History of Australian Football

By PHM09

  • First match

    First match
    The first match was organised the winter of 1858 when the students from Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar competed against each other in several games of football.

  • Evolution

    Evolution
    The following year a set of rules was drawn up and regular games became a feature in the parks around Melbourne.

  • Foundetion of the AFL

    Australian Football League

  • Inaugural Season

  • Three VFA clubs join the VFL

    The VFL expanded from nine teams to twelve, with Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne

  • Collingwood

    Between the years of 1927 and 1930, Collingwood became the first and only VFL team, to win four successive premierships.

  • the VFL hosted a national day, when all six matches were played outside Melbourne.

    Matches were played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Brisbane Exhibition Ground, North Hobart Oval, Albury Sports Ground and Victorian country towns Yallourn and Euroa.

  • The VFL planned the first purpose-built mega-stadium

    VFL Park (later known as Waverley Park), to give it some independence from the Melbourne Cricket Club, which managed the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

  • Australian football began to have a huge impact in television.

  • The 1970 season saw the opening of VFL Park

    With the inaugural match being played between Geelong and Fitzroy

  • The National Football League established the NFL Night Series

    The Night Series was played concurrently with the premiership season and was contested among twelve clubs from the VFL, SANFL and WAFL

  • The 1980s first saw new regular timeslots for VFL matches.

    VFL matches had previously been played on Saturday afternoons but Sydney began playing its home matches on Sunday afternoons and North Melbourne pioneered playing matches on Friday night. These have since become regular timeslots for all teams.

  • 1990–2010: A professional national competition

    1990 the AFLPA, the players union, signed its first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the league which outlined wages and conditions in what was becoming a sole source of income for players who had previously had part-time or full-time jobs outside of football.