Alberta Footy AFL British Columbia AFL Ontario AFL Quebec
Audience records
Single match
32,789 (1987). Melbourne v. Sydney (B.C. Place, Vancouver)
Australian rules football in Canada (commonly known as "Aussie Rules" or simply "footy") is played in seven provinces - Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The Ontario league, centred on Toronto is a nine-team league, including sides from cities as far afield as Guelph, Hamilton and Ottawa. In western Canada, there are clubs in Edmonton, Calgary and a six-team league in the Vancouver area. There is also a number of junior and women's clubs across Canada.
The sport was first introduced in 1905 in Vancouver, and despite tours involving American and Australian sides in 1912 and 1913, the sport went into permanent recess prior to World War I as a result of Australia's refusal to recognise Canada as a playing nation. Three quarters of a century later, the then VFL (now Australian Football League), having briefly gained then lost lucrative North American television broadcasts in the 1980s, attempted to rebuild its audience with a series of exhibition matches between 1987 and 1989. These matches generated significant interest and Canada retains the attendance record for the sport outside of Australia, 32,789 set in 1987 at B.C. Place, Vancouver. As a result of the interest generated the sport was established at the grassroots in 1989 with a competition in Toronto that has continued and expanded to the present. Competition spread from Ontario to other provinces culminating in the establishment of a national governing body, AFL Canada, in 2004. The world governing body, the AFL Commission has recently made great efforts to differentiate it from rugby, producing educational videos such as "What is AFL?" aimed at a North American audience (Video on YouTube).
Canadians are increasingly being sought after to play the sport professionally in Australia which has helped to increase overall interest in Canada. Mike Pyke (who successfully switched from international rugby in 2008) featured prominently in red and white during his successful 2012 AFL Grand Final appearance, performing a victory lap with the Canadian flag. Pyke has inspired others to follow and in 2016, Canadians featured prominently in AFL and AFL Women's recruitment with Andrew McGrath being taken as the top pick in the 2016 AFL draft and rugby convert Kendra Heil being picked in the 2016 AFL Women's draft.
Canada's best international results were posted in the 2014 International Cup with men's team, the Northwind, reaching 5th and the women's team, the Northern Lights, being crowned international champions.
^ abAFL Canada Annual Report 2019
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