Everything Non-Australians Need to Know About Aussie Rules Football

There are many Australian quirks that are well known across the globe. Most people are familiar with the country’s rugby obsession, beach barbie culture, and happy-go-lucky mindset. However, one significant facet of Australian life that few outsiders are familiar with is Aussie Rules football. Rather than the football games that you’ll see in the stadiums of England and Germany (soccer to us), Aussie Rules operates in a very different manner.

The rules of the game, the expectations of the crowd, and even the ways that you can bet on Aussie Rules matches may be completely unfamiliar to someone who doesn’t follow the sport obsessively. If you’re one of the uninitiated and wish to get to grips with Straya’s most popular sport, read on to find out everything you need to know.

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Source: Pixabay

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History

The history of Aussie Rules stretches all the way back to 1858, when Tom Wills, head of the national cricket team, introduced a revised version of ‘rugby football’ that would keep his star players in good shape throughout the winter months. No-one knows how the current version of the game came about exactly, although the prevailing theories are that it incorporates Gaelic football and the aboriginal game of Marn Grook, a nod to two central components of contemporary Australian culture. The first AFL game was held in 1877 under the Victorian Football Association, and the rest is history.

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Rules

​The rules of Aussie Football do not resemble the English version particularly closely. Players are not just limited to kicking the ball and can handball or run with it, as long as they bounce it at least once every 15 metres (some players have famously run afoul of this rule). With four posts on either side of the field, a player can only score by kicking the ball through the two middle posts, known as the goalposts, while the two outside posts are called the ‘behind posts’. A goal is worth six points, although getting it through the behind posts is worth one point.

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Source: Pixabay

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Betting

​Betting odds in Aussie Rules work in a similar way to betting odds for other sports, with fractional or decimal odds provided on the winners and runners-up. However, there are some key differences that first-time wagerers need to be aware of. People often bet on the winning margin (i.e. the number of points a team wins by), which means that reading all of the latest Aussie Rules betting news is vital if you want to know which teams stand the highest chance of winning big. Spread betting is also common, as it betting on the number of behind goals versus the number of main goals.

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How the Season Works

​The Aussie Rules season starts with a number of pre-season rounds in which the participating teams need to qualify. After this, you have the actual AFL season which runs from March through to September. The finals take place over the last four weeks in September, during which the eight best-performing teams will face off against each other in a number of high-profile fixtures. The AFL Grand Final that takes place at Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of the most widely attended sporting events on the planet, with over 100,000 people usually cramming into the stadium to watch history be made. ​

Now that you know how Aussie Rules works, you are ready to get involved. Whether you want to start betting on games or just want to understand what you are seeing on your telly, this is the info you need.