Danish Australian Football League

DAFL is often considered the largest and most successful Australian Rules football competition outside the English speaking world with hundreds of participants playing on tailor-made ovals each weekend across the country. In 2013 Aksel Bang, a product of the DAFL, accepted an international scholarship from AFL club Greater Western Sydney giants.

In 1989 Mick Sitch (cousin of Rob Sitch[1]) placed an advertisement in a Danish newspaper asking if there were any interested parties who would like to meet him for a kick-to-kick in Fælledparken, a public park in Copenhagen. In addition to Mick, two other people turned up, a Dane, Robbie Larsen, and Steve McCay were present at the first informal training session, which formed the basis of a future league. In 1990 regular training sessions were held, with numbers swelling to the point where the players split themselves into three groups with the intention of starting a competition the following year.

The foundation clubs of the league were the Amager Tigers, Copenhagen Crocodiles and North Copenhagen Barracudas. Official league play began on June 8, 1991 with North Copenhagen taking on Copenhagen. In 1993, the next team to join the league were the Aalborg Kangaroos, based in northern Jutland and around six hours' travel from Copenhagen, followed in 1994 by the Helsingborg Saints in southern Sweden.

1995 saw two new expansion sides, the Farum Lions forming in the Copenhagen suburbs and a group leaving the Helsingborg Saints to found Sweden's second team, the Lund Bulldogs. Lund folded during the 1995 season, the number of clubs remaining at six until the Århus Bombers join the league in 1997 as the second side in Jutland.

With no new teams since 1997 and player numbers decreasing for the first time, the DAFL restructured its competition in 2003. The concept was based on more games between more (and smaller) teams - with three conferences making up the league. These were to be the Jutland Conference and the Zealand Conference in Denmark and the Scania Conference in Sweden. Clubs would be split into smaller squads and representative sides from the three conferences would play a regional series. The champion sides of each conference would then play a Denmark/Scania wide finals series to determine DAFL premiers.

This format was then reinvented a second time in 2005. Instead of adding a new level above the regular league play, as had been the case in 2003, the new league replaced the regional series with the club-based DAFL Premier League. The Premier League teams in 2007 are the North Copenhagen Barracudas, Farum Cats, Copenhagen Crocodiles, Jutland Shinboners, Port Malmö Maulers and the South Sweden Saints. Sides in the Premier League draw their players from four local leagues, based on North Zealand, Copenhagen, Jutland and Scania.

In 2011, prior to the 2012 season, the DAFL constitution was rewritten, changing the way DAFL is run. DAFL now has a board and they put down a league committee to run the actual league. This is to free up time for the board to focus on spreading knowledge of Australian Rules Football. The committee has a member from each club in the league, while the board has four members; a president, a vice president, a cashier and an Elite Committee President, who as the title suggests is the president of the DAFL Elite Committee, who is responsible for the Danish national team as well as tryouts for European teams.

The current (2015) president is Simon Malone. The vice president is Gavin Ward, the treasurer is Laszlo Peter Horvath and the Elite and Development Committee President is Morten Merhøj. In 2016 Maria Falkesgaard Jørgensen will replace Gavin Ward as vice president and Frederik Bøgeskov Schmidt will replace Laszlo Peter Horwath as treasurer

The teams that competed in the 2015 DAFL Premier League were Aalborg Kangaroos, Port Malmö Mailers, Copenhagen Barracudas, Copenhagen Giants, Odense Lions and reigning premiers Farum Cats. This brings the total number of teams to 6, 1 less than 2014 with the withdrawal of Helsingborg Saints. Copenhagen Giants won their first flag, coming into the finals placed fourth (due to better percentage than Port Malmö Maulers) and beating Aalborg Kangaroos in the Grand Final.

The North Copenhagen Barracudas were a foundation club of the DAFL, playing in every season since the league started in 1991. After the 2003 league restructure, the club fielded two senior sides, the Barras and the Cudas. After the 2005 restructure, the club fielded the Barracudas team in the DAFL Premier League and two squads in the Copenhagen local league until 2014.

The Copenhagen Crocs were also a foundation club of the Danish Australian Football League and have played (in some form) in every season of the DAFL since it began in 1991. With the league restructure in 2005, the Crocs fielded a combined side with the Amager Tigers in the DAFL Premier League, dubbed the Copenhagen Hawks. The Crocs traditionally wore the colours of the Carlton Blues from the AFL. The Crocodiles returned to the Premier League in 2006. The Copenhagen Crocs are now part of Copenhagen Australian Football

The Amager Tigers, based in Amager in the southern Copenhagen urban area, were formed as the third foundation club of the DAFL, competing in every season (in some form) from 1991 to 2005. The Tigers had the most successful premiership record of any club in the DAFL, however they often struggled for year-to-year consistency, with premiership years followed by a finish near the bottom of the ladder. After the 2005 DAFL restructure, Amager fielded a combined side with the Copenhagen Crocodiles for play in the DAFL Premier League, to be named the Copenhagen Hawks. In early 2006 they announced that they would not field any teams that season, but may do so again in future. As of 2014 they are now a part of Copenhagen Australian Football.

East Coast Bulldogs was a newer team in the DAFL based in Greve, who never entered the Premier League, but played in DAFL Sjælland 9's. The club was founded by formed Farum player Gavin Hollingworth but was folded due to lack of time and playerbase.

Denmark's national representative team are known as the Vikings. They have played a number of international fixtures dating back to the 1990s.

They competed in the Australian Football International Cup in Melbourne, finishing a respectable fourth behind Ireland, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. The Vikings withdrew from the 2005 International Cup due to lack of funds, although they returned to the 2008 International Cup.

In 2014 and 2015 the Vikings have won back to back AFL Europe Euro Cup victories, after finishing as runners up in 2012.

* Best on ground in Grand Final

• 1991 Kim Madsen (Amager)
• 1992 Aaron Ravenarki (Copenhagen)
• 1993 Ian Moore (North Copenhagen)
• 1994 Rick Ellis (Amager)
• 1995 Jesper Gjørup (Aalborg)
• 1996 Jesper Gjørup (Aalborg)
• 1997 Shaun Hawking (Amager)
• 1998 Mogens Hansen (North Copenhagen)
• 1999 Duncan Milward (Aalborg)
• 2000 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)
• 2001 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)
• 2002 Andreas Svensson (Helsingborg)
• 2003 Páll Tómas Finnsson (Aalborg Kangaroos)
• 2004 Mogens Hansen (North Copenhagen Cudas)
• 2005 Frederik Schulin (Jutland)
• 2006 Christian Rose (Farum)
• 2007 Tim Feldtmann (North Copenhagen)
• 2008 Tim Feldtmann (North Copenhagen)
• 2009 Steve Wood (North Copenhagen)
• 2010 Nick Ingall (North Copenhagen)
• 2011 James Coumans (Farum)
• 2012 Mathias Biron (Farum)
• 2013 Troels Ottesen (Farum)
• 2014 Aksel Bang (Aalborg)
• 2015 Aksel Bang (Aalborg)
• 2016 William Andersen (Farum)
• 2017 Thore Lauritzen (Farum)
• 2018 Aksel Bang (Aalborg)
• 2019 Mikkel Kjøge (Farum)
• 2020 William Andersen (Farum) and Chris Campion (Farum)

• List of Australian rules football leagues outside Australia

• Official DAFL website
• Miscellaneous records
• Aalborg Kangaroos
• Farum Australsk Fodbold
• Copenhagen Australian Football
• Port Malmö Maulers