Ok I've seen footy on ESPN

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Hi -

To answer your questions on footy -

Field sizes do vary from venue to venue. The supreme home of the footy, the Melbourne Cricket ground is 161 meters x 140 meters.

Each team consists of 18 players plus 4 interchange players.

The rules are that the ball can be moved in any direction by hand or foot. When handballing, the ball must be pucnched underhand. If a player throws the ball he is penalized and the opposition gets a free kick. When the ball is kicked, any player -either opposition or a teammate who catches it after it travels 15 meters or more gets a "free" play, provided he does not move off the "mark". A player who "marks the ball (catches it) has the optiion to handball to a teammate, kick to a teammate, kick for goal if in range, or run with it. Penalties which result in turnovers also include pushing in the back, tripping, striking another player, illegal tackles (above the shoulders or below the knees), deliberately causing the ball to go out of bounds, running between player on the mark and the player with the ball.

Hope this helps. Feel free to e-mail if you any more questions.

Lisa
Chicago
 

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The Field is probably as good a place as any to begin talking about footy.

We play a lot of cricket in Australia so the field is an oval and the same size as a cricket field ..roughly 170 yards long and 150 yards wide so you can see it's a lot larger than most football fields...because of the large field size the easiest way to move the ball is by kicking it; all players have highly developed kicking skills and can kick the ball accurately 50 plus yards to a running team mate.

The other way to pass the ball is by handballing it which involves placing the ball flat on your palm and punching it in the direction you want it to go...Greg Williams, one of the best exponents of the handpass, regularly hits teammates from 30 plus yards ..

The Game: The game is played with 18 players on each team plus 3 interchange players that freely swap while play is in progress (a bit like the ice hockey system) . There are four quarters of 25 minutes each with time added on for clock stoppages, so the average game is around 120 minutes. As you can see with such a large field and continuous play for 2 hours the players must be extremely fit. In fact, one of the preseason running tests is 100, 100 metre sprints !!!!)

The Rules: People think there are no rules to this game but there are and they're pretty basic...

To tackle someone they must have the ball and you can't tackle around the legs or above the shoulders or push them forward in the back; you must pull them back to you (this is to prevent injuries occuring)

If you have the ball and someone tackles you ..you must get rid of the ball either by kicking or handpassing it the moment they grab you.

When any of these rules are infringed upon, the umpire ( I'll get to them in a minute) stops the game and awards a free kick. The game starts again the moment you either kick or handpass to a teammate or if you run around the man who is marking the spot, the umpire will call play on and you're free to be tackled again.

If someone kicks the ball and you catch it, then that is called a "mark" and the same rules apply as a free kick.

Scoring: Australian Rules is a high scoring game and there are a numbers of ways to score....there are a set of four posts (or goals) at each end of the field.... There are two tall posts in the middle and a shorter post either side ...if the ball is kicked between the two tall posts, then it is a goal which counts for six points. If the ball crosses the line any other way or it goes between the tall and short posts, it counts for one point. So the way to read a score is goals first, then points and a total at the end.

Here's an example: 10 - 7 - 67 which is 10 goals, plus 7 points for a total of 67 .

Which brings me to the Umpires: When a team scores a point or a goal, a guy in a white lab coat with a tie and a hat signals to the field umpire and then writes the score on a card...This is a goal umpire. He then waves a flag to the goal umpire at the other end and at the end of the game they get together and make sure the scores they have are the same.

There are also three field umpires that make all the decisions around the ground regarding free kicks and then there are two boundary umpires who signal when the ball goes out of play and then throw it back in to restart the game.
 
There are a few rules that Darren Bennett didn't mention(unusual because he played for Melbourne from 1989 to 1993)

Out of bounds

If the ball bounces out of the field through the boundary line, the "boundary umpire" toss the ball over him onto the field when the ruckman of both teams challenges to gain possession to his team by punching the ball or grabbing it.
If the ball was kicked by a player and goes over the boundary without bouncing, the umpire signals "out of bounds on the full", meaning the other team receives a free kick from the boundary.
The next rule was introduced a couple of seasons ago because it was unfair to teams when players push out of bounds on purpose.
If a player brings it out of bounds deliberately ie. without any contest from an opponent, the other team receives a free kick, taken the same way as out of bounds on the full.

Free Kicks

There are a number of ways free kicks are received:
* High tackle (above the shoulders)
* Kicking in Danger
* Dropping the ball (being tackled and not disriputing the ball)
* Player not on the mark (if a player marks it, his opponent must stand 10 metres away from him)
*Disturbing the play (if a player marks, no one is allowed to cross between the marker and his opponent)
* Taking too much time(some players takes time to play on so he can slow the game down, usually when kicking for a goal through a mark. He must distribute the ball within 30 seconds to a minute.)
*Throwing (The ball must be handballed when passing, not thrown. They are not playing Rugby or Gridiron)
If any of these are done deliberately or in an offensive way, a 50 metre penalty occurs. If it occurs within the 50m area of any side, the player kicks from outside the goal square.

There are more rules that I didn't include in my reply.
If you want more info, drop me a message.

Robert Batchelor
mvprules@hotmail.com
 
Darren, I am not 100% clear on the scoring.

1) If the ball passes between the goalposts and touches a defender on the way, is this a goal or a behind?

2) Ditto for the ball touching a goalpost

3) Does a team get any points if the ball strikes a goalpost and bounces back into the field? (If they do, how soon will Carney sign up for an AFL club?
wink.gif
)

4) What happens if a player kicks the ball across his own line between the goalposts, or between a goalpost and a behind? If he carries it across the line?

5) From your post I gathered that if a player carries or punches the ball between the opposition's goalposts he scores a behind. Is this true?

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a funny story for you all. I've spent a lot of time backpacking around the world, and as such have met some interesting Australians.

Well I was travelling with a fellow who supports a team called Auberdeen (I think, please don't shoot me).

He says that whenever someone scored a touch and right before the referree makes his little two handed signal, all the supporters would yell:

HOW BIG'S YOUR DICK?

then the referee woudl show them.

Pretty funny.

Anyway, they used to show Aussie Rules on ESPN, but they don't anymore. I quitet enjoyed it, much more than rugby.

Best,

J

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HI,

I'VE BEEN CHATTING WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE ON YAHOO.COM ETC. AND WHEN THEY ASK ME MY HOBBIES I TELL THEM AUSSIE RULES. THEY THEN ASK ME WHAT IT IS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN THE GAME BEFORE. THIS IS VERY DISAPPOINTING AS THE AFL SAY THAT THEY HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PROMOTE THE GAME INTERNATIONALLY. I WONDER WHAT THE AFL COULD DO TO IMPROVE THIS. ON THE OTHER HAND, I WOULD RATHER HAVE THE GAME STAY AUSTRALIAN ONLY AS I BELIEVE IT WOULD WRECK THE GAME OF FOOTY IF EVERY OTHER COUNTRY PLAYED IT.
WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK??

TOM_GAMBLE.
 
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