The Australian Football League (AFL) is the professional Australian national competition in the sport of Australian football. The league comprises 16 teams which play 22 home and away rounds between late March and late August or early September. This is followed by a four-week finals series which culminates in two teams playing off for the Premiership, in the Grand Final.

The organisation which became the Australian Football League, but more commonly known as the AFL was formed in 1897 when eight teams from the Victorian Football Association (VFA, established 1877) broke away to begin the Victorian Football League (VFL). By 1925 the league had expanded to twelve teams (all based in Victoria),with no change until 1982 when the league commenced its expansion to a national competition by relocating South Melbourne to Sydney, New South Wales. Since then five other non-Victorian clubs have been added: two each from Western Australia and South Australia and one from Queensland with an existing Victorian club (Fitzroy) merging with this Queensland based club at the end of the 1996 season.

The league was officially renamed the Australian Football League in 1990 to reflect the new national perspective.

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