Editing Australian rules football (section)

===Interstate football and the World Wars===
{{Further|Interstate matches in Australian rules football|Australian rules football during the World Wars}}
[[File:Australasian Football Jubilee Carnival (1858-1908)-Official Programme.jpeg|thumb|upright|The first national interstate competition was held in 1908 and included New Zealand.]]
The time around the [[Federation of Australia|federation of the Australian colonies]] in 1901 saw Australian rules undergo a revival in New South Wales, New Zealand and Queensland. In 1903, both the [[Queensland Australian Football League]] and the [[NSW Australian Football Association]] were established, and in New Zealand, as it moved towards becoming a [[Dominion of New Zealand|dominion]], leagues were also established in the major cities. This renewed popularity helped encourage the formation of the [[Australian National Football Council#Formation of the Australasian Football Council|Australasian Football Council]], which in 1908 in Melbourne staged the first national interstate competition, the [[1908 Melbourne Carnival|Jubilee Australasian Football Carnival]], with teams representing each state and New Zealand.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.australianfootball.com/articles/view/A%2Bfalse%2Bdawn%2B-%2B1908%2BMelbourne%2BCarnival%253A%2BNew%2BZealand%2Bv%2BNew%2BSouth%2BWales/57 |title=A False Dawn |publisher=AustralianFootball.com |date=20 August 1908 |access-date=19 February 2010 |archive-date=14 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714133922/http://australianfootball.com/articles/view/A+false+dawn+-+1908+Melbourne+Carnival%253A+New+Zealand+v+New+South+Wales/57 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The game was also established early on in the new territories. In the new national capital [[Canberra]] both soccer and rugby had a head start, but following the first matches in 1911, [[Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory]] became a major participation sport. By 1981 it had become much neglected and quickly lagged behind the other football codes. [[Australian rules football in the Northern Territory]] began shortly after the outbreak of the war in 1916 with the first match in [[Darwin, Northern Territory|Darwin]]. The game went on to become the most popular sport in the Territory and build the highest participation rate for the sport nationally.

[[File:An appeal from the Dardanelles.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Australia's first [[recruitment poster]], published in 1915, questions the public's commitment to Australian football rather than [[World War I|the war]].]]
Both [[World War I]] and [[World War II]] had a devastating effect on Australian football and on Australian sport in general. While scratch matches were played by Australian "[[digger (soldier)|diggers]]" in remote locations around the world, the game lost many of its great players to wartime service. Some clubs and competitions never fully recovered. Between 1914 and 1915, [[Universal football|a proposed hybrid code]] of Australian football and [[rugby league]], the predominant code of football in New South Wales and Queensland, was trialled without success.<ref>{{Cite news
 | title = Football in Australia
 | work = Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 122
 | place = New Zealand
 | page = 8
 | date = 19 November 1914
 | url = http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19141119.2.81.6
 | access-date = 3 December 2009
 | archive-date = 1 April 2012
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120401215052/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19141119.2.81.6
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news
 | title = Football amalgamation
 | work = Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27
 | place = New Zealand
 | page = 8
 | date = 2 February 1915
 | url = http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19150202.2.110
 | access-date = 3 December 2009
 | archive-date = 1 April 2012
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120401215132/http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=EP19150202.2.110
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> In Queensland, the state league went into recess for the duration of the war. VFL club University left the league and went into recess due to severe casualties. The [[West Australian Football League]] (WAFL) lost two clubs and the SANFL was suspended for one year in 1916 due to heavy club losses. The [[Anzac Day match]], the annual game between Essendon and Collingwood on Anzac Day, is one example of how the war continues to be remembered in the football community.

The role of the [[Australian National Football Council]] (ANFC) was primarily to govern the game at a national level and to facilitate interstate representative and club competition. In 1968, the ANFC revived the [[Championship of Australia]], a competition first held in 1888 between the premiers of the VFA and SAFA. Although clubs from other states were at times invited, the final was almost always between the premiers from the two strongest state competitions of the time—South Australia and Victoria—with Adelaide hosting most of the matches at the request of the SAFA/SANFL. The last match took place in 1976, with [[North Adelaide Football Club|North Adelaide]] being the last non-Victorian winner in 1972. Between 1976 and 1987, the ANFC, and later the Australian Football Championships (AFC) ran a [[Australian Football Championships Night Series|night series]], which invited clubs and representative sides from around the country to participate in a knock-out tournament parallel to the premiership seasons, which Victorian sides still dominated.

With the lack of international competition, state representative matches were regarded with great importance. Due in part to the VFL poaching talent from other states, Victoria dominated interstate matches for three-quarters of a century. [[Interstate matches in Australian rules football#State of origin|State of Origin]] rules, introduced in 1977, stipulated that rather than representing the state of their adopted club, players would return to play for the state they were first recruited in. This instantly broke Victoria's stranglehold over state titles and Western Australia and South Australia began to win more of their games against Victoria. Both New South Wales and Tasmania scored surprise victories at home against Victoria in 1990.