because it was played in its entirety before the Premiership Season began since 1988.
The 1997 AFL Ansett Australia Cup was the Australian Football League Pre-season Cup competition played in its entirety before the Australian Football League's 1997 Premiership Season began. It culminated in the final in March 1997.
The 1999 AFL Ansett Australia Cup was the Australian Football League Pre-season Cup competition played in its entirety before the Australian Football League's 1999 Premiership Season began. It culminated the final in March 1999.
The 2002 Wizard Home Loans Cup was the Australian Football League competition played in its entirety before the Australian Football League's 2002 Premiership Season began. The AFL National Cup is also sometimes referred to as the pre-season cup because it is played in its entirety before the Premiership Season begins. Teams were split into 4 groups, each comprising 4 teams. Each team would play the other three teams in its group once, with the winners of the four groups advancing to the semi-finals. Port Adelaide won their second pre-season cup defeating Richmond in the final.
The 2003 Wizard Home Loans Cup was the Australian Football League competition played in its entirety before the Australian Football League's 2003 Premiership Season began. The AFL National Cup is also sometimes referred to as the pre-season cup because it is played in its entirety before the Premiership Season begins. The final was won by Adelaide for the first time in its history, defeating Collingwood by 31 points
Adam Scott Richardson is a former Australian rules footballer who played for West Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and Adelaide in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Michael Stevens is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Port Adelaide and the Kangaroos in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The AFL Australian Football League is the top professional Australian rules football league in the world. The league consists of eighteen teams: nine based in the city of Melbourne, one from regional Victoria, and eight based in other Australian states. The reason for this unbalanced geographic distribution lies in the history of the league, which was based solely within Victoria from the time it was established in 1897, until the time the league expanded through the addition of clubs from interstate to the existing teams starting in the 1980s; until this expansion, the league was known as the VFL (Victorian Football League).
Lightning football is a shortened variation of Australian rules football, often played at half of the duration of a full match.