Gods of Football

Gods of Football, part of the Naked For A Cause initiative, is a nude calendar featuring Australian rules football players and Australian Rugby League players. The campaign was organized to raise money for the McGrath Foundation, which supports breast cancer research and cancer awareness. The creative director and the photographer of the project was Pedro Virgil.

The initiative was launched on the Footy Show on the 14 August 2008. A first selection players was profiled. Images of each weeks' selection of players were published in Australia's Sunday Telegraph newspaper as well. Forty of Australian rules footballers and Australian Rugby League footballers were invited to pose naked. Although there was some opposition for the explicit nudity, the campaign generated great goodwill as well.

Calendars were issued for 2008, 2009 (Rugby League Calendar / Australian Rules Calendar / International Calendar), 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Accompanying DVDs are sometimes prepared, e.g. The Making of the 2009 Calendars, a film by Grant Carroll and released by Naked For A Cause. Special country releases may have different covers.

The following National Rugby League players were confirmed to take part in consideration for final selection:

Only 24 were chosen eventually, 12 for the rugby league football calendar and 12 for the AFL edition. All 24 appeared in the special international edition.

Australian rules football players:

Andrew Welsh (Voted #1), Justin Sherman (Voted #2), Andrew Walker (Voted #3), Ryan Houlihan, Michael Osborne, Luke Hodge, Trent Croad, Chris A. Johnson, Joel Macdonald, Jordan Bannister, Tom Hislop, Courtney Johns

...
Wikipedia