| General Information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1897, Melbourne |
| Previous names | Victorian Football League or VFL (1897-1989) |
| Current clubs | Adelaide Brisbane Lions Carlton Collingwood Essendon Fremantle Geelong Gold Coast Greater Western Sydney Hawthorn North Melbourne Melbourne Port Adelaide Richmond St Kilda Sydney Swans West Coast Eagles Western Bulldogs |
| Stadiums | Melbourne Cricket Ground ANZ Stadium Marvel Stadium Adelaide Oval Sydney Cricket Ground Optus Stadium The Gabba Skilled Stadium Aurora Stadium Manuka Oval Marrara Oval Carrara Stadium Sydney Showground Stadium |
| 2024 Season | |
| Premiers | Collingwood defeated Brisbane |
| Attendance | 100,024 |
| Norm Smith Medalist | Bobby Hill |
| Minor Premiers | Collingwood |
| Wooden spoon | West Coast Eagles |
| Brownlow Medallist | Lachie Neale |
| Coleman Medallist | Charlie Curnow |
| Average attendance | 37,741 |
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the Australian national league in the sport of Australian Rules Football. The league is the most popular sports competition in Australia. In 2017, more than 7.2 million people watched a game in a stadium.
Since the 2012 season, there are nine clubs from Melbourne, one from Victoria's second largest city, Geelong, two teams from South Australia's capital of Adelaide, two from the Perth area in Western Australia, two from Queensland and two from Sydney, New South Wales.
AFL is the dominant league in television, print and radio news in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Also Australian rules football has more people playing than any other football code in these states and territories.
The AFL is becoming more popular in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. This happened after the finals wins by the Brisbane Lions (2001, 2002 and 2003) and Sydney Swans (2005). With the success of these sides, interest in Australian rules football has grown rapidly in these states in recent years. This directly led to new clubs being added in both states in the 2010s—Gold Coast in 2011 and Greater Western Sydney in 2012.
In 1996, twelve Hall of Fame members were declared Legends of the Game. Another member of the Hall of Fame is declared a legend every few years. The following is a list of Legends of the Game.