The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers or colloquially the Dons, is a professional Australian rules football club that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their Ascot Vale home "Alisa" adopting the name of the local borough. While the exact date is unknown, it is generally accepted to have been in 1872. The club's first recorded game took place on 7 June 1873 against a Carlton seconds team. From 1878 until 1896, the club played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA), then joined seven other clubs in October 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League. Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Ground, known as Windy Hill, from 1922 to 2013, the club moved to The Hangar in Tullamarine in late 2013 on land owned by the Melbourne Airport corporation. The club shares its home games between Docklands Stadium and the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Zach Merrett is the current club captain.
The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos or colloquially the Roos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos also field a reserves men's team in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and women's team in the VFLW.
The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia that was founded in 1990. The Crows have fielded a men's team in the Australian Football League (AFL) since 1991, and a women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition since 2017. The club's offices and training facilities are located in the western Adelaide suburb of West Lakes, at the site of the club's former home ground Football Park. Since 2014 Adelaide have played home matches at the Adelaide Oval, a 53,500-seat stadium located on the northern bank on the River Torrens in North Adelaide.
Danielle May Laidley is a former Australian rules football coach and player, who played for the West Coast Eagles and North Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL) from 1987 to 1997, including in North Melbourne's 1996 premiership team, and was coach of North Melbourne from 2003 to 2009.
Gavin Brown is a former Australian rules footballer who represented Collingwood in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Since retiring as a player he has been an assistant coach with Collingwood, Carlton and joined North Melbourne at the end of the 2013 season. He is currently serving as a development coach at North Melbourne.
Bradley David Walter Scott is a former Australian rules footballer who is currently the coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played for Hawthorn and the Brisbane Lions, and was previously the coach of the North Melbourne Football Club from 2010 until 2019.
Rhyce Shaw is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was the senior coach of the North Melbourne Football Club, and current development coach for the Gold Coast Suns based in Gold Coast, Queensland. Rhyce grew up in Diamond Creek and played for Diamond Creek Football Club.
Corey Jones is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Kangaroos in the Australian Football League. Jones grew up in the small Victorian town of Wycheproof, near Bendigo.
Daniel Pratt is a former Australian rules footballer who played for both Brisbane and North Melbourne in the Australian Football League (AFL), and a former coach of West Coast in the AFL Women's (AFLW) and West Australian Football League (WAFL) competitions.
Darren Smith is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Majak Daw is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club and the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 14 teams in 2020 and 18 teams in 2022. The league is run by the Australian Football League (AFL) and is contested by each of the clubs from that competition. The reigning premiers are the North Melbourne Tasmanian Kangaroos.
Angela Foley is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). She previously played for the Adelaide Football Club from 2017 to season 6. A defender, 1.73 metres (5.7 ft) tall, Foley plays primarily on the half-back line with the ability to push into the midfield.
Jasmine Garner is an Australian rules footballer with North Melbourne in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition. Garner scored the AFLW's first-ever goal while playing for Collingwood in the league's inaugural match in 2017.
Scott Gowans is an Australian rules football coach and coach of the Sydney Swans in the AFL Women's, having previously served as the head coach of the Kangaroos in the AFL Women's competition (AFLW) between 2019 and 2020.
Ashleigh Riddell is an Australian rules footballer playing for the North Melbourne Football Club in the AFL Women's (AFLW). Riddell won an AFL Women's premiership in 2024; she is a four-time AFL Women's All-Australian and won the North Melbourne best and fairest award in season 6.
The 2020 AFL Women's season was the fourth season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 14 clubs and ran from 7 February to 22 March; it was intended to comprise an eight-round home-and-away season followed by a three-week finals series featuring the top three clubs from each conference, however the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March saw the season curtailed and finally abandoned without a premiership being awarded. Australian Football League (AFL) clubs Gold Coast, Richmond, St Kilda and West Coast featured for the first time in 2020.
The 2022 Geelong Football Club season was the club's 158th season playing Australian rules football, with the club competing in their 123rd season in the Australian Football League (AFL). Geelong also fielded a women's team in both 2022 AFL Women's season 6 and 2022 AFL Women's season 7, and a men's and women's reserves team in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the VFL Women's (VFLW) respectively.
2022 AFL Women's season 7 was the seventh season of the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition, the highest-level senior women's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs, marking the first time all Australian Football League (AFL) clubs participated in the competition, and ran from 25 August to 27 November, comprising a ten-round home-and-away season followed by a four-week finals series featuring the top eight clubs. It was the second AFL Women's season to take place in the 2022 calendar year and the first to have an August start date. AFL clubs Essendon, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Sydney featured for the first time in season 7.
The 2023 Essendon Football Club season was the club's 125th season playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club also fielded an AFLW side that competed in the AFLW's 8th Season. Essendon also fielded reserve teams for the AFL and AFLW in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the VFLW. This was the club's 14th season in the VFL.
