 | |
| Sport | Altered version of Australian rules football |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Venue(s) | Box Hill Rugby Club |
| Official website | |
Footy 9s is a version of Australian rules football created by Australian Football International. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The traditional 18-a-side version of Australian rules football provides significant participatory barriers to entry outside of Australia, including a lack of access to suitably sized fields, significant infrastructure in the form of the goal and behind posts, line marking, and the fact that 36 players required to field two teams for a match.
Footy 9s was created by Australian Football International to allow Australian rules football to be played on smaller playing fields, both in Australia and internationally.
The rules of Footy 9s differ from traditional Australian rules football in some significant ways. The game is played on a rectangular field, allowing matches to be hosted by stadiums that usually lack the suitable field dimensions:
The inaugural AFI World 9s tournament was held at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on 16 February 2019.
The second World 9s was held at Box Hill Rugby Club in Melbourne, Australia on 6 February 2021, and the third World 9s was also held at Box Hill Rugby Club on 19 February 2022.
The next World 9s will be held again at the Box Hill Rugby Club, on 4 February 2023.
Australian rules football, also called Australian football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts, or between a central and outer post.
International rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players.
Aussie Rules Footy is the first AFL simulation video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was developed by Melbourne based Beam Software and published under their "Laser Beam" publishing title in 1991. The release was Australian-only with distribution handled through Mattel's Australian operations.
Recreational Football was a non-contact version of the Australian rules football game first played in 2003 and later sanctioned by the Australian Football League's game development arm, it was inspired heavily by the growing popularity of tag rugby. It was a more accessible version of Australian rules football that people could pick up and play. It was a mixed competition, with eight players on each team, accessible to players of both sexes, all shapes and sizes and requires minimal equipment to play. Rec Footy was criticised mainly by Australian rules players for appearing similar to netball and being too restrictive, lacking of ability for skilled footballers to run kick and play naturally whilst also penalising newer unskilled players with frequent turnovers.
The laws of Australian rules football were first defined by the Melbourne Football Club in 1859 and have been amended over the years as Australian rules football evolved into its modern form. The Australian Football Council (AFC), was formed in 1905 and became responsible for the laws, although individual leagues retained a wide discretion to vary them. Following the restructure of the Victorian Football League's competition as a national competition and the League's renaming to be the Australian Football League (AFL), since 1994, the rules for the game have been maintained by the AFL through its Commission and its Competition Committee.
The Geography of Australian rules football describes the sport of Australian rules football played in more than 60 countries around the world. By 2017 more than 26 nations had contested the Australian Football International Cup, the highest level of worldwide competition.
Women's Australian rules football, is the female-only form of Australian rules football, generally with some modification to the laws of the game.
Nine-a-side football is a sport based on Australian rules football played informally by Aussie rules clubs but not yet an official sport in its own right.
Australian rules football in England is a team sport and spectator sport with a long history. It is home to the longest running Australian rules fixture outside Australia, the match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities which has been contested annually since 1923. All other current competitions originated in 1989 with the founding of what is now AFL London, the longest running Australian rules football league in Europe. The current governing body, AFL England, was formed in 2012 and expanded the game in 2018 to include the additional regional divisions: AFL Central & Northern England and AFL Southern England.
Australian rules football in South Africa is a team sport played at amateur level in the country with a small audience. The governing body is AFL South Africa.
Rhan Hooper is a former professional Australian rules football player who played with the Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn Football Club of the Australian Football League. An indigenous Australian with origins are from the Murri people his fast running and hard tackling were notable in the AFL.
Australian rules football in Samoa has been played since 1997.
Australian rules football in Africa is most organised in South Africa, although there are programs under development in many African nations including Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe and there are plans to introduce the sport into more African countries.
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.
Australian rules football is played in Europe at an amateur level in a large number of countries. The oldest and largest leagues are those in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, in each of these nations there are several established clubs, and organised men's, women's and juniors programs. The British AFL has now expanded into Welsh, Scottish and English leagues. The Danish AFL has been responsible for the expansion of Australian Football into Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway. The governing body for Australian Football in Europe was founded in Frankfurt in January 2010; the body was initially called the European Australian Football Association, but changed its name to AFL Europe at a general assembly meeting in Milan in October of the same year. It currently has 22 member nations. AFL Europe, with backing of the AFL in Australia has overseen a large improvement in the organisation of Australian football in Europe.
Australian rules football in the Middle East describes the minority sport of Australian rules football as it is watched and played in the Middle East region.
Variations of Australian rules football are games or activities based on or similar to the game of Australian rules football, in which the player uses common Australian rules football skills. They range in player numbers from 2 up to the minimum 38 required for a full Australian rules football.
AFLX is a variation of Australian rules football designed in 2017 to be played on a soccer field. Unlike the full 18-a-side game —AFLX required less players with some modified rules aimed at generating higher scores, including increased scoring points. It is most notable for its use in official Australian Football League (AFL) pre-season competitions in 2018 and 2019. Post COVID-19 Pandemic the AFL merged it with AFL 9s and retained only the X brand, co-branding AFL 9s as Junior X, Youth X and Senior X and aligning it with the more widely established 9-a-side format.
Australian Football International (AFI), is a world development body for the sport of Australian rules football. The organisation has developed a version of the sport known as Footy 9s that it claims will support global expansion of Australian rules football, and lead to it becoming an Olympic sport.
Jesse Tawhiao-Wardlaw is an Australian rules footballer who plays for St Kilda in the AFL Women's competition (AFLW). She played for Brisbane from 2019 to season seven (2022).
