AFL Toyota Premiership 2011

Understanding the AFL: What you may or may not have known

Is there something about the AFL you didn’t know, don’t understand, a question you’ve always wondered about, a rule you’ve never quite understood, a quirky fact you didn’t even know existed, whether it be how does the ladder work, how have the finals changed, why did something first happen, how did it happen or if your after just the basic explanation of why we do the most basic things, hopefully, here you will find the answer, if not, simply ask the question and we’ll find the answer.

• Veteran Players
• Rookie Listed Players
• The AFL Ladder
• Finishing Order
• Non-participation
• Anzac Day Matches
• Venues - From Cricket to Football
• Guernsey Numbers
• AFL Match Postponements
• Australian Football (Official title of the code)
• Wooden Spoon

Veteran Players

Under AFL player rules, each club may nominate or list any number of what are called Veteran Player’s.

• In order to be eligible for classification as a Veteran a player must have been the age of 30 as at September 30 in the relevant AFL season and be on the primary list of the AFL club for at least 10 years or in the case of Port Adelaide since the inception of the club.
• From 2006 there is now no limit on the number of veteran players a club can list, as long as the player meets the required classification.

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Rookie Players

• All clubs can maintain a rookie list of up to six players. Participation at the NAB AFL Rookie Draft is voluntary. A player included on a clubs rookie list cannot play for the club in the AFL except in the Pre-Season competition of if a rookie-listed player is promoted as a long term injury replacement player
• A rookie player must be 18 (and under 23) before December 31 in the year he is drafted. Sydney & Brisbane can include one or more players on their rookie list during the period between the NAB Pre-Season draft and the NAB Rookie Draft provided the player has resided in NSW or the ACT (in the case of Sydney) or Queensland (in the case of Brisbane) for at least three years before his selection. This encourages Sydney & Brisbane to invest in local players who were not selected at either the NAB AFL Draft or the NAB Pre-Season Draft.
• A club can retain a maximum of three players on its rookie list for a second season provided it nominates those players at the time of the compulsory list lodgement.

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The AFL Ladder

As the competition has changed over the years, starting with 8 clubs, jumping to 10 to 12 then eventually to the current 17, the ladder has had to change also.

• We have had a final four, final five, five six, then & currently a final eight, but even though the number of clubs, the finals have changed numerous time over 113 years, the working of the Ladder have not
• One of the most frequently asked questions by just the normal footy fan or someone new to the game is how does the AFL Ladder work, most of all how do we calculate a teams percentage, hopefully the following answers the question

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Calculation of Ladder

Each team receives four match points for a win and two match points for a tie

POINTS FOR = total points scored by the team as an aggregate of its scores for the season

POINTS AGAINST = total points scored against the team as an aggregate of it's opponents' scores for the season

Determining of Ladder Positions

1. Total number of match points ( i.e. Wins & Ties)
2. Scoring Percentage: calculated as follows: (Points For divided by Points Against) x 100

Scoring Percentage simply expresses the teams proportion of points scored for every 100 points scored against it.

CALCULATION OF PERCENTAGE

For example: Geelong: 2194 points for divided by 1647 points against = 1.332119 x 100 = 133.2119%
i.e. for every 100 points scored against Geelong, the Cats have scored just over 133 points

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Finishing Order

Another frequently asked question especially come September is who finishes where once the finals begin, eg) Adelaide finished on top but lost in the Preliminary Final do they finish 3rd or 4th. This has changed numerous times through history as you'll find in the following

How the Finishing Order of the Finalists is determined after the Season has been completed

Naturally, the loser of the Grand Final has always been declared second.

1897; 1924 - Round Robin System

A mini ladder, calculated in the traditional style, determined the finishing order after the three rounds of finals matches.

1898-1901

The Top Four was determined after the three rounds of sectional matches a club eliminated in the Semi Final were declared third.

1902-23; 1925-30

The losers of the Semi Finals were placed third and fourth according to their ladder ranking after the Home and Away series.

1931-71

The loser of the First Semi Final and the Preliminary Final finished fourth and third respectively.

1972-90

The loser of the Elimination Final finished fifth. The 1931-71 method was used for the remaining positions.

1990-1993

The losers of the two Elimination Finals were placed fifth and sixth according to their ladder ranking after the Home and Away series. The 1931-71 method was used for the remaining positions.

1994-99

The losers of the two Elimination Finals were placed seventh and eighth according to their ladder ranking after the Home and Away series.
After Week One of the finals the clubs were re-ranked. The losers of the Qualifying Finals were deemed fifth and sixth, according to their ladder ranking after the Home and Away series. Similarly, the winners of the Elimination Finals were deemed third and fourth.
The clubs eliminated in the two Semi Finals finished the season fifth and sixth, according to their ranking from the week before.
Third and fourth spots were allotted to the losers of the Preliminary Finals, according to their Week Two ranking.

2000-2002

Using the Round 22 ladder ranking principle, clubs eliminated in Week One of the finals are declared seventh and eighth.

Those eliminated in Week two finish fifth and sixth.

The losers of the Preliminary Finals end the season in third and fourth place.

2003-2009

Using the Round 22 ladder ranking principle, clubs eliminated in Week One of the finals are declared seventh and eighth.

Those eliminated in Week two finish fifth and sixth.

The losers of the two Preliminary Finals are ranked in a similar method eg) Adelaide and Collingwood are eliminated from the two Preliminary Finals; Adelaide finished above Collingwood on the ladder after Round 22, therefore the Crows finish 3rd and the Magpies 4th.

Anzac Day Matches

While in this modern era, AFL football on ANZAC Day isn't just a tradition, it has probably become the biggest day outside the Grand Final on the football calendar and easily the years biggest Home & Away game, but this was not always the case -

The first time Anzac Day matches occurred was in 1960. Prior to that, Government legislation did not allow matches at AFL level to take place on April 25.

In 1960 all Round Two matches scheduled to be played on Saturday, 23rd April were postponed due to wet weather. The Victorian Government granted special permission for two of the games to be played on the holiday Monday. The League agreed to donate a significant proportion of the proceeds to the RSL for distribution to Legacy, etc, and to not commence any game prior to 2:00pm.

The arrangement was highly successful and has continued, where possible ever since. In 1967 an exhibition match between the previous season's Victorian squad and the best of the remaining players was conducted at the MCG.

All the way up until 1995 if Anzac Day fell midweek, matches were not automatically fixtured for the day, until 1995 when on a Tuesday Collingwood played Essendon, 95,000 fans packed the MCG witnessing a stunning draw. Recognising the potential to establish a great tradition and footballs way of honouring such an important National day, no matter the day of the week, it is now yearly fixture, Essendon v Collingwood on Anzac Day.

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Venues - From Cricket to Football

During the 1800's, playing fields, ovals were used for one thing only, cricket, so when Australian Football began to emerge as a new sport ironically invented to keep cricketers fit during winter, it was these cricket grounds that had to be changed for footballs use, but when constructed during the 19th Century, there were no actual standard dimensions. Some were larger than others, depending on the space available to the clubs &/or municipal councils, you could probably call this the very first indications that league venues could never be exactly the same everywhere, another unique trait of Australian Football, sizes of grounds have never been universal, some bigger, some smaller than others.

In the formative years, Australian football was played on rectangular fields simply marked out in parklands or paddocks because most cricket clubs would not permit other sports to be played on their grounds. They considered that football matches would result in surface damage, particularly in wet conditions.

Eventually, cricket clubs saw the potential revenue if they permitted football matches to be played on their fenced ovals as they could charge admission because football had become such a popular spectator sport.

Football authorities marked out the boundary lines close to fences to make maximum use of playing areas.

Though much has changed through the games history when it comes to playing venues, clubs moving from venue to venue, new stadiums being built, older grounds going by the wayside, even venues with a retractable roof allowing protection from the elements and perfect one thing remains as it was in Round 1, 1897, and part of AFL footballs unique attraction, no one venue is the same.

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Guernsey Numbers

In today's game the Guernsey number is one of the more popular, interesting and talked about parts of the game, "will Geelong give the famous number 5 to a new player, which player will wear this number or that number, which number is the most famous etc.

But it took 14 seasons of football from the competitions beginning in 1897 until the 1911 Finals before numbers on the backs of players to be introduced.

The reason that Guernsey numbers were introduced late in the 1911 season was to make the identification of players easier for spectators and umpires & the first publication of a program or Football Record for spectators at the game.

From number 1 to number 65, over 10,000 league players have worn one or more Guernsey numbers, a famous part of the game, talking point of the game, historical part of the game that will continue on for years to come.

AFL Match Postponements

In today's football a game being postponed for any reason is very rare, with multi purpose venues, strict broadcasting schedules, breaks for players etc it's a virtual impossibility to postpone games at short notice, but there have been moments when this has happened, for very different reasons . . . . . . . . . .

On August 14, 1897 torrential down pours flooded grounds, forcing all matches to be delayed one week.

The four matches of Round 3, 1900 were originally scheduled for May 19. All were postponed due to heavy rain and played on the Saturday after Round 14 on August 18.

On May 9, 1903 Carlton was drawn to play Geelong at Corio Oval, but a snap railway strike made it impossible for the match to take place. It was decided to relocate the game to the Sydney Cricket Ground on the earliest available date - Monday, August 3!

When the death of King Edward VII was announced on May 7, 1910, out of respect all games were held over until the following week-end.

Very heavy rain on Semi-Final day on August 24, 1918 forced the South Melbourne-Carlton encounter to be held over until the following Saturday.

Five years later the scheduled October 13 Grand Final contested by Essendon and Fitzroy had to be placed on hold for a week because the MCG was waterlogged.

On July 4, 1936 and August 26, 1939 all encounters were delayed for the same reason.

Essendon was due to play Geelong at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground on Saturday, June 14, 1952 but very wet conditions forced two postponements (Saturday and Sunday). Finally the Premiership match became the first to be played under lights on the Monday night.

Once again, on April 23, 1960 torrential rain resulted in a postponement of Round Two. For the first time, permission was obtained for two of the matches to be played on Anzac Day. The remaining contests took place on the following Saturday.

The 1993 Pre Season competition began at Waverley Park, but sudden playing surface problems meant all games for the following round had to be moved around the country.

Due to the telecast of Princess Dianna's funeral, the 1997 Second Qualifying final between Adelaide and West Coast was delayed from the Saturday Night until the next afternoon (September 7).

Round 10, 1996, half way through the third quarter of a Saturday night St Kilda, Essendon game, the Waverley Park lights go out, when they don't come back on, the game is halted to the very second the lights failed. Both teams would return on the following Tuesday night to complete the last quarter & a half, the only time ever a league game has been completed over different days.

On Saturday night, June 10, 2000 Hawthorn was due to play St Kilda at Docklands Stadium. An unsafe playing surface resulted in the match being relocated to the MCG for the following afternoon.

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Australian Football (Official title of the code)

Whether it is called Australian Football, Australian Rules Football, "Aussie Rules", the VFL, the AFL, Australia's only indigenous football code is officially entitled 'Australian football'. It has never been officially referred to as 'Australian rules football'. Such terminology has only ever appeared in the form of football journalism, coined by different writers.

AFL refers to the elite Australian football competition known as the Australian Football League.

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Wooden Spoon

A booby prize consisting of a spoon made of wood.

Historically, the least successful of the honour men (i.e. of the Junior Optimes, in the Cambridge University) were bracketed together and referred to as the 'spoon bracket'. Such men were so-called because they were presented with a wooden spoon, while the high achievers received a silver or golden one. Spoons were the usual prizes in place of medals. The terminology is in common usage for sporting teams finishing at the bottom of a competition.

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