Australian rules football playing field

An Australian rules football playing field is a venue where the sport of Australian rules football is played.

The playing field is typically a large oval-shaped grass surface (often modified cricket fields). These fields may vary especially for variations of the game. However, for official Australian Football League matches, strict requirement specifications must be met for stadiums.

Australian rules football grounds, even at the highest level of the game, have no fixed dimensions. For senior football, the playing field is an oval, typically between 135–185  metres long goal-to-goal and 110–155 metres wide wing-to-wing. Grounds can vary from long and narrow to almost circular, and are not necessarily symmetrical, depending upon how and where the field was constructed. At least 5 metres of space between the boundary line and any fence is required for safety.

Smaller fields are generally used for junior football; some are purpose-built, and some are temporarily marked out within the confines of full-sized oval; as for a senior match, there are no fixed dimensions for a junior-sized field. The Western Australian Football Commission advises that a good rule of thumb is to set the length of the field equivalent to 3½ times the length of an average kick of the age group playing.

A top-level Australian rules football ground has the following markings:

Grounds at lower or junior levels, particularly small grounds, may lack some of these markings.

At each end of the ground there are two goal posts, spaced 6.4m (7yds) apart; these are conventionally painted white. A further 6.4m (7yds) on either side of these are behind posts; the behind posts are shorter than the goal posts; additionally, in South Australia it is customary for behind posts to be painted red. 5 meters in height. All posts are typically padded with wall padding to minimise injury due to players colliding with them.

Playing surface is a controversial issue in Australian rules football due to possible injuries caused to players moving at high speed including marking, jumping, turning and being tackled without protective padding. For these reasons the playing field standards imply use of lawn as a surface.

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