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.
James Albert Hird is a former professional Australian rules football player and past senior coach of the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The Fox Footy Channel was a channel exclusively dedicated to Australian rules football. It was owned by Foxtel and operated out of their Melbourne-based studios. From 2002–2006 it was available on Foxtel, Austar, Optus Television, TransTV and Neighbourhood Cable until transmission ceased on 1 October 2006. The channel was revived as Fox Footy for the 2012 AFL season after a new broadcast agreement was reached between Fox Sports and the AFL.
John Noel William "Sam" Newman is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
The Indigenous Team of the Century was selected in 2005 to recognise the role of Indigenous Australians in Australian rules football. Graham Farmer was named as the team's captain, while Barry Cable was selected as the team's coach. Eight of the players were still active in the Australian Football League (AFL) at the time of being selected.
Paul Roos is a former Australian rules football coach who coached the Sydney Swans and Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). As a player, he represented Fitzroy and Sydney during the 1980s and 1990s.
Jason Hadfield Dunstall is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
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 2023, this figure has grown to more than 300, including 31 "Legends". There had previously been 32 official Legends, but disgraced player Barry Cable had his football honours rescinded after being found guilty of historical child sex abuse.
Talking Footy is an Australian rules football television program on the Seven Network broadcast from 1994 to 2004, from 2013 to 2020 and again since 2023. The show was hosted mainly by Bruce McAvaney and Luke Darcy in both runs of the show, now to be hosted by James Brayshaw.
Nine's Wide World of Sports is a long running sports anthology brand on Australian television that airs on the Nine Network and streaming service Stan. All major sports, events and series covered by the network are broadcast under this brand, the flagship sports being rugby league, rugby union and Grand Slam tennis. Previous sporting rights include the Australian rules football, Australian Cricket Team home season, spring and autumn horse racing, swimming until 2008, and golf since 2018.
Michael Sheahan is an Australian journalist who specialises in Australian rules football. He was chief football writer and associate sports editor for the Herald Sun for 18 years. Although he left these positions at the end of 2011, he still writes special columns for the newspaper, including his yearly "Top 50" player list. He was also a panelist on the Fox Footy program On the Couch and former media director for the Australian Football League. He also joins Brian Taylor, Matthew Richardson, Matthew Lloyd and Leigh Matthews in the 3AW radio station's pre-match football discussion on Saturday afternoons. In addition he conducted a weekly interview program on Fox Footy, Open Mike until September 2020 when he would be retiring after an 19 year stint at Fox Footy. In February 2018 he joined a podcast with former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas and former co-host of The Footy Show, Sam Newman, entitled "Sam, Mike and Thomo", it aired once weekly and talks about all trending topics, with a sprinkling of commentary on AFL. However, upon that being cancelled in March 2019, in August that year he joined another podcast, entitled "Sam Mike and Don, 'You Can Not Be Serious'", with Newman and former VFL footballer Don Scott. The podcast airs in a similar format and covers similar topics to the previous one. He was a part of this until June 2020, when he quit the podcast for a second time due to the fallout of a comment made by Scott about former AFL footballer Nicky Winmar.
On the Couch is an Australian television program focusing on current issues in the Australian Football League. From its debut in 2002 until 2006, it was shown on the Fox Footy Channel, until the channel's demise. From 2007 to 2011 it was broadcast on Fox Sports, before moving to the relaunched Fox Footy from 2012 onwards. The show airs on Monday nights before AFL 360
The Footy Show was an Australian sports and variety entertainment television program which aired on the Nine Network. The show was dedicated to the Australian Football League (AFL) and Australian rules football. The show featured a panel of hosts and a rotating regular panel of guests.
The Footy Show was an Australian sports variety television program covering professional rugby league in Australia. It was shown on the Nine Network and aired for 25 seasons. For the final season in 2018, the show was hosted by journalist Erin Molan, and co-hosted by Ryan Girdler and Brad Fittler, with regular contributions from Beau Ryan and Darryl Brohman. It was previously hosted by former rugby league footballer and commentator Paul Vautin for 23 years, with former player and commentator Peter Sterling also an early host from the first 12 years. Having aired on Thursday nights since 1994, the program was largely entertainment-based, with some football-related content included, such as previews of the weekend's fixtures and interviews with players.
The Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame was established to help recognise outstanding services and overall contribution made to the sport of Australian rules football in Tasmania. Any participant of the sport, including players, umpires, media personalities and coaches, may be inducted. A physical hall was established in 2005 after the Tasmanian Community Fund provided a $50,000 grant to assist AFL Tasmania and the Launceston City Council with establishment of a permanent facility at York Park. The decision to locate the Hall of Fame at the ground was because the site had recently been redeveloped and was positioned as the "true home of Tasmanian football". AFL Tasmania initiated the Hall of Fame nomination process, with a number of clubs, players and grounds nominated and accepted into the Hall of Fame since 2005. The public Hall of Fame opened to the public on Saturday 21 February 2009.
The King's Birthday match is an annual Australian rules football match between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on the King's Birthday public holiday in Victoria.
In Round 16 of the 2001 AFL season, an Australian rules football home-and-away match was played between Essendon and the Kangaroos at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 22 July 2001. The match saw the largest successful comeback in the history of the VFL/AFL, with Essendon winning by twelve points after trailing by 69 points midway through the second quarter; and, as of the end of the 2023 AFL season, it is the seventh-highest-scoring game in the league's history. According to some observers, it is considered the best game of Australian rules football ever played.
AFL 360 is an Australian television talk show that covers current issues in the Australian Football League (AFL). It airs on Fox Footy at 7:30 pm Mondays to Wednesdays during the AFL season. It is hosted by Gerard Whateley and Mark Robinson, and features players, coaches and experts as regular guests.
