The Northwind is Canada's national Australian rules football team that represents the clubs and teams of AFL Canada.
Northwind players are selected from the best Canadian-born players from the club teams across Canada.
The team plays in international tournaments, including the Australian Football International Cup and the 49th Parallel Cup.
The Northwind's guernsey has the Maple leaf, the floral emblem of Canada, in the national colours of red and white.
The team formed to participate in the Australian Football International Cup in 2002 (finishing 9th) 2005 (finishing 7th) and 2008 (finishing 6th) as well as exhibition matches against other countries.
Between 1993–1995, the Northwind were undefeated in tests against the British Australian Rules Football League.
Stefan Leyhane, Northwind's Captain (2003–2009) was also the only Canadian recipient of the 2002 International All Star Team.
Northwind's best and fairest player (from the 2005 International Cup) was Paul Loughnane.
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football,also called football, footy, or Aussie rules (and in some regions marketed as AFL after the Australian Football League, the most popular and only fully professional Australian football league in the country), is a sport played between two teams of eighteen players on the field of either an Australian football ground, a modified cricket field, or a similarly sized sports venue. The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the two tall goal posts. The team with the higher total score at the end of the match wins unless a draw is declared.
During general play, players may position themselves anywhere on the field and use any part of their bodies to move the ball. The primary methods are kicking, handballing and running with the ball. There are rules on how the ball can be handled: for example, players running with the ball must intermittently bounce or touch it on the ground. Throwing the ball is not allowed and players must not get caught holding the ball. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick (with specific conditions) are awarded possession. Possession of the ball is in dispute at all times except when a free kick or mark is paid.
Australian Rules Football was programmed by Keith A Goodyer and released in 1989 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
AFL Live is a sports game in the AFL series of Australian rules football video games. It was developed by Big Ant Studios for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It was released on 21 April 2011. The Game of the Year Edition was released for The PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace on 6 June 2012 and was released for optical disc on 12 July 2012. Commentary is provided by Dennis Cometti and Brian Taylor.
The gameplay has gone more in depth with the core mechanics. Some specific improvements include, faster ball movement and a more free flowing game, improved control and camera systems, and more scope for tactical adjustments. The possible addition of obscurities such as "behind the play" incidents will potentially add to the longevity of the gameplay experience.
All officially licensed AFL teams are included in the game. While it also features three extra teams, Victoria, Indigenous All Stars and an All Stars Team (Dream team) from the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match.
Football (released as NFL Football) is a multiplayer sports video game produced by Mattel and released for its Intellivision video game system in 1979. The players each control a football team competing in a standard four-quarter game. Like Mattel's other sports video games, NFL Football did not use any official National Football League team names or player names, even though Mattel obtained a license from the NFL and used the league's logo in its box art.
The player controls a five-man football team, actively controlling one team member at a time, with the computer controlling the rest. As in traditional American football, the player's team must score more points than the opponent's team within the time limit of the game. The game consists of four quarters, each a simulated 15 minutes in length, and takes place on a horizontally scrolling 100-yard simulated football field.
Player 1 always starts the game on offense and receives the opening kick-off from Player 2; at the start of the second half, Player 2 will receive the kick-off from Player 1. NFL Football is played in the same basic manner as a regulation game of football, with the offense being given four downs to advance the ball a minimum of ten yards before losing possession of the football to the opposing team. At the start of each down, the players use their controller's keypad to input a formation and a play for that down; descriptions and diagrams of the plays were printed in the game's instruction manual and not visible on-screen. When both players have entered their formations, play resumes.
A football, soccer ball, or association football ball is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the Laws of the Game maintained by the International Football Association Board. Additional, more stringent, standards are specified by FIFA and subordinate governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.
Early footballs began as animal bladders or stomachs that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. Improvements became possible in the 19th century with the introduction of rubber and discoveries of Vulcanization by Charles Goodyear. The modern 32-panel ball design was developed in 1962 by Eigil Nielsen, and technological research continues today to develop footballs with improved performance.
In 1863, the first specifications for footballs were laid down by the Football Association. Previous to this, footballs were made out of inflated leather, with later leather coverings to help footballs maintain their shapes. In 1872 the specifications were revised, and these rules have been left essentially unchanged as defined by the International Football Association Board. Differences in footballs created since this rule came into effect have been to do with the material used in their creation.
American football (referred to as football in the United States and Canada, also known as gridiron elsewhere) is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with control of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with or passing the ball, while the team without control of the ball, the defense, aims to stop their advance and take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team; if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.
American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, under rules based on the association football rules of the time. During the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football," established the snap, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs; later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football.