Investigating the elements that encourage or inhibit the participation of children and youth in Australian Football

Abstract

This study utilized a mixed method approach to examine youth retention in Australian Football. It aimed to investigate the factors contributing to initial and sustained engagement with Australian Football as well as the reasons why children disengage with the sport. Questionnaires along with qualitative interviews were conducted in junior football clubs across South Australia. Two themes emerged from the data: ‘sustained engagement with Australian Football’ and ‘Alienation and Disengagement’. Findings suggest that there are two critical age ranges where disengagement with Australian Football occurs; both correspond with changes in level of competition. This research raised two critical questions: Is Australia witnessing a shift away from Australian Football in terms of junior participation rates? and will this have an impact on the way in which the sport is perceived as being an integral part of its national identity? The increase in popularity of other sporting codes is a significant barrier in the retention of participants in Australian Football. Therefore, there is a need for junior Australian Football clubs to comply with the game day structures that achieve the expectations of children and youth in order to improve retention in the sport. This research adds to the body of literature on junior sport retention and will enable strategies to be developed in order to retain participants in Australian Football.

Keywords:

• Australian Football
• sport
• retention
• participation
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Deborah Agnew is a lecturer in the School of Education at Flinders University in South Australia. Her research interests include Australian football, masculinity, sports retirement and men's health. She is a member of the Flinders SHAPE (Sport, Health and Physical Education) Research Centre.

Shane Pill lectures in curriculum studies, physical education and sport studies and he is a member of the Sport, Health and Physical Activity (SHAPE) research centre at Flinders University. His research interests include curriculum design and enactment, pedagogy and instructional strategies for games and sport teaching, sport coaching, leadership and management. Shane is the author of four books on game sense teaching and coaching, and he was a major contributing writer to the Cricket Australia S'Cool Cricket resource, the Tennis Australia Hot Shots Tennis resource and the revised AFL Sport Education program.

Murray Drummond is a professor in Sport, Health and Physical Education in the School of Education at Flinders University in South Australia. His primary research interests revolve around masculinities, health and sport and he has published extensively in this field. He is on the editorial board of 6 international journals and is the director of the Flinders University SHAPE Research Centre.

Notes

1. Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars were the chorus of a popular 1970s car advertisement that began with the question, ‘What’s your favourite sport? –football!’. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGW-WX77zjY.

2. This research was conducted in partnership with the SANFL and was commissioned by the AFL.

3. The team size for youth Australian Football is 22; 18 per team on the playing field with four on the interchange bench (Australian Football League 2014a).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Australian Football League.