The AFL National Championships is an annual Australian national underage Australian rules football tournament run by the Australian Football League (AFL). Along with the Talent League, it forms one of the main junior pathways to the fully professional national club competition. Since 2017 it has been run as two competitions - an AFL National Under-18 Boys for the AFL and AFL National Championships – U18 Girls for the AFL Women's. The current format gives national draft recruiters a chance to witness the most talented underage players from around the country without requiring them to relocate to Melbourne and play with a Talent League club.
Beginning as the Teal Cup in Brisbane in 1953 as a junior representative competition between the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales it expanded nationally in 1976.
The state representative division is contested in a hybrid format. The best Under-19 players from AFL club junior academies combine to form an 'Allies' team to contest Division 1 against representative teams from 3 of the traditional powerhouse football states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. With a lack of interstate representative football at senior level since 1999, the National Championships were one of the few opportunities for players to play for their state or territory. With the shift towards academies, few of the states and territories are represented, though the Tasmania Devils Academy and Northern Territory Academy field standalone Under 16 boys sides and Queensland fields girls sides in all age levels. State and club representatives typically share the senior team's guernsey (with the exception of Victorian teams, which play in variations of the state team guernsey—Vic Metro has a light blue Big V insignia, while Vic Country plays in a reverse white with navy Big V).
History Before the current competition the main underage competition was schools based. The Australian Schoolboys Championship (also known as the Australian Schoolboys National Football Carnival or ASSNFC) run by the Australian Schools Sports Council (ASSC) ran from 1923. By 1925 there were teams in every Australian state. However, in of Queensland and New South Wales as other football codes, particularly rugby league and rugby union took increasing hold in public and private schools respectively most juniors there had no other choice but to play for a club. New South Wales in particular for many years could send strong enough Public Schools Amateur Athletic Association sides without including players from the Australian Capital Territory. While Queensland had sufficient numbers of schoolboys playing the game to regularly send sides, it experienced no success and league administrators and local schoolteachers there struggled for recognition as Queensland was increasingly seen as rugby territory.
The Australian National Football Council saw the need for a competition to fill this gap and Bruce Andrew, its Queensland based field officer is credited directly with its establishment securing funding, organising team travel and standardising rules.Bruce Andrew’s remarkable football life By Michael Roberts for collingwoodfc.com.au 15 April 2021 A trophy donated by the Teal family of Queensland and a new competition to be known as the Teal Cup would allow junior representatives from the two states to challenge each other. The first match was held in Brisbane, Queensland in 1953. From 1963 it became an annual contest.
The Australian Capital Territory was the first other side to enter in 1973. With the addition of teams from each Australian state and mainland territory in 1976, the tournament was rebranded as the National Championships and rotated between host cities. The championships were split into two divisions with the strongest states including Victoria (later split into two sides: Vic Metro and Vic Country) comprising Division 1. Papua New Guinea was the first other country to field a team in 1979.In the absence of a national league, and less regular senior competition, it grew into one of the most important competitions in the country. Early on it was an Under-17 competition, however the age limit has been progressively increased and separate junior championships added for Under-15 level (commencing as the Shell Cup, now the AFL National Development Championships) from the 1970s onwards. It was a major talent pathway for underage players outside Victoria to the VFL.
As part of the AFL Commission's role as national governing body, the Victorian TAC Cup competition was restructured in 1992 to become the primary pathway to the AFL. As a result, representative development sides from NSW/ACT and Tasmania for a time have played in that competition instead.
In 1996 the AFL Commission and the Australian Schools Sports Council (ASSC) formed the Under-16 National Championships as a joint initiative, forming a national junior competition. As part of this restructuring, the AFL lifted the Teal Cup age limit from under 17 to under 18 to form a pathway transition from national junior to senior development. It also resulted in national recognition by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) similar to that achieved by Football Federation Australia with the All-Australian underage teams as the AFL Academy touring Ireland to play International Rules football.
In later years, especially with the discontinuation of the AIS elite high-performance partnership and accelerated growth of the sport outside Victoria, the National Championships regained status as a primary AFL recruitment pathway.
In 2017 the AFL again restructured the competition, replacing division 2 with an Under-19 Academy Series. Instead of state representative teams, this new division would feature squads formed from the 4 Queensland and NSW AFL clubs' academies in addition to Northern Territory and Tasmania state teams.
In 2021 the entire competition was changed to under-19s (the competition has previously operated under-17s and under-18s competitions).
Winners and awards Individual awards The Larke Medal is awarded to the best player in Division 1 of the competition. It is named in honour of a junior footballer, Michael Larke, who was killed in a bus crash while attending a trial match for New South Wales. The Hunter Harrison Medal is awarded to the best player in Division 2 and is named in honour of a former president and life member of the Northern Territory Football League, Hunter Harrison, who played a major role in the development of the AFL Youth Championships. Each tournament, an underage All-Australian team is named; an MVP is also named for each team.
Past winners Year Division 1 Premiers Larke Medal Division 2 Premiers Hunter Harrison Medal Host/s 1953 Queensland Brisbane, Queensland 1954–1962 Not contested 1963 Queensland 1964 Queensland1965 Queensland1966 Queensland1967 Queensland1968 Queensland 1969 Queensland Brisbane, Queensland1970 Queensland 1971 Queensland 1972 Queensland 1973 Queensland Sydney, New South Wales 1974 New South Wales Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 1975 New South Wales Brisbane, Queensland 1976 Victoria Mick Woods (Vic) Wagga Wagga, New South Wales 1977 Victoria Rodney Watts (Vic) Melbourne, Victoria 1978 South Australia Mark Weideman (SA) Brisbane, Queensland 1979 South Australia Grant Campbell (WA) Hobart, Tasmania 1980 South Australia Darryl Murphy (ACT) Perth, Western Australia 1981 Victoria Paul Salmon (Vic) Melbourne, Victoria 1982 Victoria Michael Phyland (NSW) Brisbane, Queensland 1983 Victoria Greg Anderson (SA) Darwin, Northern Territory 1984 Victoria David Condon (NSW) Sydney, New South Wales 1985 Western Australia Jason Kerr (NSW) Perth, Western Australia 1986 Victoria Stephen Lawrence (Qld) Adelaide, South Australia 1987 Victoria Steven Kolyniuk (Vic) Hobart, Tasmania 1988 Victoria Robbie Wright (NSW) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 1989 Vic Country Ray Windsor (Qld) Melbourne, Victoria 1990 Vic Metro Paul Williams (Tas) Brisbane, Queensland 1991 South Australia Robert Neill (ACT) Darwin, Northern Territory 1992 Vic Metro Daniel Southern (WA) Vic Country Michael Voss (Qld) Melbourne, Victoria 1993 Vic Metro Shaun McManus (WA) New South Wales Mark Ryan (NT) Adelaide, South Australia 1994 Vic Metro Daniel Harford () Vic Country Michael Martin (Tas) Perth, Western Australia 1995 South Australia Luke Godden () Ben Setchell () Western Australia Steven Koops (NT) Riverina District 1996 Vic Metro Pat Steinfort () Tasmania Matthew Bernes (Tas) Melbourne, Victoria 1997 Vic Metro Tim Finocchiaro () Queensland Fred Campbell (NT) Melbourne, Victoria 1998 Vic Metro Garth Taylor (WA) / NSW/ACT Shane Young (Qld) Derek Murray (NSW/ACT) Adelaide, South Australia 1999 Western Australia Paul Hasleby (WA) Queensland Brad Green (Tas) Brisbane, Queensland 2000 Vic Country Kayne Pettifer () / NSW/ACT Ian Callinan (Tas) Melbourne, Victoria 2001 Vic Metro Sam Power () Steven Armstrong (WA) Tasmania Tom Davidson (Tas) Melbourne, Victoria 2002 Vic Metro Byron Schammer (SA) / NSW/ACT Anthony Corrie (NT) Melbourne, Victoria 2003 Vic Country Kepler Bradley (WA) / NSW/ACT Jake Furfaro (Qld) Melbourne, Victoria 2004 Vic Metro Jesse Smith () Northern Territory Richard Tambling (NT) Melbourne, Victoria 2005 Vic Metro Marc Murphy () Tasmania Grant Birchall (Tas) Melbourne, Victoria 2006 Vic Metro Tom Hawkins () Queensland Ricky Petterd (Qld) Melbourne, Victoria 2007 Western Australia Cale Morton (WA) / NSW/ACT Craig Bird (NSW/ACT) VIC, WA, SA, NSW 2008 Vic Metro Jack Watts () Tasmania Mitch Robinson (Tas) VIC, WA, SA, TAS 2009 Western Australia David Swallow (WA) Andrew Hooper () / NSW/ACT Dylan McNeil (NSW/ACT) All states 2010 Vic Country Harley Bennell (WA) Tasmania Sam Darley (Tas) All states 2011 Vic Metro Stephen Coniglio (WA) Tasmania John McKenzie (Tas) All states 2012 Vic Metro Lachie Whitfield () Northern Territory Jake Neade (NT) All states 2013 South Australia Dom Sheed (WA) Tasmania Liam Dawson (Qld)Kade Kolodjashnij (Tas)Toby Nankervis (Tas) All states 2014 South Australia Christian Petracca () / NSW/ACT Isaac Heeney (NSW/ACT) VIC, WA, SA, NSW 2015 Vic Country Josh Schache () Queensland Ben Keays (Qld) VIC, WA, SA, QLD 2016 Vic Metro Jack Graham (SA) / NSW/ACT Jack Bowes (Qld) All states 2017 Vic Metro Oscar Allen (WA) (Replaced by Academy Series) Nick Blakey () VIC, WA, SA, NSW 2018 South Australia Sam Walsh () Tarryn Thomas (Tas) VIC, SA, QLD 2019 Western Australia Deven Robertson (WA) Connor Budarick () VIC, NSW, SA 2020Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemicSimply Energy WA U18s squad announced West Australian Football Commission 18 September 20202021Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemicUPDATE: Second WA v SA U19 clash looms, Vic season cancelled By Callum Twomey 3 September 2021 2022 Vic Metro Will Ashcroft () (Replaced by Academy Series) Jaspa Fletcher () All mainland states 2023 Allies Ryley Sanders (Allies) Ethan Read () VIC, WA, SA, QLD 2024 Vic Metro Harvey Langford (Vic Metro), Leo Lombard (Allies) Zeke Uwland (GC A.) All mainland states 2025 South Australia Dyson Sharp (SA) Taj Murray (NT) All mainland states
Recent Placings (2002–Present)
Division 1 Season Winner Second Third Fourth 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Season Winner Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth 2008 2009
Season Winner Second Third Fourth 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Season Winner Second Third Fourth Fifth 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Not contested due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 Not contested due to the COVID-19 pandemic 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Division 2 (1992–2016) Season Winner Second Third Fourth 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Teams moved to Division 1 for the 2009 Championships 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Academy Series (2017–2018) Season Winner Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth 2017 2018
Northern Academy Series (2019–present)