Australian rules football in Papua New Guinea

Australian rules football in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea's Mosquitos celebrate taking the International Cup from New Zealand to become International champions in 2008.
Country	Papua New Guinea
Governing body	PNG Rules Football Council
National team(s)	Papua New Guinea
First played	1943, Port Moresby
Registered players	1,920 (adult) 45,000 (junior)[1]
Club competitions
Goroka Football League Kimbe Football League Lae Football League Mt Hagen Football League Port Moresby Football League Rabaul Football League Eastern Highlands Rules Football League
Audience records
Single match	10,000 (1976) PNG vs Nauru Sir Hubert Murray Stadium, Port Moresby[2]

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), Australian rules football (typically referred to as "rules", "rules football", "footy", or less commonly "Aussie rules", "AFL rules", "AFL", or "football") is a developing team sport which was initially introduced by Australian servicemen during World War II. The governing body for the sport is the PNG Rules Football Council, with the development body being AFL PNG. The junior development version is known locally as Niukick. Regionally, AFL PNG is affiliated with AFL South Pacific with an Australian development pathway through AFL Queensland.

It is home to the longest running league outside Australia, the Port Moresby Australian Rules Football League (or POM AFL), founded in 1955. Prior to independence from Australia the sport boomed in the 1960s and 70s, Rules was a major spectator and participation sport and the standard of representatives sides from PNG reached a level close to that of the semi-professional leagues in Australia. PNG proved to be highly competitive against VFL clubs and internationally against Australia, Indigenous Australia and Nauru. The national team's first full international match against Nauru attracted 10,000 to Sir Hubert Murray Stadium in Port Moresby which remains the world record for an international representative match in the sport. This golden age ended abruptly in 1981 after a failed restructuring of football operations by Australian interests, poor junior performance in the Teal Cup and the withdrawal of funding causing a total collapse of the sport. This resulted in other codes of football particularly Rugby League and soccer rapidly outgrowing it. Nevertheless, Rules has seen a major revival since the 1990s.

The national team is the most decorated in international Australian Football, having won more International titles (3 - 2008, 2014, 2017) than any other nation, in addition, it has won silver medals in 2002, 2005, 2011 and three gold at the Arafura Games. The PNG Muruks, the country's only AFL Asia affiliated club, has won the Asian Australian Football Championships in its respective divisions every year since 2018.^[3]

Players of Papua New Guinean heritage have played professionally in the Australian Football League, the most famous of which is "king" Mal Michael who holds the AFL games and goals record for a Papuan born player. More recently, a pathway from AFL PNG to the AFL, mainly through AFL Queensland has been established providing a source of talent for clubs in Australia. The pathway resulted in Hewago Oea, in 2022, becoming the first Papuan to debut in the AFL who learned to play the game locally.

In the media, the sport is covered by The National and Papua New Guinea Post-Courier and EMTV.