Week 1 - Australian Rules Football

Skill focus: Kicking (the drop punt) and ball handling

Session equipment:

1 Australian Rules Football per 2 students (many of the activities in the School Sport Australian Rules Football program require every player to have a ball, therefore similar shaped balls can be used to ensure maximum participation).
30 markers
Bibs/braids to differentiate teams

Download Australian Rules Football - Week 1 task card to support teaching before and during the sport session.

Lesson preparation

View the short explanatory video before the session to understand how to drop punt the ball correctly in Australian Rules Football. You may also choose to show this clip to students.

Main teaching points for kicking a drop punt:

Line up the ball with your target.
Have your head bent slightly over the ball. Hold the ball over the thigh of the kicking leg.
Guide the ball down with one hand – same side as the kicking leg.
Point your toes at your target – see the ball hit the foot.
Follow through straight towards the target.

The grip - The fingers are spread evenly along each side of the ball, with thumbs extending to the lacing. The grip is the same for both left and right-foot kickers.

Fast start - Australian Rules Football relay

Equipment

8 markers (to set out playing area).
4 markers (to set out the river).

Activity set-up

Set out the playing area (25 students = approximately 25m x 25m).
Divide the playing area with a centre line called the 'river'.

How to play

All students must line up along the 'river'.
Explain to students that the marked line to left of the 'river' is the bank and the line to the right of the 'river' is the shore.
The teacher calls out either river, bank or shore. Students must run to get to the corresponding destination as fast as possible.

Select card to download.

Skill development

Choosing teams

In a sport education approach, affiliation is promoted by students being a member of the same team over a period of time. It is intended that students remain in these teams for the duration of each sport program for the skill development and the modified small-sided games, so that they can develop and learn together.

Place students in equal teams, 4 teams is optimal, at the beginning of the skill development session. Strategies for forming groups can be found in the Game-based learning in sport and physical activity e-learning course.
To further promote affiliation students can decide on a team name.
Once the teams are determined you can add the team and student names to the Australian Rules Football draw template.

Modelled teaching

Explicitly model the drop punt kick to students. Use teaching points at the beginning of this page and points modelled in the explanatory video during your instruction.

Explain to students they will be practising the drop punt kick and ball handling throughout the circuit stations.

Activty 1 - Mirror mirror

Equipment: 1 Australian Rules Football per player

How to play: Players face their partner. The leader performs a series of movements with a football while the player who is the ‘mirror’ copies the skills like a reflection.

Form pairs with one ball per player.
Leaders have 30 seconds to move the ball while their partner mirrors the actions.
After 30 seconds, players reverse roles and repeat the activity.

Change it

Play in groups of three or more with one player as the leader and all other players the mirror.

Activity 2 - Interceptor

Equipment: 1 football per player

How to play: In pairs, players kick or pass a ball to one another. Opponents between the players attempt to intercept the ball. Players change roles frequently. Play in groups of four.

Organise players into groups of four with two interceptors and two kickers.
The kickers try to keep possession of the ball by kicking into their zones.
The interceptors try to touch or mark the ball between the kicking zones.
When the coach calls ‘Time!’, players rotate roles. Alternatively, every time an interceptor touches or marks the ball in the middle zone, they swap places with the kicker.

Activity 3 - Dribble race

Equipment: 1 football per group, 5 cones per group

How to play:

Players roll a ball between cones using the fingertips of both hands.
Players run back to the start after rolling the ball through and pass the ball to the next player in line.
The first group to have each player roll the ball through the cones and return is the winner.

Change it

Players use only left hand or right hand.

Activity 4 - Kick to kick

Equipment: 1 football per pair, 4 marker cones per pair

How to play: In pairs, players take it in turns to kick a football, trying to make it land in their partner’s marked area.

Form pairs of similar ability.
Pairs collect marker cones and decide/ test how far apart they will place them.
Players kick the ball to land inside their partner’s area. Score one point for each ball that lands inside that area.
Player with the highest score when the time at the station is up wins.

Modified small-sided games

It's time for competition!

Teams compete against each other in the game outlined below. You can use the 'Australian Rules Football draw' as a guide to organise the competition, across the 4 sessions try to ensure each team has a fair number of games.

Allocate 3 points for a win, 2 points for a drawer and 1 point for a loss for each game played. Record results and points in the School sport program results spreadsheet.

Remember, to give students an update of the leader board each week.

Game- Kick 4 and go

Equipment: 4 Australian Rules Footballs, 2 markers

How to play: A player from the kicking team kicks four consecutive balls into the field and then runs between cones or markers as many times as possible to score points. When fielding team have returned all four balls to the goal square, they call ‘STOP!’ The ‘kicker’ totals their score and joins their team mates. The next player from the team kicks. All players have a kick. Both teams have a turn of fielding and kicking.

Organise teams into a 'kicking team' and a 'fielding team'.
The 'kicking team' take it in turns to kick four balls as fast as they can into the playing area.
When the last ball is kicked, the player runs between the markers to score points.
Players on the fielding team must collect the balls and return them to the goal square quickly.
Once fielding players have returned all balls to the goal square, they call ‘STOP!’.
The kicking players total their points for runs completed.
All players on the kicking team have a turn of kicking and then kicking team become fielders and fielders become kickers.