AFL Britain

British Australian Rules Football League

The BARFL was formed in 1989, with efforts from John Jelley and others seeing the formation of eight clubs for an inaugural season in 1990. The founding clubs were the London Hawks, West London Wildcats, North London Lions, Earls Court Kangaroos, Lea Valley Saints, Thames Valley Magpies and Wandsworth Demons in and around London and a club based in Leicester, the East Midland Eagles. Of the foundation teams, four still survive in West London, North London, Wimbledon (former London Hawks) and Wandsworth.^[3]

The inaugural game took place between the Earls Court Roos and Lea Valley Saints, with Tango tapping to JvdM who pumped it long to Donger for the first ever goal. The Roos prevailed 33.24.222 to 1.2.8.

Between 1990 and 2001, the league existed as one competition for all clubs, ranging from a high of 10 clubs in 1991 to a low of only 6 in 1998.

BARFL logo

Divisional structure 2001-2007

In an environment where large numbers of Australians could be both a blessing (in terms of experience and teaching ability) and a curse (in terms of new clubs outside London finding it difficult to compete against the Australian expat-based London clubs), the league in 2001 divided teams into two leagues. The first league was the London Premiership, where the powerful London clubs would continue under the same local-content regulations as previously (i.e. quotas of British players who must be on the field at any time).

Beneath the London Premiership would be a London Conference, where the teams could field their 'reserve' sides, including the Clapham and Ealing teams which had been previously entered by Wandsworth and West London respectively. The London Conference has greatly relaxed 'local content' rules, meaning that backpackers and other Australians can compete at a social level.

In 2003, with new clubs being formed outside the capital and regional clubs still struggling against the larger numbers of Australians playing for the London sides, it was decided that clubs outside London would compete in a Regional Premiership. This included the Bristol Dockers, St Helens Miners and the two new sides in the Doncaster Saints and Reading Kangaroos.

In 2004, a fourth division of the BARFL appeared, with the Scottish Australian Rules Football League forming. In the inaugural season, three clubs played each other for the premiership, the Edinburgh Old Town Bloods, the Edinburgh Uni Body Snatchers and the Glasgow Sharks.

2007 saw the introduction of a third tier of football in the London region, known as the Social Division. This division was formed for the same reasons as the conference division, with some of the larger clubs being unable to field their full player lists in two teams resulting in some fielding more than one team in the conference.

AFL Britain

Due to a number of contributory factors, including the developments initiated by Aussie Rules UK and the changing nature of the sport across the country, 2008 saw the BARFL rebranded and redeveloped to become AFL Britain, an organisation with less direct control over football in London but a greater ability to support the game to grow both in and outside the capital.

In 2010, the AFL Britain will have four affiliated leagues, the AFL London, AFLB North, AFLB Central, AFLB South. In addition, the organisation maintains close communication with the Scottish ARFL and Welsh ARFL, who are independent bodies overseeing footy in their respective countries.

AFL England

During the season of 2012, it was decided by the AFL Britain Committee that it was best to rename to be more focused on football within the England domain. This would also assist with National Governing Body status from Sport England. As AFL Britain mainly looked after affairs to do with football in England, it was felt it would be more relevant. This would sit aside the other AFL leagues such as Scottish ARFL, Welsh ARFL in the UK and with AFL Ireland in Ireland.

London

AFL London features eight clubs, fielding a total of over 24 teams across three divisions - the Premiership (1st), Conference (2nd) and Social Leagues (3rd).

The restructure of the BARFL in 2001 saw the London-based clubs form the London Premiership, and the regional clubs break off to form their own league. The new structure also enabled London clubs to field reserve grade teams, forming the London Conference. Prior to this, two BARFL Premiership clubs, the Wandsworth Demons from 1999 and the West London Wildcats in 2000, had fielded second teams in the main division. These teams, the Clapham Demons and the Shepherds Bush Raiders became founding members of the Conference.

In 2007, a third level of competition was created, the London Social League. Some teams from outside London have competed in the Social League, including Manchester and Nottingham who transferred to the Central & North West League in 2010, and the Reading Kangaroos who continue in the Social League.

The BARFL Premiership became part of the new AFL London structure for the start of the 2008 season as part of the AFL Britain restructure, becoming in the process a competition solely aimed at those clubs in or around the London Region.

In 2017, a second women's division was created, forming the Women's Conference.

Current teams

Club	Colours	Competed	Previous Names	Conference Team	Social Team		Women
London Swans		1991-	Sussex Swans (now in Southern league)	London Swans	-		London Swans
North London Lions		1990-		Regents Park Lions	Bounds Green Lions		North London Lions
Putney Magpies		1999-	London Gryphons (1999–2003)	Putney Magpies	Putney Magpies		Putney Magpies
South East London Giants		2008-	Dulwich Dragons (2008–2011)	-	-		South East London Giants
Wandsworth Demons		1990-		Clapham Demons	South London Demons		Wandsworth Demons
West London Wildcats		1990-		Shepherds Bush Raiders	Ealing Emus		West London Wildcats
Wimbledon Hawks		1990-	London Hawks (1990–94)	-	Wimbledon Hawks		Wimbledon Hawks
Reading Kangaroos		2003-		-	Reading Kangaroos		-

Former Teams

Club	Colours	Years Competed
Bristol Dockers		1991 - 2011 (Moved to WARFL)

Regional England

The BARFL Regional Premiership commenced in 2003, and ran until it was absorbed into the BARFL's 3rd division Social League at the start of the 2007 season. The Aussie Rules UK 9-a-side National League began in 2007, featuring teams in a number of regional divisions. This then combined with AFL England in 2010, to form the AFL England Central & Northern and AFL England Southern Divisions.

Central & Northern

Club	Colours	Years competed
Huddersfield Rams		2009 (ARUK Central), 2010-
Manchester Mosquitoes		2006 (BARFL), 2007-09 (London Social), 2010-
Merseyside Saints		2016-
Nottingham Scorpions		2004-06 (BARFL), 2007-09 (London Social), 2010-
Wolverhampton Wolverines		2010-

Former Teams

Club	Colours	Years competed
Hull Mariners		2010 - 2013
Sheffield Thunder		2010 - 2016 (Thereafter on occasion)
Birmingham Bears		2009 - 2016
Durham Saints / Swans		2007 - ???
Gateshead Miners		2008 - 2011 (Into Tyne Tees)
Hartlepool Dockers		2006 - 2010 (Invitation & Social)
Middlesbrough Hawks		2006 - 2007 (Into Tyne Tees)
Newcastle Centurions		2007 (Into Tyne Tees)
Redcar Bombers		2009 (Into Tyne Tees)
Tyne Tees Tigers		2012 - 2018 (Moved to the SARFL)

South

Club	Colours	Years competed
Portsmouth Pirates		2009-
Southampton Titans		2007-
Sussex Swans		1991-

Former Teams

Club	Colours	Years competed
Bournemouth Demons		2007 - 2013
Chippenham Redbacks		2009 - 2016 (Moved to WARFL)
Guildford Crows		2010 - 2013
Plymouth Seagulls		2011-2012

Scotland

Club	Colours	Years competed
Edinburgh Bloods		2003-
Glasgow Sharks		2004-
Kingdom Kangaroos		2013-
Greater Glasgow Giants		2015-
Falkirk Silverbacks		2015-
Tyne Tees Tigers		2018-

Wales

Club	Colours	Years competed
Bristol Dockers		1991-2010 (BARFL/AFL London), 2011-
Chippenham Redbacks		2009-2016 (AFL England South), 2016-
South Cardiff Panthers		2007-

Former Teams