All Australia

The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each Australian Football League (AFL) season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, traditionally led by that season's premiership coach. The concept of an All-Australian team originated as recognition of performance in interstate football. They were named after each Australian National Football Carnival, beginning with the 1953 Adelaide Carnival. In the 1980s All-Australian teams were named annually to recognise the best performers in State of Origin series. Following the AFL's expansion to a national competition with teams in multiple states, the first AFL All-Australian team was named in 1991. Despite the name's implication, the All-Australian team is usually ceremonial in modern times. Though the AFL played an All-Star match in 2020, it was the first in 12 years, and the difference in skill level between the All-Australian team and the nearest international competitor is currently too large for any contest to be competitive. Despite this, some of these players have represented Australia in AFL Academy junior teams up to the age of 18, as more than two-thirds of all AFL Academy representatives have gone on to play at senior AFL level. From 1998 to 2004, the Australian international rules team was mainly composed of All-Australians, and from 2005 to 2013 the team for the annual International Rules Series was selected according to the quite different requirements of International rules football. This change was reverted ahead of the 2014 series, with any player who had been selected at least once in any All-Australian team being eligible for selection.

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