The Arizona Australian Football League plays a modified version of Australian football called "Metro Footy." For those of you who have never seen Australian football (or "footy" as we call it) before, here's a brief rundown of the rules:

The object of the game, like most sports, is to score more points than your opponents before time runs out. Footy games consist of four, 20-minute quarters. There are two ways score in footy - goals and behinds.

A footy team is comprised of 18 players (yes, that's 18 players on the field at the same time). The field is oval in shape, and generally measures approximately 165 yards or so in length. At each end of the field, there will be four goal posts, like this:

The sticks

The only way to score a goal is to kick the ball between the large posts. Goals are worth 6 points.

Behinds can be scored in a number of ways:

The number of goals, behinds, and total points are displayed on the scoreboard like this:

In this example, Chandler has kicked 8 goals, and scored 9 behinds, for a total of 57 points. Scottsdale has kicked 7 goals, and scored 7 behinds, for a total of 49 points.

The ball is oval-shaped, slightly larger than an American football, with rounded ends. The ball can be advanced by running with it, kicking it, or by a handball.

Players may run with the ball until they're tackled, provided they either touch the ball to the ground or bounce it (similar to a dribble in basketball) every 15 meters.

Players may kick the ball as far as they like in any direction. Any player who catches another player's kick on the full (before it touches the ground or another player) is awarded a "mark." This entitles him to a free kick.

The ball may not be thrown, but it can be punched. This is called a "handball." Marks are not awarded for handballs, only kicks.

If the ball goes out of bounds, it is thrown back into play by the boundary umpire. The umpire turns his back to the field, and throws the ball back into play towards the center of the field.

The exception to this rule is if the ball is intentionally put out of bounds, or if it goes out of bounds on the full, meaning the ball is kicked out without touching the ground or another player. In either case, the opposing team gets a free kick where the ball went out.

Players may be tackled if they are running with the ball, provided the tackle is below the shoulders and above the knees. If a player is legally tackled with the ball, the tackler is awarded a free kick.

Those are the basics. There's other rules too, such as the push-in-the-back rule and others, but that's enough to give you a basic idea of what footy is all about. If you'd like to take a look at all the rules of the game, you can click here.


So, what about Metro Footy?

As you can imagine, it's sometimes a bit tough finding a field large enough to play a full-fledged game of footy, not to mention finding enough players. Metro Footy was created to take care of these problems.

Metro Footy is identical to the full version of Australian football, with the following changes:

Metro Footy has become a great way for new players to get involved in the game. The smaller field and smaller teams give every player a chance to really get involved in the game and get quite a few touches of the ball.