The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football.
The AFL competition currently consists of 18 teams spread over Australia's five mainland states, with Tasmania to join the league as its 19th team in 2028.AFL premiership season matches have been played in all states and mainland territories, as well as in New Zealand and China to expand its audience.
The AFL premiership season currently consists of a 23-match regular (or home-and-away) season, which runs from March to September. The team with the best record at the end of the home-and-away season is awarded the minor premiership; the top eight teams then play off in a four-round finals series, culminating in the AFL Grand Final, which is normally held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground each year. The grand final winners are termed the premiers, the most important team prizes for which are the premiership cup and flag. Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon are the joint-most successful clubs in the competition, having each won 16 premierships.
The league was founded as the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 1897, comprising eight teams only based in the state of Victoria. Over the next century, a series of expansions, a relocation, a merger and a club withdrawal saw the league's teams expand to the 18 teams there are today.
In 1990, the national nature of the competition resulted in the name change to the Australian Football League (AFL). The current 18 teams are based across five states of Australia; the majority (ten) still remain in Victoria, nine of which are located in the Melbourne metropolitan area. The states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia have two teams each, while Tasmania will have a team enter the league in 2028.The Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory are the only mainland territories not to have AFL clubs, although the Greater Western Sydney Giants have a contract to play at least three home games in the former until 2032, while at least two games per year is played in the latter.
The largest-capacity ground in use is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which has a capacity of over 100,000 people and hosts the grand final each year. The MCG is shared by six teams as a home ground, while the other grounds used as home venues by multiple teams are Docklands Stadium in Melbourne (five teams), Adelaide Oval in Adelaide (two teams) and Perth Stadium in Perth (two teams).