Official
Australian
Football League Merchandise |
Adelaide Crows |
Brisbane Lions |
carlton Blues |
Collingwood Magpies
Essendon Bombers |
fremantle Dockers |
Geelong Cats |
Hawthorne Hawks
Melbourne Demons |
North Melbourne Kangaroos |
Port Adelaide Power |
Richmond Tigers
St Kilda Saints |
Sydney Swans |
West Coast Eagles |
Western Bulldogs
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In 2006, the club made history becoming the first club in VFL/AFL history to have more than
50,000 members. They broke that record in 2007, signing up 50,145 members after only round one of the season, with time remaining to build on that as
the season progresses. It has the largest membership of any club in the AFL. It is the second largest membership of any sporting club in Australia,
after the Melbourne Cricket Club. |
The Lions are the most successful AFL team this century, having won three consecutive Grand
Finals, and appeared in a fourth. The Lions are the only AFL club permanently based in Queensland. The club was formed from the post-1996 merger of
the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy, and is known as the Brisbane Lions. The side plays its home games at the Brisbane Cricket Ground (also known as the
Gabba). |
In 2007, the Carlton Football Club had a record membership of 35,431. Nicknamed The Blues, it
is the sixth oldest Australian rules football club and the third oldest club in the Australian Football League. They were the first premiers of any
Australian rules competition in 1877, and share the most premierships of any VFL/AFL club |
Historically Collingwood games have attracted large attendances, which in recent times has
become a source of pride for supporters. In 1970, 121,696 spectators watched Carlton defeat Collingwood in the grand final, the record attendance for
a football game of any code in Australia. Collingwood has the largest membership of the ten Victorian clubs. The average crowd at Collingwood home
games in 2007 was 54,898. |
A strong North West suburban club, Essendon over the last 20 years has become one of the most
supported in Australia, rivalling Collingwood and arguably overtaking Carlton as the major Victorian power of the AFL. It is estimated that the
Essendon football club has a following of around one million people Australia wide, and regularly tops polls as the most supported Victorian football
club. In fact, in a more recent time Morgan poll that was done nationally, Essendon came in as the second most supported AFL club behind
Sydney. |
Fremantle has surprised many with record membership figures. The club in 2005 had the fastest
growing membership in the AFL competition with home crowds growing at a similar rate. The club's recent membership slogans have emphasised the passion
of Fremantle fans for their team. |
Playing in the Australian Football League (AFL), they are one of the most successful clubs in
Australian football, having won seven VFL/AFL Premierships, twenty-five reserves/VFA/VFL Premierships, and eight McClelland Trophies. Geelong have
played at Kardinia Park, known by its sponsored name "Skilled Stadium", since 1941. |
Hawthorn boasts large widespread support throughout Australia, particularly in Victoria,
Tasmania, Western Australia and South East Queensland. Most of this widespread support can be accredited to the clubs success in the 1970’s and 1980’s
as the club successfully nurtured talent in its home ‘zones’ – primarily in the South and East of Victoria, as well as recruiting interstate talent
from all over Australia. As a result the club has a very widespread membership with 3,000 Tasmanian members, 2,000 WA members and 1,000 QLD members
complementing the clubs 25,000+ Victorian members. |
Melbourne Football Club has listed a record amount of members in 2007, but still has one of
the smallest membership bases in the AFL competition. This is partly because many traditional Melbourne supporters are already members of the
Melbourne Cricket Club (around 23% of MCC members have Melbourne Football Club nominated support), which gets them privileged access to the MCG, so
they don't see the need to pay for a separate MFC membership. With approximately 21,850 MCC members supporting the football club, if these members
were to become full members, the Demons would have one of the largest memberships in the competition. Although previously not allowed, for the 2007
season, the Melbourne Football Club are offering MCC members the chance to become official members of the club for a heavily reduced cost, in order to
entice members to join.
This helped the club to achieve a membership of over 28,000 - well over the club's previous record |
North Melbourne has one of the most passionate and loyal supporter bases in the league. The
club enjoys the 2nd highest supporter to member conversion rate, behind only the Fremantle Dockers. Despite this, the club still had the 2nd lowest
membership base in 2007, having risen only by 200 people since 2000. |
In 1997 The Port Adelaide Football Club joined the Australian Football League (AFL). On entry,
Port Adelaide adopted a new nickname, Port Power, which was changed to just 'Power' shortly thereafter, and added two more colours (silver and teal)
in a requirement to differentiate itself from an existing AFL club, the Collingwood Football Club. During its time in the SANFL, Port Adelaide
established itself as the most dominant club in the competition by winning 34 senior premierships. Since joining the AFL Port have added to their
Premiership haul by adding another premiership, thereby bringing the total premierships attained by the PAFC to 35 , 1 AFL and 34
SANFL. |
Richmond has an enormous support that can lie dormant during times of poor performance but is
vociferous and very noticeable during periods of success. The greatest display of loyalty from the fans occurred during 1990. Threatened by
liquidation, the supporters rallied to pay off the multi-million dollar debt via the "Save Our Skins" campaign. During the fully professional AFL era,
the Tigers have enjoyed a level of support that allows it to determine its own destiny by regularly turning a profit. With the growth of the game
outside Victoria, Richmond has picked up a lot of support in the other states of Australia. |
The season has started well for St. Kilda with the club winning the 2008 Pre-season Cup (the
National Australia Bank cup). The Club had wins over Richmond in the round of 16, Geelong in the quarter-final, Essendon in the semi-final and won the
Final against the Adelaide Crows by 5 points at Football Park (AAMI stadium) 2.7.9 (69) to 0.9.10 (64) - St. Kilda's third Pre-season Cup win in the
AFL. Jason Gram won the Michael Tuck medal for player adjudged best on ground during the final. |
As the only AFL club in Sydney, the Swans have a large population base to draw on. In 2006,
following the first premiership in 72 years, the club achieved a record membership and the biggest since 1999. There is still a healthy Melbourne
following for the Swans, particularly a revival in the late 1990s. Almost 10,000 Swans members are (South) Melbourne based and the club experiences
good support when the team plays in Melbourne and many also make the long trip to Sydney for home games as well. The club recently celebrated in 2007
their 25th anniversary since relocating from South Melbourne, with parties hosted both in Sydney and their former home. |
The club is based at Subiaco Oval in Perth, Western Australia and was formed in August 1986
when the then Victorian Football League (now known as the Australian Football League) expanded to include teams from Perth and Brisbane for the 1987
season. Since entering the competition, the Eagles have been one of the most successful clubs in the AFL, winning the 1992, 1994 and 2006
premierships, being runners up in 1991 and 2005, and competing in finals in all but four seasons. |
In 2006 the Bulldogs broke their membership record. The bulldogs reached their target of
26,000 members only two minutes before the official closing time for all AFL memberships, which was at 5pm on Friday the 30th of June, after starting
the day needing 140 new members to achieve the landmark. The landmark looked promising as the Western Bulldogs began the 2007 season as AFL
premiership favourite, just ahead of the West Coast Eagles. |
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