Australia national Australian rules football team

Australia

Nickname(s)	AFL Academy, All-Australian Team
Governing body	AFL Commission
Rankings
Current	1st (as of October 2022[1])
International Cup
Appearances	0 (does not compete)

Australia has named a senior Australian rules football team, known as the All-Australian team since 1947. This team, however has never officially played an international Australian rules football match. This is primarily because the sport is played professionally in Australia.

It has previously sent teams to play against Ireland's amateur Gaelic Athletic Association in the hybrid code of International Rules Football as the Australia international rules football team (this article is not about that team).

While the All-Australian team does not compete, the AFL National Academy (known simply as the "AFL Academy") is a national team composed of underage (under-19) players. In the past it has played annual matches against New Zealand, though currently it competes only against semi-professional state league teams. History has shown that more than two thirds of Academy players go on to professional careers at senior level in the Australian Football League.^[2]

Australia also has a history of fielding Australian Football sides both officially and unofficially recognised to compete at amateur and junior levels tours against national sides from other countries including New Zealand, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, the United States, as well as a combined side representing all of Europe. In addition, sides representing Indigenous Australia have competed internationally, including the Indigenous All-Stars against Papua New Guinea and the Flying Boomerangs.

High-profile representatives include AFL Brownlow medallists Chris Judd, Patrick Dangerfield, Adam Cooney, several AFL club captains including Luke Hodge, Travis Boak, Trent Cotchin, Jack Viney, Jarryd Roughead, Shannon Hurn, Jarrad McVeigh, Marc Murphy, Joel Selwood, Steven May, Jack Ziebell, other AFL greats including Cyril Rioli, Brett Deledio and numerous All-Australian players.

Australia remains undefeated, although Papua New Guinea came within two goals of a historic win at Football Park in 1978 and New Zealand within a goal at Wellington Stadium in 2014.