Names of Australian rules football
Encyclopedia
Australian rules football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 has had a number of different names throughout its history. The official name according to the sport's governing body, the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

, is Australian football. Historically, the sport was called Victorian rules (referring to its origins
Origins of Australian rules football
The origins of Australian rules football are obscure and still the subject of much debate.The earliest accounts of "foot-ball" games in Australia date back to July 1829 and the earliest accounts of clubs formed to play football date to the late 1850s. Football in the early years was played by a...

 in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

), the "Victorian game", the "bouncing game", "Australasian rules", the "Australian game" and "national football", as well as several other names. Today, the most common names for the sport are football, footy, Aussie rules and AFL (a genericised abbreviation
Genericized trademark
A genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, rather than as an indicator of source or affiliation as intended by the trademark's holder...

 of Australian Football League).

Historical names

The first laws of Australian rules football
Laws of Australian football
The laws of Australian football describe the rules of the game of Australian rules football as they have evolved and adapted, with the same underlying core rules, since 1859....

 were established in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 in 1859 by Tom Wills
Tom Wills
Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills was an Australian all-round sportsman, umpire, coach and administrator who is credited with being a catalyst towards the invention of Australian rules football....

 of the Melbourne Football Club
Melbourne Football Club
The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria....

. This led to the development of the terms "the Victorian Game" or "Victorian Rules", although in Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, the general term was just "football" as early as 1860. As late as 1954, the term "Melbourne Rules" was being used by newspapers in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 to differentiate the game from other football codes. Another term was "the bouncing game", used mostly in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 in the 1880s and 1890s to differentiate from the other codes, where bouncing was not permitted.

The term "Australian football" was in use outside of Victoria by the late 19th century. A variant of this, acknowledging the popularity of the sport in New Zealand, was "Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

n football". The 1908 Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival
1908 Melbourne Carnival
The 1908 Melbourne Carnival was the inaugural Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition. It was known at the time as the Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival as it commemorated 50 years of Australian rules football.-Teams:The Victorian team was...

 featured a team from New Zealand, but the popularity of the sport declined there after World War I. In 1927, the Australasian Football Council changed its name to the Australian National Football Council, to acknowledge that the sport was no longer being played competitively in New Zealand. State leagues were encouraged to include the term "Australian National" in their title, with the South Australian Football League (SAFL) becoming the South Australian National Football League
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in South Australia....

 (SANFL) in 1927, the Tasmanian Football League
Tasmanian Football League
Tasmanian State League is the highest ranked Australian rules football league in Tasmania, Australia.The league has a long and convoluted history which dates back to its founding on 12 June 1879 Tasmanian State League (TSL) (formerly known as the Tasmanian Football League (TFL), Tasmanian...

 (TFL) becoming the Tasmanian Australian National Football League (TANFL) in 1928, and the West Australian Football League (WAFL) becoming the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL) in 1931. It was proposed that the Victorian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 (VFL) become the Victorian Australian National Football League; however, this did not occur.

Several distinctions were made in the three major footballing states regarding the quality of play across different leagues. In Victoria, League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 football was considered superior to Association football (not to be confused with association football). In Western Australia, this distinction was also made between the West Australian Football League
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the second-most popular in the state, behind the nation-wide Australian Football League...

 and the West Australian Football Association (formerly the 1st Rate Juniors competition), though the latter integrated into the WAFL reserves in 1921. There was also a distinction made in WA between the "coastal" (WAFL) and "'fields" (Goldfields Football League
Goldfields Football League
The Goldfields Football League is a regional Australian football league based in the Kalgoorlie region, Western Australia. Originally founded in 1896 as Hannans District Football Association, the league enjoyed a seat and full voting rights on the Australian National Football Council until 1919...

) leagues, who played each other regularly in the state premiership
West Australian State Premiership
The West Australian State PremiershipSeveral different names were used in contemporary sources for the matches, including "state premiership", "state championship" and "the football championship"...

. In the 19th century, there was also a distinction made in most leagues between "senior" and "junior" football; this was not to do with age, rather with quality of play.

In December 1948, a controversy occurred when Dame Enid Lyons
Enid Lyons
Dame Enid Muriel Lyons, AD, GBE was an Australian politician and the first woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives as well as the first woman appointed to the federal Cabinet...

, the Member for Darwin
Division of Darwin
The Division of Darwin was an Australian Electoral Division in Tasmania. The division was created in 1903 and abolished in 1955, when it was replaced by the Division of Braddon. It was named after Charles Darwin, who visited Australia in 1836. It was located in north-western Tasmania, including the...

, referred to Australian football as "our national game" in Parliament
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...

. This was rebuffed by the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

 at the time, Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...

, a New South Welshman, who suggested Lyons was "treading on dangerous ground". The secretary of the ANFC, Percy Page, sent a telegram reading: "Congratulations on your stand. The Prime Minister's obvious lack of knowledge of Australian sport is most regrettable."

Current names

The current official name of the sport, as defined by the Australian Football League
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

, is Australian football. Football, Australian rules and the related Aussie rules (either capitalised) are also commonly used to refer to the game today.

The term "AFL" (an abbreviation of Australian Football League) is sometimes used to refer to the sport, particularly in areas where the game is not widely played. The Australian Football League has encouraged competitions to include the term "AFL" in their name: the Queensland Football League changed its name to AFL Queensland
AFL Queensland
AFL Queensland is the governing body of Australian rules football in Queensland. It was formed in 2000 after the previous governing body for the sport in Queensland, the Queensland Australian Football League , went into voluntary liquidation...

 in 1999, the New South Wales Australian Rules Football League changed its name to Sydney AFL
Sydney AFL
The "AFL Sydney" is an Australian rules football League, based in metropolitan Sydney, Australia.The AFL Sydney competition comprises 21 clubs playing across 5 senior divisions with 2 under 18 competitions.-History:...

 in 1998, and the Australian Capital Territory Football League changed its name to AFL Canberra
AFL Canberra
AFL Canberra is the governing body for Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory.In November 2010 the five AFL Canberra Premier Division clubs merged with the Premier Division clubs of the Queensland Australian Football League to form the North East Australian Football League...

 in 1999. Leagues outside of Australia
Australian rules football around the world
Australian Rules football is a sport played in various countries around the world. In 2006, about 16,000 people played in structured competitions outside of Australia and at least 20 leagues that are recognised by the game's governing body, exist outside Australia. This figure had grown to a...

 also make use of this term. Most major newspapers in Australia
Newspapers in Australia
There are 2 national and 10 state/territory daily newspapers, 37 regional dailies and 470 other regional and suburban newspapers in Australia. All major newspapers are owned either by News Limited, a subsidiary of News Corporation, or Fairfax Media, except The West Australian.The only national...

 use either "AFL" or "football" to refer to the sport. However, The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....

, based in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, is alone in using football to refer to soccer, using "Australian football" for Australian rules football.

Nicknames

The most common nickname for the sport is footy. The term "aerial ping-pong" is sometimes used mockingly by fans of other sports. An informal variant of the sport is kick-to-kick
Kick-to-kick
Kick-to-kick is a pastime and well-known tradition of Australian rules football fans, and a recognised Australian term for kick and catch type games...

.
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