h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Aussie Rules Football - A801875
Author: Researcher 200116 - U200116

Aussie Rules Football, an interesting combination of Soccer and Gaeillic Football. Brandished by most other nations and sport lovers as a sport with no rules, and is absolutely and utterly violent. This couldn't be any more incorrect than possible. Loved by the nation it was created in with over 500,000 people showing up to games across the country on a weekend basis. Its a sport that is fast paced with high scores, full of rivalry's and a proud history. Teams ultimately play September glory (when the finals are held) and all of them play to win the Premiership Flag on Grand Final day.

Brief History:
Started in the late 1800's as a sport for cricketers in Melbourne (Capital of the state of Victoria) to play during the long winters off season, it grew from there into a sport played and watched by most Australians in the southern, eastern and western states. Originally starting as the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1896 it has steadily grown and is now known as the Australian Football League or AFL. Played by 16 teams, most of which are based in Victoria.

Teams:
Adelaide Crows
Brisbane Lions
Collingwood Magpies
Carlton Blues
Essendon Bombers
Fremantle Dockers
Geelong Cats
Hawthorn Hawks
Melbourne Demons
North (Melbourne) Kangaroos
Port Adelaide Power
Richmond Tigers
St. Kilda Saints
Sydney Swans
West Coast Eagles
Western (Footscray) Bulldogs
With Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond normally the big power houses in the league with the most Premiership Flags going equally to Carlton and Essendon.

Rules:
The Rules of the game are somewhat simple yet in the end a bit complex, giving reason to why it is only played in Australia. Basically the idea of the game is to get a higher score than the other team by using tackles, kicking, and Handballs (where a ball is passed by punching it out of the hand with a clenched fist).
Teams: Each team consists of eighteen players with an extra four players on the interchange bench. These interchange players can come on and off at any stage through the match.
The Ball: The ball is shaped much like a rugby ball but smaller and more round.
The Ground: The Game is played on an oval roughly the size of a cricket pitch, ironically because this game started off for cricketers who had nothing better to do during winter. At both ends of the oval there are four posts, two large ones in the middle with two smaller ones on the outside. In the center of the ground there is a circle of 1 metre in diameter, with a large square around that. The home of AFL football is the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) where blockbuster games and the Grand Final are held.
Scoring: If a ball is kicked between the two middle posts it is called a goal and is worth 6 points. If a ball is kicked in between the outer two posts then it is called a behind and worth only 1 point. If a ball is touched by a body part other than the foot before it goes between any of the goal posts, it is called a Rushed Behind and worth only 1 point. Similar points given if the ball hits the goal posts and is called the same thing. E.g 3 Goals, 2 Behinds = 20 points, or written as 3.2.20.
Gameplay: The Game is started off with the ball being bounced in the centre circle by the umpire and a player from either team jumping up to bring the ball back down with the intent of giving it to their teammates. Gameplay is stopped if the ball cannot be played on (ie packs on the player who has it) or if a goal has been scored in which case the ball is bounced once again. If the ball goes out of bounds an umpire throws the ball back into play. Players my obstruct opposing players off the ball which is called shepparding, but under no circumstances are you allowed to push or tackle a player who does not have possession of the ball.
Free Kicks: Free kicks are awards against players who deliberately hold the ball during a tackle (The idea here is to keep play going), a push in the back, or unfair play off the ball, Charging, Head high tackles, A Behind or Rushed Behind, Ball kicked out of bounds on the foul, Throwing the ball (Not handballing it) and Deleberately pushing the ball out on the foul. And are awards to players who Take a Mark (Catch the ball on the foul off a kick).
50m Penalty: The 50m penalty is awarded against a player who has shown absolute and utter discontempt with the rules, it is awarded at an umpires discretion.

Culture:
Go to a game, have a hot pie, a beer or two, wear your footy scarf, show up wearing a footy jumper and buy the Footy Record (a magazine sold before every match to give you team details and if you are bored enough, fill out the score sheet) and yell out as many comments to umpires and players that you want. Some suggestions are "Why don't you go play for the Magoo's you f*****g clown!" , "Kick it straight up the guts!" , "Awe how big is it umpire?" , "Soft call umpire!" and the list is endless. Sit with other supporters and jump for joy or cringe with embarrasment or bite your nails because those nerves are killing you. Or you could join a footy club and recieve a membership entiteling you to a seat at the Grand Final if your team gets there and discounted admission, if not free, to team games. Also try hanging your team scarf out the car window after a win, no real aim to this activity, but it does seem to be a good idea at the time. Ofcourse there is also the footy rivalry, Teams that have never seen eye to eye and the biggest of all rivalry's would have to be that of Carlton and Collingwood. Both teams hating each other and the supporters hating each other even more, this is only because Collingwood have never been any good against Carlton and its just a matter of jealousy.

Memorial Moments:
1970 Grand Final, Carlton vs Collingwood, Crowd: 121,696 at the MCG. Carlton was losing by 44 points at half time, or more specifically 6 Goals and 2 Behinds. Carlton came back during the second half to win by 10 points. Final Score Carlton 17.9 (111) Collingwood 14.17 (101). Also on that day Football legend Alex Jesaulenko was awarded and still holds the Mark of the Century, where he literally ran up the back of a collingwood player to grab the ball in mid flight.

Australians, young and old, rich and poor all take an interest in this game with passions and tempers flaring at wins or loses, but in the end like most other sports, its just a bunch of men chucking a ball around for points!

Hi anonymous researcher! Welcome to H2G2!

I'd suggest using the "preferences" botton on the left hand toolbar to give yourself a name. It's also worth posting something on your personal space so that a friendly ACE can drop by and say hello.

I think something technical has gone wrong, because your text appears in this link but not in the actual entry, which appears to be blank! If you go to the entry and click "edit entry" you'll be able to paste the text back again.

I think it's a great start, and an excellent choice for an entry! It reads a little oddly at times though (particulary the first paragraph...).

Can I suggest mentioning a couple more things?

One of the most famous images in the UK of Aussie Rules (it used to be on TV on Sundays a few years ago) are the post umpires - dressed strangely (though I think I understand now you mention cricket!) and making that strange deadpan point-finger gesture. Also, am I right in thinking that there is an international match against Ireland's gaelic footballers using a hybrid version of the rules.

One of the things that I found most interesting was the method of qualification for the finals - playoffs where you can lose and still end up going through. I understood it by the end of my visit, but could you explain it again, because I think it should be more widely used!

Excellent start, though - I'd like to see this in the guide!


Otto
Still gutted I couldn't get tickets for Eagles v Dockers!
Freee-oooo!

OK, 200116 (or can I just call you "2"? )

You seem to have made a bit of an error here - you need to put all that text in the posting IN THE ENTRY. If you need to know how to do that, drop a message back here and I'm sure either myself or someone else can help you.

This should actually make quite a good entry as it is, and the only thing I would say is that there's no such word as "discontempt". Oh, and the sentence "This couldn't be any more incorrect than possible" made me go . But other than that, put this text in the actual entry and you should be away.

H.

I would desperately like to see a comprehensive entry on Aussie Rules Footy in The Guide.

Why, for instance, does the umpire blow his whistle whenever the ball is succesfully caught after each pass? And having done so it seems like none of the opposing team are willing to tackle the ball-holder. Are they not allowed to? And why do they stop play if someone catches the ball in the semicircle in front of the goalposts? When that happens, I believe that the team attacking that goal are allowed a free kick at goal, but only from outside the semicircle. Is that right? Is it something like a conversion in rugger, where you have to kick from a point relative to where the ball was caught?

I think we should be told. The world wants to know.

I suppose I ought to point out they Aussie Rules gets shown a lot on a cable channel here, but they never explain the rules.

thanks, for the comments about the entry and i'll make the adjustments.. and ad a few things here and there about the rules and what umpires wear and why they blow whistles, and yeah i would love for this to be in the Guide! thanks alot, by the way i changed my name i had no idea i could do that.. hehe thanks

um... problem.. i tried doing what you told me to do.. but apparently this thing is in the entry part...
In the subject i have put Aussie Rules Football. In content i have all the info about it, and thats it right?

OK, Kent, here's how you do it.

Go to the top of this conversation thread. Click and drag to select the text in that first posting. Do Ctrl-C to COPY it.

Now click here: A810875

That'll take you to the entry. Click "Edit Entry". Click once in the big old text entry box. Now do Ctrl-V to PASTE the text in there. Click the button at the bottom of the box. That should see you right.

H.

i've changed it now... i don't think it worked tho.. if it didn't, sorry i don't know how to fix it... And i've updated it a bit added a section about whistles which might help.

Yeah! It worked. And the updates help, too, I think.

H.

Hi Kent,

Looking good - I'm glad the technology is now behaving!

I think it would be good to explain what a mark is. It used to confuse me at first - utter mayhem would suddenly halt just because some had caught a ball!

Otto

Keep giving me idea's, and i'll add them if you want. Just so that i can get everything perfect.. i would very much like to see this in the guide
thanks guys

I've updated a fair bit since i first wrote it.. so how does ones entry go into the guide?

Usually it takes 2 weeks in peer review before an entry gets picked, but I think with this entry it seems like only a matter of patience.


Just a point, here is a quick guide to guideml:

Put header in here
Put sub-header in here
Put paragraph in here


Now once you have put the tags in, look lower down in the edit screen you will see an option marked guideml next to a button called change style. Select guideml, click on change style, the edit page should then reload showing an example of how the entry will look followed by the edit screen. Then just store the entry as normal.

If you can't do it it's alright as it all gets sorted in sub editing, it's just good to get in the way of guideml (so said the sub ed who would like to do less work )

Researcher PSG

You havent mentioned International fixtures/rules

I would suggest putting in links to the AFL web-site http://afl.com.au/ and the International Australian Football Confederation http://www.iafc.org.au/

This looks so much better than last time I saw it, and makes much more sense of what I've seen on tv

I'm pretty tired right now and therefore might have skipped over this, but I don't recall seeing any mention of a player getting a free kick at goal if they get a mark (see, I'm getting the hang of it ) in the semicircle in front of the opponent's goal, or should that just be taken as read in the bit about marks?

I like it.

Should it be "branded", not "brandished"? Maybe?

Doc MT

Hi kent,

Can you please do me a favour,can you go back to your own page ( click on the " MY SPACE " button at the top of this page ) and then click on the "EDIT PAGE" button,and then write a little something about yourself, that will acctivate your page and then me or another ACE can come and welcome you there properly,

thank you

manda

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

I'm very glad that this has been picked