Imagine a world where there’s a sport with catches that rival the NFL, high-scoring games akin to the NBA and hits equivalent to the NHL. Congratulations, you live in it — and it’s the absolutely crazy world of Australian Rules Football.
Why everyone should care about Aussie Rules Football
Need a hard-hitting contact sport to pass the time until September? You need Australian Rules Football.
Michael Dodge
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
You have questions. Sure! Let’s talk about why you should pay attention to Aussie Rules in 2014, specifically the AFL which is Australia’s premier class of competition and the one you really need to watch.
(1) I am easily bored by low-scoring games. Do people score points?
The AFL has you covered! The normal game is routinely over 60 points a side and it’s quite common to see scores over 100. This box score was from the grand final in 2013.
Goals ... behinds? What is this madness? Teams score points almost exclusively by kicking the ball. There are two sets of goalposts, inner and outer, that determine how many points a team is awarded for kicking it through.
Get it through the middle posts and your team is awarded six points; the smaller outside posts are called a “behind” and worth one point. There aren’t any crossbars, but you’re routinely seeing these guys kick it from 60 yards out through the posts.
Photo via Wikimedia
(2) I like hits. Does anyone hit each other in this sport?
Look at your knee, then your shoulder. Anything in the middle is fair game, any way you want. The only thing that isn’t allowed are tackles in the back, and when players hit the ground they need to release the ball. You’d think this would mean the hit wouldn’t be big, but you’d be wrong.
(3) I like when punters do crazy stuff. Is there anything like that here?
Some of the best moments in an NFL season are when punters try to transcend their roles as specialist kickers to make traditional plays. This sometimes goes well. More than often it doesn’t, but we don’t care.
AFL TEAMS ARE MADE UP OF 18 PUNTERS ON THE FIELD AT ONCE
Every single AFL player needs to do one thing really well: kick the ball extremely far and very accurately. It’s how teams move the ball down the field quickly, it’s the method by which points are scored and it adds an astounding level of coordination you probably haven’t seen before.
(4) Is there anything else I should know, like, was this game invented by criminals?
It was! Please take note of this because there are some things that are totally crazy. One of these things is the “mark.” A mark occurs when a player kicks the ball and another catches it. At that point the game stops, players give the kicker space and he tries to move the ball down the field through a series of marks.
There is hardly any stop-and-go to the AFL, but the mark often leads to some of the most exciting moments in the AFL. A player can use anybody on the field as a human ladder — leaping on their backs with knees and legs in an effort to meet the ball at insane heights. A player can’t use his hands, but that adds to the magic.
(5) I’m in! How do I watch?
Thankfully the AFL is starting to gain some traction in the USA and every year more and more games are televised. A total of 55 games will be broadcast on Fox Soccer Plus in 2014, beginning with Collingwood and Fremantle at 10:30 p.m. ET on March 14.
This is Fremantle’s totally creepy mascot.
Photo via afana.com
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