Football in Australia can refer to several different variations of football as there are regional variations of the use of the word "Football" (and also the derived colloquialism "footy") in Australia.
There are four major football codes in Australia, Australian rules football, rugby league, association football and rugby union, with different levels of popularity based on different measures in different regions. In some areas, multiple codes of football are popular, in others there is a monopoly.[1]
Nationally, the most important football matches in Australia are the Grand Final matches, particularly the AFL Grand Final and the NRL Grand Final. Also important are major internationals featuring the Socceroos and the Wallabies (particularly FIFA World Cup qualification and Tri Nations matches respectively). The Australian Kangaroos also compete in various Ashes, ANZAC, Four Nations and World Cup rugby league test matches.
Australia is unique among major sporting markets in having four football codes competing for market share. The irony is that the two international games, association football and rugby union, are getting trounced by the two parochial codes, rugby league and Australian Rules, which are both fast and furious, and both built on deep tribal roots.
— Paul Sheehan, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2010[2]
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The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that soccer is the most played football code in Australia, with the highest number of total participants. Followed in order by Australian Rules Football, Rugby League, and Rugby union.[3]
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the most attended football code overall in Australia is Australian rules football[3] although Rugby League is more popular in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory which together make up about 54% of the Australian population. Australian rules football currently holds the record for a football code in Australia for the highest individual match attendance (121,696) which was set at the 1970 VFL Grand Final and also league season attendance (7,083,015) which was set for the 2008 AFL season.
Rugby league and Australian rules football directly compete for the largest overall Audience measurement and Media marketshare, primarily measured in terms of television ratings (these two codes share the most free-to-air broadcasting, with other codes being restricted mostly to pay tv) as well as popularity surveys and polls such as the Sweeney Sports Report. Australian rules tends to rate higher in metropolitan figures (major capital cities). In 2009 and 2010, the AFL Grand Final was slightly ahead of the NRL Grand Final as the most watched sporting telecast of the year. The annual Rugby League State of Origin is the most viewed representative series of any sporting code, out-rating soccer and rugby union international matches.[4]
| Football code | Common names | Overview | Most players | Most spectators | Main Governing Body | National Competition | Australian Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australian rules | football, footy, Aussie rules, AFL | Australian rules football in Australia | VIC, SA, WA, TAS, NT [3] | VIC, SA, WA, TAS, NT [3] | AFL Commission | Australian Football League | 17 |
| Rugby league | league, football, footy, rugby league, rugby | Rugby league in Australia | NSW, QLD | NSW, QLD, ACT, NT [3] | Australian Rugby League | National Rugby League | 15 (+1 in NZ) |
| Soccer | soccer, football | Association football in Australia | NSW, QLD, ACT [3] | Football Federation Australia | A-League | 10 (+1 in NZ) | |
| Rugby union | rugby, union, rugger, football, footy | Rugby union in Australia | ACT | Australian Rugby Union | Super Rugby | 5 (+5 in both NZ, SA) |
The following football codes are generally not referred to as "football" in Australia.
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