1. Themes
  2. A to Z

Anti-Football League

On Sunday 16 April 1967, the offices of the Sun News-Pictorial, Melbourne's biggest circulating newspaper, were filled with journalists writing and talking about the previous day's Australian Rules football games. Foreign affairs writer Douglas Wilkie noted this dominance and the next day in the paper popular writer Keith Dunstan suggested an anti-football organisation. Those indifferent to the national game were brought out in the open. For more than three decades the Anti-Football League (AFL) poked fun at football culture and raised money for charity. A square red badge (symbolic of something that will not bounce) was issued to members, and the Wilkie Medal awarded annually to the person who had done least for football.

David Dunstan