page_title: Football (ball)
section_title: Australian rules football
hierarchical_section_title: Football (ball) / Australian rules football
caption_attribution_description: English: A Sherrin Kangaroo Brand football.
context_page_description: A football is a ball inflated with air that is used to play one of the various sports known as football. In these games, with some exceptions, goals or points are scored only when the ball enters one of two designated goal-scoring areas; football games involve the two teams each trying to move the ball in opposite directions along the field of play.
  The first balls were made of natural materials, such as an inflated pig bladder, later put inside a leather cover, which has given rise to the American slang-term "pigskin". Modern balls are designed by teams of engineers to exacting specifications, with rubber or plastic bladders, and often with plastic covers. Various leagues and games use different balls, though they all have one of the following basic shapes:
  a sphere: used in association football and Gaelic football
  a prolate spheroid: used in the rugby codes and Australian football
  a lemon-shaped ball: used in gridiron football
  The precise shape and construction of footballs is typically specified as part of the rules and regulations.
context_section_description: The football used in Australian football is similar to a rugby ball but generally slightly smaller and more rounded at the ends, but more elongated in overall appearance, being longer by comparison with its width than a rugby ball. A regulation football is 720–730 millimetres (28–29 in) in circumference, and 545–555 mm (21.5–21.9 in) transverse circumference, and inflated to a pressure of 62–76 kPa (9.0–11.0 psi). In the AFL, the balls are red for day matches and yellow for night matches.
  The first games of Australian football were played with a round ball, because balls of that shape were more readily available. In 1860, Australian football pioneer Tom Wills argued that the oval rugby ball travelled further in the air and made for a more exciting game. It became customary in Australian football by the 1870s.
  The Australian football ball was invented by T. W. Sherrin in 1880, after he was given a misshapen rugby ball to fix. Sherrin designed the ball with indented rather than pointy ends to give the ball a better bounce.
  Australian football ball brands include Burley, Ross Faulkner, and Sherrin (the brand used by the Australian Football League).
caption: An Australian rules football by Sherrin
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2048", "Image ImageLength": "1536", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG", "Image Model": "GT-S6310T", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385", "Image DateTime": "2015:07:15 15:05:34", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2330", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "320", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Rotated 180", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5060", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "19624", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/83", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:07:15 15:03:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:07:15 15:03:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "69/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "279/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "4896", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4168"}