FAQ Sections

• FAQ Home
• Introduction to Australian Rules Football
• The Rules of Australian Football
• What is the Australian Football League?
• Other Australian Football Leagues
• Australian Football League Clubs
  • Adelaide
  • Brisbane
  • Carlton
  • Collingwood
  • Essendon
  • Fitzroy (defunct)
  • Footscray (Western Bulldogs)
  • Fremantle
  • Geelong
  • Hawthorn
  • Melbourne
  • North Melbourne (Kangaroos)
  • Port Adelaide
  • Richmond
  • St. Kilda
  • Sydney
  • University (defunct)
  • West Coast
  • Statistical Trivia from the AFL (and VFL)
    1. Most Premierships
    2. Most Wooden Spoons (Last Place)
    3. Highest Score in an AFL match
    4. Lowest Score in an AFL match
    5. Most Goals by a player
    6. Most Consecutive Wins
    7. Most Consecutive Losses
    8. Longest Premiership Drought
    9. Yet to win a Premiership
    10. Yet to 'win' the Wooden Spoon
    11. Oldest Player
    12. Youngest Player
    13. Most Consecutive Matches by a player
    14. Longest Finals Absence
    15. Worst team
    16. Best Goal Kicking Average
    17. Origin of St Kilda's Uniform Crest
    18. Fitzroy Win Wooden Spoon AND Premiership in Same Year
    19. Club Nicknames
  • AFL Attendances
  • Club Memberships
  • Sponsorships
• Major Awards
• Significant Players in the AFL
• Miscellaneous/Trivia

5. Australian Football League Clubs

Sixteen clubs compete in the Australian Football League. Only two clubs have ever folded in the AFL (or VFL): University was merged into Melbourne in 1914, and Fitzroy into Brisbane in 1996. In 1982, South Melbourne relocated to Sydney. A list of details for each AFL team follows.

Notes:

Adelaide

Malcolm Blight, who coached the Crows to two premierships in a row, announced his resignation in the middle of his third season, citing professional burnout. Gary Ayres took the job after the home-and-away season, shortly after his resignation from Geelong.

Brisbane

"Lethal" finished third in his first season back in coaching with the Lions, and has a good shot at taking them from "worst-to-first".

Carlton

Collingwood

Tony Shaw resigned effective at the end of his original three-year contract with the Maggies, after failing to improve their record during his term and "winning" the mythical Wooden Spoon as last-place finishers in 1999.

Collingwood held their last official home game at Victoria Park in round 22 against Brisbane.

Essendon

Fitzroy (merged into Brisbane in 1996)

Footscray (dba Western Bulldogs)

Fremantle

Geelong

Former coach Gary Ayres resigned at the end of this season to take the Adelaide vacancy.

Hawthorn

Melbourne

North Melbourne (dba Northern Kangaroos)

The Kangaroos are apparently moving to become the first "traveling team" in football history. They proposed the concept to the AFL during the 1998 season, and played five home dates at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1999.

Port Adelaide

On December 13 1994, the SANFL announced that the Port Adelaide Football Club (currently playing in the SANFL) would become South Australia's second team in the AFL when a new license became available.

The SANFL was told to prepare a possibility for a 2nd South Australian team as early as 1996. (The Adelaide Crows had a 5 year market exclusivity deal in SA until then.) Debate then arose as to when/if Port Adelaide would be admitted, as the AFL was not keen to expand to a 17 team competition. It had been previously foreseen that a Victorian club would fold or merge thus providing the way for a licence being made available; Fitzroy's failure and merger with Brisbane in 1996 finally made it possible.

Another issue to be resolved was that of Port Adelaide's guernsey design and logo. Unlike the other expansion teams, Port had an already existing history in the SANFL - the Port Adelaide Magpies, with a black and white vertically striped guernsey. The name and colors, however, were already 'owned' by Collingwood in the AFL. Port had already registered 6 names as possibilities, including the Pirates, and the Raiders, and were considered likely to retain black and white as their colours but add silver in addition. But within weeks of their admission in 1996, Port Power introduced a new organization with entirely new uniforms incorporating teal blue instead of silver (either of which bothered traditionalists to no end).

Richmond

St. Kilda

Sydney

University (merged into Melbourne in 1914)

West Coast

Mick Malthouse resigned as of the end of the 1999 finals campaign to return to Melbourne, presumably to be near ailing family members. Ken Judge was recruited from Hawthorn to replace him. Both had a year remaining on their contracts, which was a subject of some controversy.

Statistical Trivia from the AFL (and VFL)

Most Premierships:

16 - Carlton (most recent 1995)

Most "Wooden Spoons" (Last Place):

26 - St Kilda (most recent 1988)

Highest Score in an AFL match:

37.17 239 points - Geelong defeated Brisbane Round 7, 1993

Lowest Score in an AFL match:

0.1 1 point - St Kilda lost to Geelong in Round 3 of the Section B Finals, 1899

Most Goals by a player:

Lockett kicked his 1300th VFL/AFL goal for the Swans after the quarter-time siren against Collingwood in Round 10, 1999 at the SCG, breaking a 62-year-old record. Gordon "Nuts" Coventry scored 1299 goals in 18 seasons at Collingwood (1920-37).

Most Consecutive Wins:

23 Games - Geelong Round 12,1952 to Round 13, 1953

Most Consecutive Losses:

51 Games - University Round 4, 1912 to Round 18, 1914

Longest Premiership Drought:

67 years - St. Kilda 1899 - 1966, Sydney 1933 to present

Yet to win a Premiership:

Fremantle (joined 1995)
Port Power (joined 1997)

Yet to 'win' the Wooden Spoon:

Carlton (joined 1897)
West Coast (joined 1987)
Adelaide (joined 1991)
Fremantle (joined 1995)
Port Power (joined 1997)

Oldest Player:

43 years - Vic Cumberland, St Kilda, 1920

Youngest Player:

15 years 287 days - Kevin Bromage, Collingwood, 1953

Most Consecutive Matches by a player:

244 - Jim Stynes, Melbourne, Round 16, 1987 to Round 4, 1998

Longest Finals Absence:

32 Years - Hawthorn, 1925 - 1957

Worst team:

Debatable. University has the longest losing streak of 51, but St Kilda's opening few years were pretty bad. From Round 1 1897 (the first VFL matches) to Round 5 1903, St Kilda's record was 2 wins - 101 losses - 1 draw . In fact, St Kilda's first win was actually a draw against Melbourne, which they later won on protest to break a losing streak of 48. Only University's demise prior to WW I produced something to match St Kilda's form.

Best Goal Kicking Average:

5.59 goals/game - Peter Hudson (Hawthorn) (727 goals in 130 games)

Origin of St Kilda's Uniform Crest

Round 5, 1933 St Kilda vs North Melbourne:

Nine Saints players were seriously injured during the game. They eventually finished the game with only 15 men on the ground, many still injured (there was no interchange bench in those days). Despite this, St Kilda managed to hang on for a 97 to 83 win. Emotional officials pinned badges of recognition on the survivors' guernseys. The badge is now incorporated into the uniform.

Fitzroy Win Wooden Spoon AND Premiership in Same Year

1916 - Five of the nine VFL clubs went into recess due to the continuation of World War I. This left only Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and Fitzroy to play a 12 round season. Fitzroy ended the season on the bottom of the Premiership Ladder with a 2-9-1 record. A Final Four system was in use, so Fitzroy still got to play in the Finals. Producing a remarkable form reversal, Fitzroy won all three finals matches to become Premiers, defeating Carlton in the Grand Final 85 to 56.

Club Nicknames

Many AFL clubs have not always played under their current nicknames. Some examples:

NOTE: "Camrys" is an often-used, but sarcastic, nickname for the Adelaide Crows. The Toyota Camry brand name has appeared on Crows guernseys since Day One.

AFL Attendances

Change and expansion in the AFL certainly haven't hurt attendance figures. In 1996, 8 of the eleven League venues boasted average attendance of well above 20,000 over the course of the season. The MCG led the roster with an average crowd of 46,114 and a season high in round 5 (Essendon v Collingwood) of 87,549. At the 1998 annual general meeting, the AFL announced record total attendance for 1997 of 6,757,797.

The record crowd for an Australian Rules Football Game was the 1970 VFL Grand Final between Carlton and Collingwood at the MCG. It drew a crowd of 121,696. Subsequent modifications to the MCG mean that this figure is unlikely to be broken (the building of the Great Southern Stand actually reduced capacity to just under 100,000, and Cricket Club members with reserved seats in their pavilion always stay away in numbers), but near-capacity crowds still come to see Grand Finals as a matter of course.

The record for a round was Round 22 of 1998 (August 28-30), with attendance of 366,509. This last weekend of 1998 featured seven clubs still in contention for six spots in the finals, and the final appearance of legendary full-forward Jason Dunstall.

Admission to an AFL ground costs $13.50 in 1999, and will cost $14.00 in 2000. This merely buys your way into the stadium, where you hopefully will find standing room somewhere. Seats are extra, if they are available.

Club Memberships

One of the distinctive features of Australian clubs is that their fans can become dues-paying members. A simple support membership can be had at most clubs for A$90 or less, which buys access to the club's social club facilities, a membership card with season fixture, and the club magazine. Additional money buys access to reserved seating, among other perks.

Social clubs generally include restaurants, bars, banquet halls, the club trophy case, and a gambling hall featuring video poker machines. The "pokies" generate substantial revenue for the clubs, and for the contractors who operate them.

The AFL generally cuts off its clubs' membership drives at about mid-season. Published membership numbers for 1997 and 1998 were as follows:

Sponsorships

The "Prime Sponsors" listed above contribute enough money to their clubs to have their advertising placed on the players' uniforms; this has been allowed since 1977 in the VFL and AFL, and is even more ubiquitous in European soccer and other Australian sporting leagues. As an indication of how much money is involved, the Western Bulldogs ended their long-term relationship with Orica (the former ICI Australia) in 1998 to seek A$1,000,000 support per year. They signed up the major cellular carrier Vodafone just before the 1999 season started, after they lowered their expectations to $800,000.

Sponsors can ask for other favors as well; Carlton's oval at Princes Park is named for the Optus telecom company (the naming rights money helped pay for the seats in the Legends Stand opened in 1997), and an Adelaide Crows club song began "Here we go, Camry Crows..."  Other unusual favors include:

Sponsorship deals don't always work out. Before the 1998 season even started, Collingwood tore up a A$3 million sponsorship deal with Viatel Communications Group when they found out that they were among many conned by Viatel's charismatic chairman John Massey, having never received a penny of promised support. The club signed with Primus Communications for 1998 instead.

Believe it or not, the AFL's prime sponsors are McDonald's and Coca-Cola.  (Believe it. Both are known for their skill at playing to local audiences. We still remember a Coke ad screened in the USA during the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996; the company hired AFL players to put up a red-and-white banner of the sort players run through on game day lettered "Always for the Fans", and had fans run onto the MCG through it.) The Coca-Cola script logo pervades AFL promotional materials and is painted on AFL football grounds, and the Golden Arches are stamped on the ball itself.  (The author suspects that Aussies are not uniformly thrilled with this.)

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