Someone always brings up footy trivia on the drive to the game, gets three questions in, and realises they don’t actually know the answers either. Fair enough — half of this stuff you only really learn by accident, from a commentator mentioning it once in 2019 and it lodging in your brain forever.
We’ve pulled together 50 here. Some are dead easy, thrown in for the kids. A few will genuinely stump most adults. Read them out, thumb over the answer, see who cracks.
The easy ones
1. How many players per side on an AFL field? 18.
2. What’s the official name for the ball? A Sherrin. Named after the company, not a colour or a shape — trips people up more than you’d think.
3. How many points is a goal worth? A behind? Six for a goal, one for a behind.
4. What colour ball do they use for night games? Yellow. Red during the day. Nobody seems to know why this one isn’t more common knowledge, given how obvious it is once you notice it.
5. Where’s the Grand Final always played? The MCG. Every single year — there’s been genuine debate about moving it, but so far, no.
6. How long is a quarter, officially? 20 minutes, though “time on” for stoppages usually blows that out by another ten-plus.
History (the stuff your dad knows)
7. What year did the VFL start? 1897.
8. And when did it become the AFL? 1990 — so for almost a hundred years it wasn’t even the AFL, if you want to feel old about it.
9. Who won the very first Brownlow Medal? Edward “Carji” Greeves, playing for Geelong, back in 1924.
10. Was the Brownlow ever skipped? Yes — 1942 to 1945, out of respect during WWII. Makes sense once you think about it, easy to forget otherwise.
11. Which club has the most Grand Final appearances of all time? Collingwood. Not premierships — appearances. There’s a difference, and Collingwood fans get reminded of it constantly.
12. Who invented the Sherrin football? Thomas Sherrin, in 1880.
13. Essendon’s theme song opens with which line? “It’s a grand old flag” — yes, that’s the actual opening line, borrowed straight from the old American tune.
14. What are Geelong’s, Collingwood’s, and Hawthorn’s nicknames? Cats, Magpies, Hawks. If you didn’t know these three you might want to sit this quiz out honestly.
Records people argue about
15. Who holds the record for most Brownlow votes in a single count? Patrick Cripps — 45 votes in 2024, under the modern system. A genuinely ridiculous number.
16. Who won the 2025 Brownlow? Matt Rowell, of Gold Coast, with 39 votes — second-highest ever behind Cripps’ 2024 tally.
17. Who came second in that same count? Collingwood’s Nick Daicos, on 32. He’s been runner-up two years running now.
18. Which club won the 2025 AFL Grand Final? Brisbane, over Geelong, by 47 points.
19. And the year before that? Also Brisbane — beat Sydney in 2024. Back-to-back flags, their fifth premiership overall.
20. Who’s the only other Gold Coast player to win a Brownlow before Rowell? Gary Ablett Jr, back in 2013. Twelve years between the club’s Brownlow winners is a long wait.
21. What’s the Norm Smith Medal for? Best player on Grand Final day specifically — separate award from the Brownlow.
22. Who won it in 2025? Will Ashcroft, and it was his second in a row.
23. Who won the 2023 Brownlow? Lachie Neale, for the second time in his career (first was 2020).
24. Which club went undefeated to win the 2025 AFLW premiership? North Melbourne — 15 wins, zero losses across the whole season and finals, beating Brisbane by 40 points in the Grand Final. First club to go back-to-back in AFLW history.
Rules that trip people up
25. What’s a “mark”? A clean catch of a kick that’s travelled at least 15 metres — gives the player free possession, no tackle allowed.
26. What’s the minimum kick distance for a mark to count? 15 metres, as above. People forget this one is a hard number, not a vibe.
27. What happens if the ball goes out of bounds untouched? Free kick to the opposition, straight up.
28. What’s a handball actually called? A handpass. “Handball” is what everyone says out loud anyway, technically incorrect or not.
29. What’s a 50-metre penalty for? Things like dissent, deliberate delay, or dragging the mark — moves the ball 50 metres forward as punishment.
30. How many field umpires run a standard match? Three, plus separate boundary and goal umpires.
31. What do people mean by a “specky”? A spectacular overhead mark — usually involves someone standing on another player’s back or shoulders to get it.
Clubs and quirks
32. Which two clubs are the newest in the competition? Gold Coast (2011) and GWS (2012).
33. Which state doesn’t currently have its own AFL club? Tasmania — though a standalone Tasmanian team is on the way into the competition.
34. Who coached Brisbane to both the 2024 and 2025 flags? Chris Fagan.
35. What’s the Jock McHale Medal for? Coach of the premiership-winning team, awarded same night as the Grand Final.
36. Which club did Nick Daicos debut and stay at? Collingwood — his whole career so far, one club.
37. What ground upset used to belong solely to the VFL before national expansion? Basically all of them, honestly — before the 1980s/90s the competition was almost entirely Victorian clubs playing at Victorian grounds.
38. What’s a “leadership group”? A handful of senior players sharing captaincy-style responsibility alongside the actual captain — not just one person carrying it all.
Just for fun
39. What’s the unofficial motto around AFL finals? “Anything can happen in September.” And nearly every year, something does.
40. What’s a “snap” goal? Kicked around the body off the wrong foot, usually while off-balance — looks messier than a normal kick but counts exactly the same.
41. What’s it called when a player gets legally flattened in a tackle or bump? Getting “cleaned up.” Sounds nicer than it looks on the replay.
42. Which competition runs the women’s game? The AFLW — separate ladder, separate season, been running since 2017.
43. How many AFL clubs are there total right now? 18.
44. What’s the nickname for the ball, other than Sherrin? “The pill” is the one you’ll hear most from older commentators.
45. How many premierships has Geelong won as of the 2025 Grand Final? Ten — the 2025 loss to Brisbane means they’re still chasing number eleven.
46. Who was captain when North Melbourne won the 2025 AFLW flag? Jasmine Garner — and it was the first time a medal was specifically presented to a premiership captain in AFLW history.
47. What’s Essendon’s nickname? The Bombers.
48. Who’s considered the “father figure” role on most teams, separate from the coach? Not an official title, but you’ll hear commentators use it for senior players who mentor younger ones — every club’s got one, whether it’s official or not.
49. What year did the AFLW competition start? 2017.
50. Final one — who’s the only player to win a Brownlow, a Norm Smith Medal, and a premiership all in the same season? Dustin Martin, in 2017 — the only player in over 100 years of the competition to pull off all three at once. He’d go on to win two more Norm Smith Medals in 2019 and 2020, which nobody else has matched either.
Got through all 50 without an argument? Unlikely. If footy’s not really your family’s thing, we’ve also got 70 Australian sport trivia questions covering cricket, tennis and the Olympics, or the general Australia trivia quiz if you’d rather keep it broader.