Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory (original) (raw)

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Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory has been played continuously since 1911 and was the most popular football code in the nation's capital Canberra between 1978 and 1982. The current governing body is AFL NSW/ACT established in 1999. Until 1982 the sport was widely covered in the local media and the premier local competition attracted significant interest. The ACT was one of the first proponents for a national Australian rules football competition (now the Australian Football League) and it became the first state or territory outside of Victoria to make an official bid to join the league. The (rejected) Canberra bid in 1981 was dismissed in favour of a Sydney team, which became the Sydney Swans. Canberra has made numerous failed bids since, including bids to move the Swans when they became insolvent. However, the popularity of Australian rules football suffered substantially after the introduction of the Raiders (rugby league in 1982) and Brumbies (rugby union in 1996). As a result it fell behind both rugby codes and also soccer and is now classified as a minor sport with the lowest media profile and attendance of the four major football codes. While it remains by far the second most participated football code and retains a loyal support base as well as a strong local competition, the sport in the ACT has continued a slow decline since the 1980s. Occasional AFL matches were played by neutral sides from 2001. Since 2012 the AFL has positioned Greater Western Sydney Giants as a local side, scheduling three home games a year at Manuka Oval. In 2013, 2016, 2021 and 2022 the stadium's average attendance was higher than that of the Giants home, the Sydney Showgrounds, despite having 10,000 less available seats and a schedule of lower drawing opposition clubs. A significant share of Giants members are from the ACT, the figure was 5,800 in 2022. The club in 2015 set a target to overtake the Raiders membership and have 10,000+ members, however Raiders membership rapidly outpaced it. Home grown hero Alex Jesaulenko and Australian Football Hall of Fame legend was a household name in the 1970s in Canberra. Jesaulenko has played more games and kicked more goals in the AFL than any other player from the ACT. James Hird is the only Canberran to win the prestigious Brownlow Medal. Both are multi premiership players. Britt Tully (games) and Jacqueline Parry (goals) share the honours in the AFLW. The ACT is classed as a development region by the AFL and in the AFL Draft, ACT is designated priority AFL recruitment zoning for the Greater Western Sydney Giants (and previously Sydney Swans), so most of the local players recruited from the ACT to the AFL (unless overlooked) generally start their careers at one of these two New South Wales based clubs. The ACT debuted at representative level in 1925 against New South Wales, its first win coming in 1941 against New South Wales and went on to also defeat Queensland and the National Amateur team numerous times between the 1950s and 1980s culminating in defeats of the powerhouses of the VFL in 1980 and Tasmania in 1981. Kevin "Cowboy" Neale captained the side to many of these victories. It was also the third side to enter the National Underage Championships in 1973 however it never won the tournament and now participates as part of a combined NSW/ACT side. (en)

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Average AFL and AFLW Attendances at Manuka Oval (en)
Goal posts at Manuka Oval in 2006, home of Australian rules football in Canberra (en)

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Chart | width = 450 | height = 150 | legend=Legend | type = rect | xAxisAngle = 90 | xAxisTitle = Year | yAxisTitle = Average Attendance | x = 1998,1999,2000,2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022 | y1Title=AFL | y1 = 11321,,,11368,9509,12043,10218,12179,11341,12892,12494,9927,14308,10184,8431,8352,8208,10132,12886,12502,11686,11884,,9814,9804 | y2Title=AFLW | y2 = ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,6460,,,,1847,2091 |vAnnotatonsLine=2012 |vAnnotatonsLabel=GWS (en)

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"Canberra have their own [AFL] team, the GWS Giants. They play a number of games down here." (en)

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Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory has been played continuously since 1911 and was the most popular football code in the nation's capital Canberra between 1978 and 1982. The current governing body is AFL NSW/ACT established in 1999. (en)

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