Types of Football in Australia

We have four types of football we play in Australia. Mostly all games take place during our Winter but begin in Autumn and can run into Spring.

There is the 'round ball type of football, which to myself is one great melee where twenty two players on the pitch move a small round ball around and you need to be Stephen Hawking to work out the "rules".

Next, there is the rugby games and the oldest form of these is a game called Rugby Union. A rough, fast game, played with little player protective equipment but with many interruptions to play and games frequently decided by penalty goal points for player infringements. The idea appear to be that if you cannot score a 'try' (read 'touch down'), then get into your oppositions half and force them into an error whereby your ace goal kicker can kick a penalty goal worth 3 points.

Then there's the so-called 'professional' form of rugby - Rugby League, again, a rough, fast game, played with little player protective equipment but played at a much faster, even frenetic speed.

The latter game has a habit of seeing the players let of some steam - against each other!

Then there is the game played mainly in the southern states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia - believed to have its origins in Gaelic Football, its played with a modified rugby-type ball on a round oval with four goal posts for differential point scoring at either end. It can be physical but is more known for some of the spectacular leaps ("Marks") players make, often climbing up the back of another player to leap into the air to seize the ball.

Our football season is about to go into "pre-season" games and then the fun really begins. Most games are broadcast with many broadcast live, so that Winter is a Football Feast.