Pictured: 2022 USAFL Nationals between the DC Eagles and Austin Crows. Photo by Jerry Long.

It turns out that nearly 10,000 miles away from the United States, football still reigns supreme. No this is not a clever word for “soccer”, this is something much more exciting: Australian Rules Football. Australian Rules Football or “footy” as it is often called Down Under, can best be described in the most complimentary way as organized chaos. Often played on modified cricket grounds, Australian Rules Football is a full contact mismash of soccer, rugby and American football. Eighteen players on each team engage in a near-continuous battle of high-scoring action–points are scored by kicking the laced oval ball, a mix between a rugby ball and American football, through central or outer goal posts stationed at the ends of the field.

This weekend, footy is coming to Lakewood Ranch’s Premier Sports Campus for the 26th Annual United States Australian Football League Nationals. The tournament is the world’s largest Australian Rules Football tournament, bringing in over 43 teams from five men’s and two women’s divisions across the United States and Canada. The tournament will feature a full weekend of competition, with a skills competition on Friday and the winners of the men’s and women’s championships being crowned on Sunday. “The teams are ranked in divisions based on their regular season performance, record and success in the regional tournaments,” says Doren James, USAFL Executive Director. “We held three regional tournaments throughout the summer on the East Coast, West Coast and Midwest.”

James, an American now in his 10th year as the Nationals tournament director, has made a career in the sport after falling in love with footy while studying abroad in Australia during college. “ I grew up playing soccer, football and rugby in college. When I went to Australia to study abroad, my roommate was a big footy player and introduced me to the sport. I was hooked straight away because it had all three of those games wrapped up into one and immediately started playing and joined the Milwaukee team in the USAFL when I returned home to the states,” says James. “With footy, the exciting thing is that everybody gets to be the quarterback. Everybody gets the chance to have the ball in their hands and decide where to go with it next which is really unique.”

The Premier Sports Campus at Lakewood Ranch, 5895 Post Blvd., Lakewood Ranch. 

Pictured: 2022 USAFL Nationals between the DC Eagles and Austin Crows. Photo by Jerry Long.

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