Mark (Australian rules football)

A mark in Australian rules football is the catch of a kicked ball which earns the catching player a free kick. The catch must be cleanly taken, or deemed by the umpire to have involved control of the ball for sufficient time. A tipped ball, or one that has touched the ground cannot be marked. Since 2002, in most Australian competitions, the minimum distance for a mark is 15 metres (16 yards or 49 feet).

Marking is one of the most important skills in Australian football. Aiming for a teammate who can mark their kick is the primary focus of any kicking player not kicking for goal. Marking can also be one of the most spectacular and distinctive aspects of the game, and the best mark of the AFL season is awarded with the Mark of the Year, with similar competitions running across smaller leagues.

The four most prolific markers in the history of the Australian Football League – Nick Riewoldt (2,944), Gary Dempsey (2,906), Stewart Loewe (2,503) and Matthew Richardson (2,270) – also standout for each achieving a career an average of around eight marks per game.^[1] A 2003 AFL match, between St Kilda and Port Adelaide, set a record of 303 marks in a single game.