Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

is controlled by the Finland AFL, which formed in 2006 after the creation of Finland's first Australian football club around a year earlier. Domestic matches began in 2007 with two teams, the Helsinki Heatseekers and Salo Juggernauts. A third team, the Espoo Roos was created in 2008 but only lasted one season due to insufficient members. The remaining players joined the Helsinki team, but there are plans to revive Espoo in the future. A third standalone club, the

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

Dockers, was formed in late 2008 by Australian Ex-pats Craig Primmer and Grant Siermans. During the 2010 season, Helsinki players Mika Kupila and Kaj Karlsson who study in Vaasa decided to create a team in the city, the Vaasa Wombats, and they are hoping to join the league in 2011. The FAFL plays the European style Australian football which is played on soccer or American football fields and consists of 15 players on each team, with nine on the field and six on the interchange. The FAFL plays 15-minute quarters and also has a 40-metre scoring zone where all scores must be made from. The first full domestic season was played with three stand-alone teams in 2009. The Turku Dockers defeated Helsinki for the inaugural Finnish premiership. 2010 saw the Turku Dockers go back to back, but this time defeating the Salo Juggernauts. The Dockers completed the 'perfect season' by not losing a game for the entire year, with an average winning margin of 73 points. After the 2010 home and away season the first ever FAFL cup was held in Tali, Helsinki. Four teams competed on the day in a round robin style tournament that consisted of 12-minute halves. The Vaasa Wombats made their Australian Football debut against the Helsinki Heatseekers, losing by just 11 points. The Wombats scored their first win against the Salo Juggernauts in their second game of the day. The Turku Dockers won the tournament after defeating Helsinki in the final by 10 points. The Dockers were undefeated for the day, with close wins over Salo (6 points) and Helsinki (3 points) but more comfortably over Vaasa (27 points).

Post Pandemic

A shortened season was played in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Helsinki Heatseekers created a splinter team called the

Uusimaa Uusimaa (; , ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, alo ...

Roos for the 2020 season. At the end of the 2021 season the Waasa Wombats closed its doors permanently. From 2022 onwards only the Helsinki Heatseekers and the Turku Dockers contested the premiership. The format adopted for the season, which is still the current format, is a best of five matches between the two teams.

List of premiership winners

2009: Turku Dockers 11.13:79 dft Helsinki Heatseekers 8.7:55 2010: Turku Dockers 19.17:131 dft Salo Juggernauts 8.5:53 2011: Vaasa Wombats 13.16:94 dft Turku Dockers 5.5:35 2012: Helsinki Heatseekers 18.8:116 dft Turku Dockers 8.1:49 2013: Turku Dockers 14.12:96 dft Helsinki Heatseekers 7.11:53 2014: Turku Dockers 14.17:101 dft Helsinki Heatseekers 7.11:53 2015: Helsinki Heatseekers dft Turku Dockers

FAFL Tournament winners

2010: Turku Dockers 7.9:51 dft Helsinki Heatseekers 6.5:41 2013: Helsinki Heatseekers 10.8:68 dft Vaasa Wombats 2.2:14 2015: Helsinki Heatseekers 5.2:34 dft Turku Dockers 3.3:31

League Best and Fairest

2009: Mika Kupila (Helsinki Heatseekers) and Juuso Timosaari (Turku Dockers) 2010: Ville Koivunen (Salo Juggernauts) 2024: Kane Bennington (Helsinki Heatseekers)

Leagues leading goal kicker

2009: Juuso Timosaari, 29 goals (Turku Dockers) 2010: Juha Leino, 20 goals (Turku Dockers) 2011: Martin Coloe, 18 goals (Helsinki Heatseekers) 2012: Juuso Timosaari, 22 goals (Turku Dockers) 2013: Terry Ludeman, 22 goals (Helsinki Heatseekers) 2024: Grant Siermans, 9 goals (Turku Dockers)

League Records

Highest score: 26.18: 174, Vaasa Wombats vs Salo Juggernauts (2013) Most goals in a game: 10, Carl Steinfort (Helsinki Heatseekers, 2009) and Juha Leino (Turku Dockers, 2010) Career goals: Juuso Timosaari, 101 goals (Turku Dockers)

International matches

The Finland Icebreakers are the representative

team of

, formerly known as the Finnish Lions. They have twice won the Central European AFL Championships, going back-to-back in 2006 and 2007. While the team was started by Australian expatriates, it has been captained by a Finn ever since the 2nd match. Captains have included Kimmo Heikkilä, Jani Saarinen, Fredrik Romar and Ville Koivunen. The Icebreakers are now almost exclusively Finns. The old Finnish jumper was primarily blue, with a white rectangle in the centre with the blue cross of the Finnish flag through it, and the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

immediately below it. The current national jumper still has the flag as the predominant feature, but instead of the coat of arms, includes a stylized

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of fresh water ice more than long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an i ...

graphic. The Lions' first home game on 13 May 2006 was claimed as the northernmost international game of Australian rules ever played, being hosted in Helsinki, the northernmost capital of Europe, although this was later overtaken by the club in

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabit ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

2007

Finland participated in the 2007 EU cup in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

finishing six after a disappointing 2-point loss to Spain which would have seen them advance and be certain of a top four finish. Two Finnish players were voted into the All-European team, Grant Siermans who played with the Finland Icebreakers and Jari Pystynen who played with the EU Crusaders. Siermans was also the leading goal kicker for Finland booting 13 goals, which was the second most by any player during the day. In the strongest man competition, Izzy Barker won, completing the greatest number of push ups.

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

Brownlow medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

list

Jimmy Bartel James Ross Bartel (born 4 December 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A utility, tall and weighing , Bartel contributed as a midfielder, forward, an ...

visited Finland in October 2007, playing for the Salo Juggernauts following his AFL premiership season. In the game, he took a spectacular mark over an opposition ruckman and a difficult goal from the pocket. He was presented with the no.8 guernsey for the Finland national team.

2008

Finland made its

Australian Football International Cup The Australian Football International Cup (also known as the AFL International Cup or simply the IC) was an triennial international tournament in Australian rules football. It was the biggest international tournament in the sport that is open t ...

debut at the 2008 tournament. The Finns finished 14th out of the 16 competing nations, losing their first four matches, but then defeating fellow debutants

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in their final game of the tournament. Finland then sent a team to the 2008 EU Cup in Prague, even after having just sent a national team to the AFL International Cup in Australia. The team consisted of six Australians, one New Zealander, three Irish and only five Finns due to the financial burden the IC tournament put on many national players. Even so, the Finland Icebreakers under new coaches James Meek and Simon McGregor and captain Jani Saarinen performed well throughout the day and finished a place higher than the previous year defeating France in the final game of the day to finish fifth. Once again, Grant Siermans was voted into the All-European team after finishing second in the tournament vote count, and also took out the tournaments leading goal kicker with fifteen goals for the day. Mika Kupila performed well in the fast man competition finishing second.

2009

In 2009 Finland sent a team to the EU Cup in Croatia made up entirely of players who had learned the game in Finland. The squad consisted of 13 Finns, an Irishman and a Colombian. The team was coached by Grant Siermans and captained by Fredi Romar. The Icebreakers had two wins for the day, marginally beating Andorra and having a comfortable win over the Czech Republic. Finland performed well against eventual winners England, and were leading by 9 points at half time, the only team to be leading England at half time for the entire day. However, they lost to England and then were convincingly beaten by the Irish Exiles, leaving them in 8th position. Leading goal kicker for Finland was Juuso Timosaari who kicked 4 goals for the day and also registered some sort of scoring shot in all of the four games Finland played. Mika Kupila was rewarded for his consistent performances all day by being selected into the All-European team. Janne Hokkanen performed well in the strongest man competition finishing 3rd, whilst Siermans won the longest kick.

International Cup

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

: Did not compete *

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

: Did not compete *

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

: 14th *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

: Did not compete *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

: 14th

European Championships

*2010: 7th

External links

Turku Dockers

References

{{Australian Football International Cup

Fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...

Sport in Finland by sport