Australian rules football exhibition matches

Exhibition matches in Australian rules football have been used to promote the game as a demonstration sport outside of its heartlands in Australia.

[5] During World War II, exhibition matches were played by servicemen in several countries, especially in South East Asia and also in the United Kingdom.

After the 1960s, the Victorian Football League, realising that finding new markets were essential to the prosperity of the competition began to belatedly pursue a series of international exhibition matches to raise the profile of the game overseas.

The longest and most persistent of these was Great Britain, which was seen as an opportunity primarily due to the high number of ex-patriate Australians living there, and the availability of cricket grounds.

Games played in this decade began to spawn infant leagues in Japan named the "Aussie Bowl", the United States of America and Canada, which have been represented at the Australian Football International Cup since 2002.

The WAFL announced intentions to play an exhibition match in Mumbai, India in late 2006 between the grand finalists.

In November 2005, AFL club Melbourne made an announcement that it was investigating playing an exhibition match in 2006 or 2007 in the Chinese metropolis Tianjin, with Beijing or Shanghai possible alternative hosts.

In February 2006, AFL club Essendon's CEO indicated the possibility of an exhibition match in Japan in 2007 to mark 20 years since the last Aussie Bowl between the Bombers and Hawthorn.

Although drawing significant crowds and interest early, the states of Queensland and New South Wales elected at official level to adopt the rugby codes in 1908.

Support in these states has since grown in recent years, with local clubs established in the national competition in both Queensland and New South Wales during the 1980s.

The 2005 series included such Morwell, Port Lincoln, Joondalup, Lavington, Carrara, Alice Springs, Newcastle and Bendigo with a total attendance of 117,552.

Since 2001, the Kangaroos Football Club have been working to build up a local supporter base by playing home games at Manuka Oval.