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4. Other Australian Football LeaguesWhat other leagues exist?Each state has its own elite level of competition. As stated previously, the VFL, which was the strongest competition, has expanded and become the AFL. The original Victorian Football Association (VFA), which was left behind when the former VFL was formed in 1896, took the name Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1997 and now stands as the premier league in Victoria. There are two other leagues which have provided the majority of non-Victorian players. These are Westar Rules (the former Western Australian Football League (WAFL)) based in Western Australia, and the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) based in South Australia. ("National football" and "Victorian Rules" were archaic names for Aussie Rules.) Contact addresses for each of these leagues as well as the other state leagues are provided below: South Australian National Football League (SANFL)South
Australian National Football League. Inc. Phone:(08) 8268 2088 Mailing
Address: World Wide Web: http://www.sanfl.com.au/ The SANFL currently has 9 teams:
Victorian Football League (VFL)Mr Martin
Stillman (General Manager) The present VFL is the former Victorian Football Association. The name change was made in 1997, several years after the current AFL abandoned the name. The teams in the VFL are:
West Australian Football LeagueWest
Australian Football League Mailing
Address: E-mail: wafl@wafc.com.au World Wide Web: http://www.wafl.com.au/ Westar Rules currently has 9 teams:
Australian Football League Canberra (AFLC)Lorrain
Johnson Website: http://www.aflcanberra.com.au/ The eight teams that compete in the AFLC are:
Sydney Australian Football League (SAFL)Mark
Spooner (Registrar) Sydney AFL Premier Division teams are:
Sydney AFL Premier Division teams are:
Northern Territory Football League (NTFL)Mr Robert
Kingston (CEO) The NTFL currently has 7 teams: Darwin Queensland Australian Football League (QAFL)Mr P.
Cummiskey (CEO) The QSFL currently has 9 teams: Broadbeach Australian Football League Tasmania (AFLT)Craig
Notman/Adam Viney NORTH- NORTHWEST- World Wide Web: http://www.footballtas.com.au and http://www.southernfootball.com.au There are currently eight AFLT clubs:
Other helpful addresses:Australian Football League
National
Australian Football Council (NAFC) Non-Australian Australian Football LeaguesThe AFL provides financial or practical assistance to Leagues in Britain, Canada, Denmark, Japan and New Zealand. Respective details of several of these leagues are: British Australian Rules Football League (BARFL)Sam Percy,
President 10 team
competition, formed in 1990. The clubs:
Canadian Australian Football Association (CAFA)Mike
Travers , President CAFA Ontario Australian Football League Greg
Everett, President OAFL 10 team competition, formed in 1989. Season runs from end of May to start of October, for 14 rounds (play each other's teams twice with two byes.) McIntyre Final Four system is used for finals. The clubs:
Team contact details and league schedule are available on the Web site. Other Canadian Teams
See the North American Footy Links page to get the links for all Canadian clubs. Danish Australian Football League (DAFL)Mark
Scotland, General Manager Season
runs from late April to late August for 14 rounds, with three weeks off
in July, depending on the conference. The DAFL is comprised of three conferences and one area league: Jylland Conference teams:
Sjælland Conference
Skåne Conference
Farum Local League
The origins of Australian football in Scandinavia are the stuff of legend. Mick Sitch, an expatriate Aussie, was missing the footy so much that he placed an ad in a Copenhagen newspaper in 1989 offering a kick to all comers. He got two responses the first time out. But the game attracted so much interest from the locals that a three-team league was in operation just two years later, and is now a seven-team international league. Japan Australian Football Association (JAFA)Takashi
Kariya (JAFA Coordinator) Apparently a loose association of three teams (links to each are available): Goannas
(expatriates) New Zealand Australian Football League (NZAFL)Colin
Tincknell, General Manager The NZAFL is broken into four different leagues. Visit the league site to get a listing and contact details of the clubs:
United States Australian Football League (USAFL)Mark
Wheeler , League President The USAFL has grown to over 30 teams and has smaller regional leagues, college teams, and "Metro Footy", a version of Aussie Rules played an a gridiron field with only 9 a side.. Visit the league's site for a complete list of the individual teams. USAFL Leagues:
Probability of an Aussie Rules "Super League" The Australian Rugby League experienced massive upheaval in 1997 as Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd. started a new Rugby League competition - the Super League - in direct competition with ARL, and offered massive contracts to Rugby League players. Massive division resulted, with threatened expulsion of teams from the ARL - and a substantial real exodus - and threatened extinction of others. News Ltd. broadcast Super League matches over its pay-TV empire. (Murdoch has already done this in the UK with Premier League soccer, and Murdoch's Fox network televises National Football Conference NFL games here in the USA.) There was speculation a few years ago that the AFL might be the next target for a Super League. This never happened, and is unlikely for many reasons: a) Australian Rules Football is very much a tribal game - the allegiances are to your specific team. b) Clubs leaving the AFL can't use their name, logo, uniform, etc., for two years afterwards - the AFL retains the rights to them. c) The AFL has exclusive playing licenses for practically all major football grounds in the country. d) Murdoch already owns part of the Channel Seven Network that owns broadcast rights to AFL games. e) AFL doesn't have the broad international appeal on pay TV that would justify the massive expenditure of setting up a Super League. f) AFL clubs receive much higher dividends from the AFL than ARL clubs from their league ($1.5 million vs. $400,000). g) Player contracts revert to the AFL if a team happens to leave the League (originally in place to protect players should a team fold). The rugby Super League in fact bled mass quantities of money and failed, and the 20-odd former ARL clubs reunited to form the National Rugby League in time for this season. The Hunter club in the suburbs of Sydney failed, and the Perth club became the Melbourne Storm. NRL was pledged to cut itself to14 clubs for 1999, so its troubles are far from over [ Previous Section ] | [ Next Section ] |
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