What Is Footy?
If you are not familiar with Australian Football, it is a high energy, fast paced, contact sport, requiring many attributes and physical components of a number of American sports. Having said this, it is quite unlike any other sport in the world.
The basic aim of the game is to score as many goals as possible by kicking the ball between a set of posts at either end of the field. Players may move the ball around the field, either by kicking, handballing (punching the ball off your hand), or running with the ball. There are no pads and players are able to tackle each other anywhere between the knees and the shoulders.
Sometimes it may appear that there are no rules, but there are! Fans who see their first game are immediately drawn in by the speed, high scoring and physicality of the game. Once you watch a game, you’re hooked for life!
NYCAFL?
As well as playing against other teams in the USAFL, the Magpies also run the New York City Australian Football League (NYCAFL), an intra club competition designed to promote and develop new players to the game as well as foster camaraderie and friendship. The NYCAFL is part of the club’s development program and usually runs on Friday nights or Weekend mornings during spring and summer.
NYCAFL Rules
Same goal posts as a normal game.
2 x 20 min halves on a 400 x 300 ft ground (approx the size of a large soccer pitch).
9 a-side with unlimited substitutions and benches.
Players will be allowed to play for more than one team if teams are lacking numbers on the day.
All players are asked to be at the ground a half hour before the start of the first game. We will have a 30-minute warm-up and training and then we will bounce the ball for the first game. While you are not playing, you will be expected to run water, keep score, boundary umpire or goal umpire.
Women’s Division
The New York Magpies Women were established in 2008 by Andrea Casillas and Christina Licata, and are New York’s first and only women’s Australian Rules Football team. Throughout the season, these women train together, verse each other in our NYCAFL metro competition and travel across the US and Canada to play football.
During the NYCAFL metro competition, our Magpie Women are drafted into two teams, The Subway Sirens & The Bodega Cats. This is a great friendly and competitive way to learn the game and meet your team mates!
To find out more about the New York Magpies’ women or to play for the team please contact womensfooty@newyorkmagpies.com.
You can also find out more info at the New York Magpies Meetup Group to find out about the latest events on and off the field.
Men’s Divison
During the NYCAFL metro competition, our Magpie Men are drafted into three teams, The Time Square Pizza Rats, Village Bohemians & Suburban Tollmen Trash.
2021 USAFL Eastern Regional Champions
2021 USAFL National’s Runners Up