Aussie Rules Football: How does it work and who are the favourites?
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Odds and preview ahead of the new AFL season
The new Aussie Rules season kicks offthis week and with sport in short supply at the moment, why not take theopportunity to get into something new?
The world’s oldestcode of football, Aussie Rules is by far and away the most popular sport downunder, both in terms of spectatorship and participation.
In fact, it has thefourth-highest average attendance of any domestic sports league in the world.
The AustralianFootball League remains Australia’s only professional Aussie Rules competition,having been founded in 1896 as the Victorian Football League.
And with the latestedition set to kick-off this week, here’s everything you need to know about thesport.
How does it work?
Played on a hugeoval-shaped pitch, Aussie Rules pits two 18-man teams against each other and,as with any sport, the ultimate aim is to outscore the opposition.
Players score bykicking an egg-shaped ball between four posts. The middle two posts are worthsix points, while hitting a post or putting the ball through the outer posts isworth just one point and is known as a behind.
The ball can be runtowards the goal but must be bounced every 16 yards. Otherwise players can movethe ball by passing it, kicking it or using a handball, which is the method of punchingit forward with your fist, similar to volleyball.
The sport isfamously aggressive and players are allowed to use their opponents as aspringboard in order to jump higher in order to catch the ball.
There are also norules about how hard players can tackle, as long as it takes place between theshoulders and the knees.
Aussie Rules gameslast for 80 minutes, split into four quarters, but there can be as much as 10minutes of additional time.
The AFL consists of18 teams and at the end of the season the top eight teams qualify for thefinals series, which is a knockout competition to reach the Grand Final.
The Grand Final isthe biggest day in the sport’s calendar and is the Australian equivalent of theSuper Bowl, played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Who are the 2020 favourites?
As it stands, allmatches will be played behind closed doors as a coronavirus precaution and ameeting is set to take place this week to determine whether the season will goahead.
Richmond werecrowned champions in 2019 and they’re the clear favourites to retain theircrown, which would be their third in the last four seasons.
Despite finishingjust sixth in the final standings, they won their final 12 games of the seasonand beat Greater Western Sydney by a stunning 89 points in the Grand Final.
The Tigers kick-off the new campaign against Carlton Blues on Thursday and our traders have them priced at 2/7 to start the season with a win.
Greater WesternSydney will also be in contention following their Grand Final defeat lastseason.
The Giants have lostTim Taranto to a shoulder problem during pre-season but they’ll have a muchstronger squad this time around having been ravaged by injuries in 2019.
They kick off their campaign against Geelong Cats, who finished top last term, and they’re going at 8/15 to get started in style.
Anything can happenbetween now and the end of the season and if the games do go ahead asscheduled, expect West Coast Eagles and Western Bulldogs to be challenging nearthe top as well.
View the latest Aussie Rules odds.
All odds and markets are correct as ofdate of publication
