Editing Melbourne Cricket Ground (section)

==Australian rules football==
As of 2024, six [[Australian Football League|AFL]] teams have deals in place to play home games at the MCG:
* [[Melbourne Football Club]] (1858–present) – ten home games per year. 
* [[Richmond Football Club]] (1965–present) – ten home games per year.
* [[Essendon Football Club]] (1991–present) – four home games per year.
* [[Collingwood Football Club]] (1993–present) – nine home games per year.
* [[Hawthorn Football Club]] (2000–present) – six or seven home games per year.
* [[Carlton Football Club]] (2005–present) – five home games per year.

Additionally, the [[Geelong Football Club]] plays two home games per year at the MCG, and the [[St Kilda Football Club]] plays one home game per year at the MCG; both teams predominantly play home games at [[Kardinia Park (stadium)|Kardinia Park]] and [[Docklands Stadium]] respectively.

===Origins===
{{See also|Origins of Australian rules football}}
[[File:Football electric lighting MCG 1879.jpg|thumb|1879 [[Australian rules football]] match played under electric lights]]
[[File:Football crowd MCG.jpg|thumb|Crowd during a VFL football match, early 1900s]]
Despite being called the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the stadium has been and continues to be used much more often for [[Australian rules football]]. Spectator numbers for football are larger than for any other sport in Australia, and it makes more money for the MCG than any of the other sports played there.

Although the Melbourne Cricket Club members were instrumental in founding Australian Rules Football, there were understandable concerns in the early days about the damage that might be done to the playing surface if football was allowed to be played at the MCG. Therefore, football games were often played in the parklands next to the cricket ground, and this was the case for the first documented football match to be played at the ground. The match which today is considered to be the first Australian rules football, played between [[Melbourne Grammar]] and [[Scotch College Melbourne|Scotch College]] over three Saturdays beginning 7 August 1858 was played in this area.

It wasn't until 1869 that football was played on the MCG proper, a trial game involving a police team. It was not for another ten years, in 1879, after the formation of the Victorian Football Association, that the first official match was played on the MCG and the cricket ground itself became a regular venue for football. Two night matches were played on the ground during the year under the newly invented [[electric light]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 August 1879 |title=Football by electric light |work=The Argus |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Peter Pindar |date=16 August 1879 |title=Football Gossip |work=The Australasian |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=204 |volume=XXVII |issue=698}}</ref>

In the early years, the MCG was the home ground of [[Melbourne Football Club]], Australia's oldest club, established in 1858 by the founder of the game itself, Thomas Wills. Melbourne won five premierships during the 1870s using the MCG as its home ground.

The first of nearly 3000 [[Australian Football League|Victorian Football League/Australian Football League]] games to be played at the MCG was on 15 May 1897, with {{AFL Mel}} beating {{AFL Gee}} 64 to 19.

Melbourne used the venue as its training base until 1984, before being required to move to preserve the venue's surface when North Melbourne began playing there.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ashley Browne |date=7 July 1994 |title=$500,000 facelift for Junction Oval |work=The Age |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=26}}</ref>

===Finals and grand finals===
The [[AFL Grand Final|VFL/AFL grand final]] has been played at the MCG every season since 1902, except for between 1942 and 1945, when the ground was used by the military during World War II; in [[1991 AFL season|1991]] as the construction of the Great Southern Stand had temporarily reduced the ground's capacity below that of [[Waverley Park]]; and both [[2020 AFL Grand Final|2020]] and [[2021 AFL Grand Final|2021]], when restrictions in Victoria due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] prompted the games to be moved to [[the Gabba]] in Queensland and [[Perth Stadium]] in Western Australia respectively. All three grand final replays have been played at the MCG.

[[File:MCG 2022 AFL Grand Final.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A sold out MCG during the [[2022 AFL Grand Final]]; the match drew an attendance of 100,024]]
Before the MCG was fully seated, a grand final could draw attendances above 110,000. The record for the highest attendance in the history of the sport was set in the [[1970 VFL Grand Final]], with 121,696 in attendance.

Since being fully seated, grand final attendances are typically between 95,000 and 100,000, with the record of 100,024 at the [[2022 AFL Grand Final]] and the [[2023 AFL Grand Final]], followed by 100,022 at the [[2018 AFL Grand Final]] and 100,021 at the [[2017 AFL Grand Final]].

In the modern era, most finals games held in Melbourne have been played at the MCG. Under the current contract, 10 finals (excluding the grand final) must be played at the MCG over a five-year period. Under previous contracts, the MCG was entitled to host at least one match in each week of the finals, which on several occasions required non-Victorian clubs to play "home" finals in Victoria. The MCG is contracted to host the grand final every year until 2059.<ref name="GabbaFoxSports">{{Cite web |date=2 September 2020 |title=This is a win for Queensland: AFL reveals how QLD won race for historic Grand Final as key fixture details confirmed |url=https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-grand-final-2020-date-time-venue-first-bounce-where-will-he-game-be-played-live-press-conference/news-story/7c087c2f58052edc6f82b8ada4a5e139 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419202520/https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-grand-final-2020-date-time-venue-first-bounce-where-will-he-game-be-played-live-press-conference/news-story/7c087c2f58052edc6f82b8ada4a5e139 |archive-date=19 April 2021 |access-date=25 September 2020 |website=Fox Sports}}</ref>

All Melbourne-based teams (and most of the time Geelong) play their "home" finals at the MCG unless if four Victorian teams win the right to host a final in the first week of the finals.

===MCG and the VFL/AFL===
For many years the VFL had an uneasy relationship with the MCG trustees and the Melbourne Cricket Club. Both needed the other, but resented the dependence. The VFL made the first move which brought things to a head by beginning the development of [[VFL Park]] at [[Mulgrave, Victoria|Mulgrave]] in the 1960s as its own home ground and as a potential venue for future grand finals. Then in 1983, president of the VFL, [[Allen Aylett]] started to pressure the MCG Trust to give the VFL a greater share of the money it made from using the ground for football.

After negotiations with the MCC in 1964, {{AFL Ric}} joined Melbourne playing their home games at the MCG from [[1965 VFL season|1965]].

In March 1983 the MCG trustees met to consider a submission from Aylett. Aylett said he wanted the Melbourne Cricket Club's share of revenue cut from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. He threatened to take the following day's opening game of the season, Collingwood vs Melbourne, away from the MCG. The money was held aside until an agreement could be reached.

Different deals, half deals and possible deals were done over the years, with the [[Premier of Victoria]], [[John Cain II|John Cain, Jr.]], even becoming involved. Cain was said to have promised the VFL it could use the MCG for six months of the year and then hand it back to the MCC, but this never eventuated, as the MCG Trust did not approve it. In the mid-1980s, a deal was done where the VFL was given its own members area in the Southern Stand.

Against this background of political maneuvering, in 1985 {{AFL NM}} became the third club to make the MCG its home ground. In the same year, North played in the first night football match at the MCG for almost 110 years, against Collingwood on 29 March 1985.

In 1986, only a month after [[Ross Oakley]] had taken over as VFL Commissioner, VFL executives met with the MCC and took a big step towards resolving their differences. Changes in the personnel at the MCC also helped. In 1983 [[John Lill (cricketer)|John Lill]] was appointed secretary and [[Don Cordner]] its president.

Shortly after the Southern Stand opened in 1992, the Australian Football League moved its headquarters into the complex. The AFL assisted with financing the new stand and came to an agreement that ensures at least 45 AFL games are played at the MCG each year, including the Grand Final in September. Another 45 days of cricket are also played there each year and more than 3.5&nbsp;million spectators come to watch every year. Also in 1992, {{AFL Ess}} became the fourth AFL club to call the MCG home with {{AFL Col}} staging the majority of their home games at the MCG from 1994 onwards before fully moving from [[Victoria Park, Melbourne|Victoria Park]] to the MCG in 2000. {{AFL Car}} have also used the ground for up to five home games a year since 1992.

After the closure of [[Waverley Park]], {{AFL Haw}} moved their home games to the MCG in 2000.

As of the end of 2011, [[Matthew Richardson (Australian rules footballer)|Matthew Richardson]] holds the records for having scored the most goals on the MCG and as of 2021 [[Scott Pendlebury]] holds the record for playing the most matches. Two players have scored 14 goals for an AFL or VFL game in one match at the MCG, [[Gary Ablett Sr.]] in 1989 and 1993 and [[John Longmire]] in 1990.

Before an AFL match between {{AFL Ric}} and {{AFL Car}} on 27 August 1999, the city end scoreboard caught on fire due to an electrical fault, causing the start of play to be delayed by half an hour.

{{wide image|MCG Panorama.JPG|1000px|align-cap=center|A panoramic view of the Melbourne Cricket Ground from level 4 of the Northern Stand, First game of the 2010 AFL Season between Richmond and Carlton}}