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- The Geography of Australian rules football describes the sport of Australian rules football played in more than 60 countries around the world. By 2017 more than 26 nations had contested the Australian Football International Cup the highest level of worldwide competition. While Australia still accounts for the overwhelming majority of players worldwide, the sport outside of Australia has grown rapidly since the 1980s, from just a few hundred players in a handful of clubs and countries to a record 170,744 (compared to Australia's 549,400) by 2017. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the sport outside of Australia was growing at a rate of 25% per annum (compared to Australia's growth rate of 10%) with the majority of this growth coming from the Asia Pacific region. Countries outside of Australia now account for almost a third of the sport's total players. Only a fraction of these players have access to a pathway to play the sport professionally, as such the majority of professional players still come from Australia. Despite these obstacles, since the 2010s internationally developed players have begun to register matches at international, professional level or both, including Hewago Oea (Papua New Guinea/AFL) and Danielle Marshall (United States/AFLW). The first tournament to feature a national side (New Zealand) was the 1908 Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival. The first recognised contest between two open level national sides was between Papua New Guinea and Nauru in front of a crowd of over 10,000 at Sir Hubert Murray Stadium in Port Moresby which was won by PNG by 129 points. There are now several large 18 or 16 a side international tournaments, the biggest worldwide being: the Australian Football International Cup (2002-), AFL Europe Championship (2010-), Asian Australian Football Championships (1999-) and 49th Parallel Cup (1999-). The first ever full international match involving Australia was played in 1977 at under 17 level against Papua New Guinea in Adelaide, with Australia taking the honours. Australia has, however, never competed at open international level, though since the 2000s it began to participate in matches against the senior teams of South Africa (2007-2010) and New Zealand (2012-2019) as the development AFL Academy side and state amateur teams have also contested these and other countries and composite World XVIII teams. In addition, indigenous and multicultural teams from Australia have competed internationally including the Flying Boomerangs in the Pacific region and a Indigenous & Multicultural (OzIM) composite amateurs team into the 2011 Australian Football International Cup. Australian rules football is played professionally by men and women in Australia. It is a major spectator sport in a handful of countries, including but not limited to: Australia; Nauru, and; Papua New Guinea. (en)
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