Australian Football League

If Australians can't find a game to suit them, they invent one - and that's how the rip-roaring football game known as Aussie Rules started. Officially, it's called Australian Football League (AFL) or Australian Rules football - or just footy. Call it what you like, the game is intense and so are its fans. The climax comes in September when 100,000 people pack the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Grand Final - one of the biggest sporting events in Australia.

Based on Gaelic football, Aussie Rules was devised in 1858 by cricketer Tom Wills as a way of staying fit in winter. The first matches were played on huge fields by two teams of 40 players. Often, nobody was able to score. Modifications followed and the game turned into a fast-moving spectacle played by two teams of 18 lithe and speedy players in tight shorts, on an oval field with four goalposts. The ball is oval too - a little smaller than the version used for Rugby Union football - and the kicks are often enormous.

The size of the field varies. Anything between 110 and 155 metres wide and between 135 and 185 metres long is allowed.

Aussie rules began in the state of Victoria (still very much its heartland), spreading throughout Australia and, more recently, internationally. Arguments are endless about the best team and best players, but champions include Haydn Bunton, who played for Fitzroy and is to AFL what Don Bradman is to cricket, and Graham 'Polly' Farmer, an Aboriginal ruckman who helped perfect the handpass.