AFL Football Premiership and Clubs 2006

The Australian Football League is the national competition in Australian Rules Football. It was formed through the expansion of the Victorian Football League, during the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2005 it had a total regular season attendance of 6,283,788, and the average attendance of 35,703 was the third highest of any professional sports league in the world.

The Toyota AFL Premiership Season is a single division competition with involves 16 teams from throughout Australia. The season lasts for 22 rounds and begins in late March.

At the end of the 22 rounds (late August) the top eight teams compete in the Toyota AFL Finals Series, in which teams compete in a Qualifying Final or Elimination Final (depending on the teams ladder position). At this stage only four six teams remain and the bottom four teams play in a Semi Final in which two teams are eliminated. The remaining four teams play in one of two Preliminary Finals and the last two teams standing play in the Grand Final. The winning team of the Grand Final become the premiers of that year.

The Grand Final is always held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with the only recent exception being Waverley Park in 1991, whilst the MCG was undergoing redevelopment, even if two non-Victorian teams are playing.

National Australia Bank Cup
Before the premiership season commences, a knock-out Cup competition is played. It has had several incarnations as the Escort Cup, the Fosters Cup, the Ansett Australia Cup, the Wizard Cup, and as of the 2006 season it will be known as the National Australia Bank Cup.

AFL Strongholds
Australian Rules Football is the dominant football code in every state and territory in Australia, except New South Wales, A.C.T., and Queensland, where Rugby League dominates. In Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania massive crowds attend many of the games and AFL is the dominant sport on television, print and radio news.