Talking Footy

The AFL today released its national participation numbers for 2012 with the game’s participation base continuing to reach record numbers throughout the country.

In 2012 national participation has increased to 844,799, representing a 6.81% increase from a 2011 total of 790,905 participants.

Across the four key participation areas of NAB AFL Auskick, clubs, schools and Cadbury AFL 9s, this year’s 6.81% increase is the largest rate of growth since 2008 and ensures the AFL remains on track to reach its forecasted target of one million participants by 2016.

In 2012 the number of NAB AFL Auskick participants reached 182,846, representing a 9.44% increase from the previous year, which is the biggest increase in NAB AFL Auskick participation since 2007.

The most substantial area of growth over the past 12 months has come from the number of females playing Australian football - the participation base of females jumped a massive 43.17% in 2012.

Significant participation growth was recorded on a regional basis throughout the country, with Queensland (up 10.04% to 137,989) and NSW/ACT (up 8.64% to 148,230) leading the way.South Australia was the only region not to record an increase with -2.06% growth in 2012 after registering a 13% increase in 2011.

The Northern Territory recorded the greatest overall regional growth, reaching 27,254 participants, up 29.18% on 2011.

Participation numbers of the newest form of the game, Cadbury AFL 9s, continued to grow significantly in 2012 to reach 12,536 participants, representing a 167% increase on the previous year.

International participation has also increased by 10% in 2012, rising to 110,292 participants outside Australia.

AFL General Manager - National and International Development and General Counsel, Andrew Dillon, said: “The growth of our participation base, across all levels of the game, is vitally important to the health of Australian football so it’s encouraging to see significant growth in 2012.

“Through a wide range of programs right around the country we are committed to ensuring as many people as possible are able to be actively involved in Australian football.

”The NAB AFL Auskick program continues to provide a pathway for thousands of young kids and the growth rate over the past 12 months has been the largest we’ve seen in five years.

This comes off the back of the ongoing support we receive from NAB and a focus on delivering quality programs at a local community level,” Mr Dillon added.

“We’ve also seen a significant jump in the number of females playing the game as participation continues to grow off the back of the suite of programs on offer to both males and females.

“The development of AFL 9s as a social form of the game has provided us with an opportunity to engage with a new market to grow the game while our club and school football programs continue to provide us with a great avenue for playing the game in safe and inclusive environments.
“We’ve seen growth right around the country but it’s particularly encouraging to see such strong growth rates in the non-traditional markets of Queensland and New South Wales and the ACT.

The introduction of the Gold Coast Suns in 2011 and the Greater Western Sydney Giants this year has been pivotal in increasing awareness and participation of Australian football in those regions.

“As interest in the game continues to grow internationally we’ve again seen an increase in those people playing the game outside of Australia with the strongest participation numbers coming from countries such as South Africa, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.”

King-Eliagh wrote:

You know...'Participation'

*wink wink - touches nose*

King-Eliagh wrote:

'cough'

Drac wrote:

I love the throwball attitude to AFL participation numbers: 'stick your fingers in your ears and hope they're not real'
.

Raiderdave wrote:

Drac wrote:

I love the throwball attitude to AFL participation numbers: 'stick your fingers in your ears and hope they're not real'
.

they aren't .... just ask the Leichardt City Council

Xman wrote:

Say what you want you tinfoil hat wearers, the AFL participation numbers are growing every year.

Meanwhile RL numbers must be plummeting given theyre forced to ban entire teams at a time for unnecessary violence.

King-Eliagh wrote:

*cough* one of the four 'key participation areas' is rather ambiguously titled 'schools' *cough cough fudge fudge*

Allow me to elaborate. Please picture the 'independent' data collector employed by the AFL to gather participation numbers in schools as she calls one school in a long list of schools.

AFL's 'Independent data collector: Ahem hi im shelly fudgeworthy ringing from AFL HQ. I'm an 'Independent' data collector, could you please put me through to the head of your PE department? Thanks

Head of PE Department: Hi, its Sam speaking

Shelly Fudgeworthy reading off prescribed text: Hi I'm Shelly Fudgeworthy and im calling on behalf of ... ... ... Could you please inform me of how many children are at your school and whether all of these children participate in physical education?

Head of PE: Yeah sure, we have 369 children and all of them do physical education at some point.

Shelly Fudgeworthy: Great great... ahh and can you tell me, do you conduct AFL classes as part of PE?

Head of PE: Ahh actually no we dont sorry. We thought about it once but we prefer teaching touch footy.

Shelly Fudgeworthy: Oh... ahh (checks her prescribed notes again) well have you ever seen an AFL ball being played with by children in the school? At recess for example?

Head of PE: Ahhhh that's hard to say...I've been here a long time now....ahhh whatta they called again 'Sherrings"?

Shelly Fudgeworthy: Yes! That's it!

Head of PE: Ah like the ones that are made through slave child labor in India?

Shelly Fudgeworthy: Yes yes! That's us, i mean that's the ball we use. Have you seen the children using it?

Head of PE: I think so...

Shelly Fudgeworthy: Sorry how many children at your school again? I forgot the number.

Head of PE: 369

Shelly Fudgworthy: (as she marks 369 in the 'participation' box for this school): Excellent, thanks Sam, that's all I need to know.

Head of PE: Hang on wait a minute what are you using (Sam is cut off as the phone hangs up) --- beep beep beep.

Going off historical facts and the AFL's past descriptions of 'participation', I'd say this is fairly close to what's gone on down at AFL HQ during their collection of participation numbers across Australia.