2018 Participation

Jul 2, 2010
37,953
36,136
Adelaide
AFL Club
Carlton
First cab off the rank this year: AFL canada

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RussellEbertHandball

 

NoobPie

Cancelled
Sep 21, 2016
7,356
5,255
AFL Club
Collingwood
The Ausplay survey came out at some point in November. As far as I can tell there was not even a press release

What it shows is another jump in the number of Club Australian football participants...



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In year on year terms, organised football participation of kids under 15 increased by 5.1%, soccer fell by 7.5% in the same period. Outside of NSW, signficantly more kids play organised football than soccer now


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Rabman

Club Legend
Nov 22, 2016
2,162
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I would like to know the participant breakdown for each respective state. I would be confident in saying Australian Rules Football would be the No.1 participated sport in VIC, SA, WA and NT maybe even Tas. Soccers participation is enormous in NSW and would make up a strong proportion of there total number.
 
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NoobPie

Cancelled
Sep 21, 2016
7,356
5,255
AFL Club
Collingwood
I would like to know the participant breakdown for each retrospective state. I would be confident in saying Australian Rules Football would be the No.1 participated sport in VIC, SA, WA and NT maybe even Tas. Soccers participation is enormous in NSW and would make up a strong proportion of there total number.

respective state

Here are the data by state

https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/research/smi/ausplay/results/state


It varies by state. It should be remembered that the soccer also includes organsied futsal numbers
 

BringBackTorps

Club Legend
Jan 5, 2017
2,963
1,827
AFL Club
GWS
The Age Michael Fowler 15.2.19

Fowler writes
" Since 2010, there have been an increase of 58 Victorian female teams to 1003 in 2018, with females now comprising 32% of overall participation in Australia".
(The "58 teams", referred to above, were the total female jnr & senior Club comp. teams in 2010- ie not including the 2010 booming female school comp. teams & AF school female school programs).

As AFL Victoria reported 747 female jnr & adult Club teams for season 2017, this represents a Vic. female club team increase of an excellent 35%. The avalanche continues!
The GR AF facilities crisis in Melb. (& Sydney & Adelaide- not sure about SEQld), caused by the female AF boom, will become a major issue in the near future.

It is odd that the AFL is releasing selected GR AF participation data to some journalists only. Usually, all the data is released publicly by late Nov. or early Dec.- surely it must be released soon.
 
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Jul 2, 2010
37,953
36,136
Adelaide
AFL Club
Carlton
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2018 AFL participation highlights

Total participation – 1,649,178 (up 6.54 per cent)
International participation – 185,173 (up 8.45 per cent)
Community Club participation – 386,924 (up 4.2 per cent)
NAB AFL Auskick participation – 205,755 (up 2.81 per cent) across 4103 Auskick centres
AFL 9s participation – 24,032
School programs and competition participation – 1,014,876 (up 8.3 per cent)
Female participation – 530,166 (up 14.42 per cent)
Female teams – 2281 (up 35 per cent)
Indigenous participation – 98,446
Multicultural participation – 166,126
Disability participation – 3519
Accredited coaches – 35,090
Accredited umpires – 15,758

Notbably, Chinese figures grew from 2200 in 2017 to 3354 last year.

The overall participation numbers exclude players from the 18 AFL clubs, however do include state league competitions.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-02-24/females-lead-big-rise-in-footy-participation-rate
 
Jul 2, 2010
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Adelaide
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AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL CONTINUES TO GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA, WITH OVERALL PARTICIPATION IN 2018 INCREASING BY MORE THAN 17 PER CENT AND TOPPING 200,000 PARTICIPANTS FOR THE FIRST TIME.

Highlights of the SA participation results contained in the 2018 AFL Census include:
• Overall participation of 204,892, an increase of 17.6 per cent from the previous year
• AFL Auskick participant numbers climbed to over the 10,000 mark for the first time, increasing by 4.5 per cent from 2017
• Player registrations in all club competitions across the State reached an all-time high of 52,323, maintaining football’s status as the number one club participant sport in South Australia.

The strong results come off the back of SANFL’s recent announcement of record growth of 30 per cent in overall female participation which climbed to 61,545 in 2018.

Female club registrations in SA jumped by 92 per cent between 2017 and 2018, with almost one in eight club players now female.

“SANFL is doing more than ever before in terms of developing and growing football in SA, from grassroots to the elite level, and these latest participation figures are a key indicator of the effectiveness of this increased investment,” said SANFL CEO Jake Parkinson.

“This growth continues to increase demand on resources for all facets of our game, such as facilities, umpiring recruitment, coaching accreditation and league administration – a challenge SANFL meets for the benefit of football across SA.

“To reach over 200,000 participants is a testament to the volunteers, coaches, school ambassadors, umpires, administrators and officials involved in our leagues and clubs across the State,” he said.

“Football clubs are at the heart of local communities, both in Adelaide and throughout our regions. They play a vital role in bringing people together, encouraging physical activity and supporting healthier, more connected lives through the enjoyment of footy.”

SANFL delivers all football programs across SA, including AFL Auskick, club and school participation programs, school competitions, the governance of community football, SANFL Juniors (the largest junior competition in the nation), indigenous, multicultural and disability programs, umpiring and coaching education and accreditation as well as the highly aspirational men’s and women’s talent pathways and State League competitions.

https://sanfl.com.au/league/news/footy-participation-reaches-record-high-in-sa/
 
Jul 2, 2010
37,953
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Adelaide
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Carlton
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The popularity of AFL in Queensland continues to grow with AFL Queensland today announcing 2018 participation grew by 5.2%. Overall all competitions and programs grew to 265,760 participants. Community Club participation continued to show healthy growth, with participation in club footy growing 3.5% to 30,351 participants.

AFL Queensland CEO, Dean Warren, said he was pleased with the continued growth of AFL across the state.

“I’m delighted with the continued growth of AFL in Queensland, in particular our key areas of clubs, schools and female football.”

“AFL Queensland is committed to our vision of ensuring AFL is the most progressive and accessible team sport in Queensland, our 2018 participation results are a positive sign that we are on our way to achieving that vision.”

“I’d like to thank the wonderful Queensland footy community across our state. The ongoing dedication of our Leagues, Coaches, Administrators and Volunteers is outstanding and vital to nurturing growth across all our regions ”

AFL school competition participation grew a further 4% in 2018 to almost 50,000 participants, making the AFL school community in Queensland the third largest school participation base in the country behind only Victoria and Western Australia.

Female participation in Queensland also grew by an impressive 18.85%, recording over 110,000 total participants. Queensland sees females account for the greatest proportion of total participants in the country, with women representing 42.06% of all participants in the state.

AFL General Manager of Game Development, Andrew Dillon, was at an Open Skills AFL Wheelchair session on Sunday to announce the 2018 participation figures.

“Participation in Australian Football is continuing to increase year on year as a result of the hard work and commitment of our dedicated volunteers in conjunction with the AFL’s commitment to increase inclusion and diversity in our game through the introduction of new AFL inclusion programs,” Mr Dillon said.

“The NAB AFL Women’s Competition has played a key role in contributing to an outstanding increase in football participation, growing by 14.42 per cent to reach a figure of 530,166, reflecting 32 per cent of all participation.

The AFL announced that national participation in AFL competitions and programs grew to an impressive 1,649,178, up 6.54 per cent. All states and territories once again saw an increase in overall participation in areas including NAB AFL Auskick, female football and community football.

Key AFL Queensland statistics for 2018:

  • Total participation- 265,760 (up 5.2 per cent)
  • Community Club participation- 30,531 (up 3.5 per cent)
  • NAB AFL Auskick participation- 29,116 (up 1.81 per cent) across 966 Auskick centres
  • AFL 9’s participation- 3,504
  • School programs and competition participation- 202,609 (third highest participation behind Victoria and WA)
  • Female participation- 111,642 (up 18.85 per cent)
  • Accredited coaches- 4,088
  • Accredited umpires- 1,271 (up 6.6 per cent)
  • Regions with the greatest level of participation were;
    • Moreton Bay North
    • Brisbane Inner West
    • North West Brisbane
    • Moreton Bay South
    • Gold Coast North
https://www.aflq.com.au/afl-participation-in-queensland-reaches-record-high/
 
Jul 2, 2010
37,953
36,136
Adelaide
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Carlton
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aflvicparticipation2018.png


2018 AFL Victoria participation highlights

  • Total participation –474,633
  • Community Club participation – 172,050
  • Female participation – 127,115
  • NAB AFL Auskick participation – 42,366
  • AFL 9s participation – 3,636
  • School programs and competition participation –256,581
  • Indigenous participation – 11,727
  • Multicultural participation – 54,574
  • Disability participation – 1,563
  • Accredited coaches – 17,197
  • Accredited umpires – 7,855
https://aflvic.com.au/record-participation-for-football-in-victoria/
 

HavUEvaSeenTheRain

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 20, 2006
9,110
12,172
AFL Club
Carlton
The popularity of AFL in Queensland continues to grow with AFL Queensland today announcing 2018 participation grew by 5.2%. Overall all competitions and programs grew to 265,760 participants. Community Club participation continued to show healthy growth, with participation in club footy growing 3.5% to 30,351 participants.

AFL Queensland CEO, Dean Warren, said he was pleased with the continued growth of AFL across the state.

“I’m delighted with the continued growth of AFL in Queensland, in particular our key areas of clubs, schools and female football.”

“AFL Queensland is committed to our vision of ensuring AFL is the most progressive and accessible team sport in Queensland, our 2018 participation results are a positive sign that we are on our way to achieving that vision.”

“I’d like to thank the wonderful Queensland footy community across our state. The ongoing dedication of our Leagues, Coaches, Administrators and Volunteers is outstanding and vital to nurturing growth across all our regions ”

AFL school competition participation grew a further 4% in 2018 to almost 50,000 participants, making the AFL school community in Queensland the third largest school participation base in the country behind only Victoria and Western Australia.

Female participation in Queensland also grew by an impressive 18.85%, recording over 110,000 total participants. Queensland sees females account for the greatest proportion of total participants in the country, with women representing 42.06% of all participants in the state.

AFL General Manager of Game Development, Andrew Dillon, was at an Open Skills AFL Wheelchair session on Sunday to announce the 2018 participation figures.

“Participation in Australian Football is continuing to increase year on year as a result of the hard work and commitment of our dedicated volunteers in conjunction with the AFL’s commitment to increase inclusion and diversity in our game through the introduction of new AFL inclusion programs,” Mr Dillon said.

“The NAB AFL Women’s Competition has played a key role in contributing to an outstanding increase in football participation, growing by 14.42 per cent to reach a figure of 530,166, reflecting 32 per cent of all participation.

The AFL announced that national participation in AFL competitions and programs grew to an impressive 1,649,178, up 6.54 per cent. All states and territories once again saw an increase in overall participation in areas including NAB AFL Auskick, female football and community football.

Key AFL Queensland statistics for 2018:

  • Total participation- 265,760 (up 5.2 per cent)
  • Community Club participation- 30,531 (up 3.5 per cent)
  • NAB AFL Auskick participation- 29,116 (up 1.81 per cent) across 966 Auskick centres
  • AFL 9’s participation- 3,504
  • School programs and competition participation- 202,609 (third highest participation behind Victoria and WA)
  • Female participation- 111,642 (up 18.85 per cent)
  • Accredited coaches- 4,088
  • Accredited umpires- 1,271 (up 6.6 per cent)
  • Regions with the greatest level of participation were;
    • Moreton Bay North
    • Brisbane Inner West
    • North West Brisbane
    • Moreton Bay South
    • Gold Coast North
https://www.aflq.com.au/afl-participation-in-queensland-reaches-record-high/

When is says school competition is that actual leagues or just one of those sort of comps where you go play 3 schools in one day setups? Or both?
Also the women’s growth has covered up a fall in male participation, which isn’t great.
 
Jul 2, 2010
37,953
36,136
Adelaide
AFL Club
Carlton
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2018 Participation Figures

44,407 Overall Participation – 6.57% rise

13,300 Club Participants – 4.33% rise

532 Club Teams (including Masters)- 3.63% rise

151 Senior Male Teams – 4.43% decline

275 Junior/Youth Male Teams – no change

2,520 Female Club Participants – 45.22% rise

26 Senior Female Teams – 36.84% rise

67 Junior/Youth Female Teams – 55.80% rise

15,680 School Program Participants – 7.34% rise

108 NMFC/AFLT Schools with ‘Next Generation in Schools’ – 36.70% rise

http://www.afltas.com.au/grassroots-gains-as-tasmania-sets-targets-for-2019/
 


Given the Canadian figures in the OP, I take it that thee two graphs from AFL Asia are separate Men and Women stats.

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It suggests to me that if a bit more money was ploughed into PNG, it might dividends with a bigger pool of potential talent. I wrote a few times before Port went off on their China adventure, and Port were told by the AFL in the 2010-12 period to make the NT their second market like the Hawks had done with Tassie, to keep going north and find a few David Rodan type balls of muscles in PNG that I have seen play for the Mosquitoes.

We didn't have any money at the time and neither did Brisbane who were given development rights to PNG and have given a handful of players international scholarships since about 2008 when the AFL put in some money, and Mal Michael got involved, set up a foundation, did development work and coached the national side, open and underage after he retired.

The Mosquitoes have made all 6 grand finals of the International Cup, winning 3 and losing 3.

Aussie Rules was pretty big in PNG in the 1960's and 1970's when Australia ran PNG before independence, but when Kerry Packer got control of the TV station there in the 1980's he pumped in, and up the volume of State of Origin games (even though 7 and then 10 had rights to NSWRL comp) and in the 1980's Rugby League became pretty big in PNG and the national team, the Kumuls are revered. PNG have a team The Hunters in the Queensland Rugby League Cup that has teams from Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville, Mackay, Ipswich, Gold Coast, Tweed Heads and a few from Brisbane.

But put some $$$ into development and get some of those explosive little blokes who have played rugby league as well as Aussie rules and who knows how many AFL possible standard players might be added to the talent pool. Maybe the same for the women's game but I haven't seen PNG women play and they have sent teams to 2 of the 3 International Cup's that had women's teams.
 
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Munro_Mick

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Mar 15, 2007
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I have a couple of questions around the AFL numbers.

Firstly - for the participation numbers - are the coaches/umpires counted in the Competition or Programs tallies or not at all? The reason I ask is the FFA have been able to spruik a big jump from 1.188 million in 2016 to 1.631 mill for 2017 and up to 1.851 mill for 2018. That has included in that time about +393,000 for their questionable 'Community Tournaments, Events and Prgorams' which for 2018 tallied to 550,495; along with the inclusion of Refs and Coaches into their total tally (beginning 2017).

Secondly - while I'm critical of the FFA for the scope for double dipping (or more, via overlap of participants in school and youth and perhaps social and/or futsal) there is that scope with Aust Footy too. The interesting area is the 'introductory program'. The FFA claim the 'MiniRoos' as the biggest 4-11 introductory program but also claim it as it's junior outdoor competition. They then quote their youth and senior numbers for their total outdoor competition (but ironically don't count school comps towards that). The AFL comes out shy of soccer on junior/youth/senior but wins if Auskick is included (granted there can be double dipping there as well).

But while the AFL puts Auskick into the 'programs' category - they include school comps in the Competitions category (and again, scope for double dipping).

So - for 'apples with apples' it's a bit tricky. If I tally Auskick, Club footy and school comps on the AFL side I get 921,439. If I tally MiniRoos, Youth, Senior and School comps on the FFA side I get 815,177.
AFL wins School Programs by a mile, 686,116 vs 270,902 to push the lead out to 521K.
Then - if we bring in the FFA's Tournaments, Events, Community Programs the 550K there edges the FFA in front......before social, futsal.....and for the grand total they include coaches and refs.

So - back to the original question......do the AFL numbers tally the coaches/umpires in to the grand total or are 'we' (I umpire these days) being reported as an FYI????
 

BringBackTorps

Club Legend
Jan 5, 2017
2,963
1,827
AFL Club
GWS
Firstly - for the participation numbers - are the coaches/umpires counted in the Competition or Programs tallies or not at all?[Not sure. AFL should be more clear]
The reason I ask is the FFA have been able to spruik a big jump from 1.188 million in 2016 to 1.631 mill for 2017 and up to 1.851 mill for 2018. That has included in that time about +393,000 for their questionable 'Community Tournaments, Events and Prgorams' which for 2018 tallied to 550,495; along with the inclusion of Refs and Coaches into their total tally (beginning 2017). [These are VERY big jumps, 663,000 in 2 years- hard to achieve from such a high base!]
...do the AFL numbers tally the coaches/umpires in to the grand total or are 'we' (I umpire these days) being reported as an FYI????

On 25.2.19, Tas. FFT CEO M. Bulkeley said in the Press Release link below, re Tas. soccer regd. nos. "We have also set a target to grow participation to... a total of 26,000 players, VOLUNTEERS, COACHES and REFEREES (my emphases)".
This suggests that the FFA Tas. might include volunteers, coaches and referees in its 2018 Tas. regd. nos. of 17,000; ditto FFA Official national regd. no. of 1,851,683 for 2018.

IIRC, the AFL has stated recently that AF has c. 200,000 volunteers. Its 2008 Annual Report stated c.100,0000 Volunteers. (I couldn't find mention of Volunteer nos. in later Reports).

Given that:-

. GR soccer is played 12 months pa (especially in schools, & indoor school & community futsal)
. soccer players can easily play 2 games (with a different school program and/or a club etc.) in a few days (ie soccer is less strenuous/shorter recovery times, lower chance of injury cf. AF, RL & RU)
. some private schools ban their secondary AF/RU students from also playing for community clubs. Ditto, some parents.

it is FAR more likely soccer (& netball & basketball) would have the same player counted two or 3 times, cf AF, RL & RU.
(No sports cross reference player names, with other formats in their game, in their Official regd. nos.).

In the USA in 2018, it has been reported that c. 25.3% of outdoor soccer players also play indoor futsal/other versions of indoor soccer. Does a similar % exist in Aust.?



For these above reasons, and/or that AF is likely to have far more volunteers, umpires & coaches than soccer, AF might, in 2018, actually have more total Official regd."participants" than Official regd. soccer "participants".

In the Tas. soccer 2019 State Of Play Report below, it states "Football (sic) participation in Tasmania is bursting at the seams, with over 17,000 registered "participants", making football the state's largest club-based sport". This is a falsehood, as AFL Tas., for 2018, has claimed 44,407 "participants".
The FFA & various soccer officials have for years claimed that "soccer has more regd. participants than AF, RL, & RU combined"- more falsehoods.
WA soccer officials have claimed there are more regd. soccer participants in WA than AF participants- another falsehood.

All sporting organisations (including the AFL) count fluff regd. nos. in their official figures ie one-off Gala Days, short term school, community etc "programs" & "events" etc.- thus all Official nos. are exaggerated.

https://footballfedtas.com.au/football-tasmania-releases-state-of-play-report/
(Also contains 2019 State Of Play Report)

What is your view as to whether "volunteers" are included in total Official regd. "participants" for the :-
.FFA
.AFL
.NRL
.RA
.Cricket Australia, Netball, Basketball.
 
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