The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club 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", and 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 Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition.
The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition.
Malcolm Jack Blight AM is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). He also coached the Geelong Football Club, Adelaide Football Club and St Kilda Football Club.
Bellerive Oval is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Bellerive, a suburb on the eastern shore of Hobart, Australia, holding 20,000 people it is the largest capacity stadium in Tasmania. It is the only venue in Tasmania which hosts international cricket matches.
Kevin Charles BartlettAM is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Representative matches in Australian rules football are matches between representative teams played under the Australian rules, most notably of the colonies and later Australian states and territories that have been held since 1879.
For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition in Australia and international matches meant that intercolonial and later interstate matches were regarded with great importance.
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 League (AFL) is the pre-eminent and only fully 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 football organisations.
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 convictions of historical sex crimes, including a code-first revocation of his 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.
Australian rules football in Asia dates back to 1910 but was only sporadically played until the 1980s after which it has boomed. Clubs have begun in most Asian countries and a governing body for the region, AFL Asia was formed in 2008 to coordinate the Asian Championship and promote its affiliated leagues. AFL Asia estimates that there are now more than 10,000 Australian Football players across the continent.
The Gold Coast Suns, officially the Gold Coast Football Club, are a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara.
Michael Barlow is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Fremantle Football Club and Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Sam Lloyd is a former Australian rules footballer. He played for the Western Bulldogs and the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Lloyd played as a midfielder and small forward and was renowned for his goal-sense and ability to win forward line one-on-one contests. He was recruited from state-league football as a mature-age player in 2013. While senior listed at Richmond in 2017, he won the Norm Goss Memorial Medal as best on ground during the club's reserves grand final in the VFL.
Oleg Markov is a professional Australian rules footballer who plays for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played 23 matches over five years with Richmond, after being drafted to the club in the third round of the 2015 AFL National Draft. He made his AFL debut in round 16 of the 2016 season and in 2019 was a VFL premiership player while playing with Richmond's reserves side. Markov was traded to Gold Coast in the 2020 trade period in exchange for a future third round draft selection, and played 25 games for the club over 2 seasons before being signed by the Collingwood Football Club in the Supplemental Selection Period (SSP).
Ryan Garthwaite is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He won a VFL premiership while playing with the club's reserves side in 2019.
The 2020 Carlton Football Club season was the Carlton Football Club's 157th season of competition. The season was disrupted and partially curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 Victorian Football League season was the 139th season of the Victorian Football Association/Victorian Football League Australian rules football competition. The season commenced on 16 April was curtailed without a premiership awarded on 1 September 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.