The sports season is coming up, so here is a quick guide to the most popular winter sports in Australia!

AFL (AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE) 

Commonly known as “Footy” and/or “Aussie Rules”, Australian Rules Football is a mix of Soccer, Rugby and Gaelic Football and is starting to gain followings around the world, with many countries starting their own leagues.

How to tell it’s AFL?
The players’ shirts are singlets, the ball is oval-shaped and the players have a lean-muscle body type. It is played on an oval-shaped field.

Basic rules to follow if you’ve never seen this played:
To pass the ball, they must hold it in one hand and punch it with the other fist. If one player kicks the ball and another player catches it (called a “mark”), the catcher gets a free kick. There are 4 goal posts, if the ball is kicked through the middle goals the team gets 6 points, if it is kicked through the outer goal posts to either side they receive only 1 point.

RUGBY

Commonly also known as “Footy” “NRL (National Rugby League)”, or “Rugby Union”. Rugby League and Rugby Union have 2 different sets of rules but are very similar and can be hard to tell apart. Rugby is played all over the world, particularly in Europe.

How to tell it’s Rugby?
The players are wearing sleeved shirts and often are bandaged around their heads, the ball is more square than an AFL ball and the players have huge neck, shoulder and chest muscles.

Basic rules to follow if you’ve never seen this played:
The ball must always be passed backwards. The players with the ball can be tackled up to 6 times before they have to pass the ball to the other team. 4 points are scored when a player brings the ball to the goal line and holds it against the ground, this is called a “TRY”. After a try, the scoring team also gets a free “goal kick”, if they kick the ball through the goalposts they score an extra 2 points, called a “conversion”.

WHAT TO WATCH 

Feel free to watch whatever sport you want, but also check out the most popular footy by state below!

Go forth and pretend you know what you’re watching!

Find out more content like this in our section Discovering Australia.