The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League (VFL). The Sydney Swans Academy, consisting of the club's best junior development signings, contests Division 2 of the men's and women's underage national championships and the Talent League.
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in eastern states of Australia: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, including reserves teams for the eastern state AFL clubs. It succeeded and continues the competition of the former Victorian Football Association (VFA) which began in 1877. The name of the competition was changed to the Victorian Football League in 1996. Under its VFL brand, the AFL also operates a women's football competition known as VFL Women's, which was established in 2016.
Kevin Joseph Murray MBE, commonly nicknamed "Bulldog", is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League in 333 games over 18 seasons.
Peter John HudsonAM is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the New Norfolk Football Club and Glenorchy Football Club in the Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL).
The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coaches and administrators. It was initially established with 136 inductees. As of 2024, this figure has grown to more than 300, including 32 "Legends". Jason Dunstall became the most recent inductee to achieve Legend status in 2024. There had previously been 32 official Legends prior to Dunstall's elevation, but disgraced player Barry Cable had his football honours rescinded after being found guilty of historical child sex abuse.
Ronald Barry Evans AM was an Australian rules footballer, Chairman of the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1998 to 2007, as well as President of the Essendon Football Club from 1988 to 1992.
The Murray Bushrangers is an Australian rules football team playing in Victorian statewide under-18s competition, presently known as the Talent League, since 1993 based in Wangaratta. The team trains on Norm Minns Oval, Wangaratta.
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.
Brian Francis Peake OAM is a former Australian rules footballer who played for East Fremantle and Perth in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), and Geelong in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also played State of Origin football for Western Australia from 1978 to 1987, captaining the side in 1979, 1980, 1986 and 1987. Peake was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1990 and was inducted into the West Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2004, and into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
In Victoria Australian rules football is the most popular sport overall, being the most watched and second most participated code of football. Australian rules football originated in Melbourne in the late 1850s and quickly came to dominate in the sport, which it continues to. Victoria has more than double the number of players of any other state in Australia accounting for approximately 42% of all Australian players in 2023 and continues to grow strongly. In 2023 there were 76 competitions and 1,242 clubs. With 235,970 registered players it is second only to Soccer. Though Australian rules has made up much ground lost to it over previous decades and today both codes have a similar number of players. The sport is governed by AFL Victoria based in Melbourne. The national governing body, the AFL Commission is also based in Melbourne.
Mark William Bairstow is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and for the South Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).
Barry Thomas Cable MBE is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. Considered one of the greatest rovers in the sport's history, he played in 379 premiership games in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the Victorian Football League (VFL), and later coached in both competitions. However, his reputation was left in tatters after allegations of historical sex crimes, including a code-first revocation of his Australian Football Hall of Fame status as well as his removal from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2023.
The 1981 VFL season was the 85th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 28 March until 26 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
The 1973 VFL season was the 77th season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 7 April until 29 September, and comprised a 22-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top five clubs.
Murray Weideman was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He died one day after his 85th birthday.
Barry Stoneham is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club between 1986 and 2000.
John David McIntosh was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Claremont Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Originally from Beverley, Western Australia, McIntosh also played 19 interstate matches, 18 for Western Australia and one for Victoria. He retired after four games of the 1972 VFL season due to a knee injury originally sustained in the 1971 VFL second semi-final.
Maxwell Sam Parker is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville and North Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL).
The Australian Football League stages the highest-level senior Australian rules football competition in the country.
Barry McKenzie was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and West Torrens in the South Australian Football League (SANFL).