page_title: Sport in Papua New Guinea
section_title: Australian Rules Football
hierarchical_section_title: Sport in Papua New Guinea / Australian Rules Football
caption_attribution_description: English: Scenes of jubilation as Papua New Guinea's Mosquitos celebrate taking the International Cup from New Zealand to become International champions.
context_page_description: Sport in Papua New Guinea is an important part of the national culture. Rugby league is the most popular sport in Papua New Guinea.
  Other popular sports include most football codes cricket, volleyball, softball, netball, and basketball. Other Olympic sports are also gaining popularity, such as boxing and weightlifting.
context_section_description: Australian rules football has experienced considerable growth over the past decade, boasting the second highest number of players in the world (after Australia). Australian rules football was introduced by Australian soldiers during World War II, but has gained popularity with the introduction of players at the top level into the AFL, including Mal Michael and James Gwilt.
  The Papua New Guinea national Australian rules football team (The Mosquitos) were crowned International champions in 2008, by defeating the previous title holders New Zealand. In 2008, they also led the international competition in overall medal placings, having previously won silver, in both 2002 and 2005.
  AFL-PNG is the governing body of the sport in Papua New Guinea.
caption: Scenes of celebration as Papua New Guinea are crowned International Australian Rules Football champions after defeating New Zealand in the 2008 Australian Football International Cup Grand Final.
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ5", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:05 07:06:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "418", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "6804", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "10474", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "33/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:09:05 07:06:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:09:05 07:06:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "72", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6652", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "432", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard"}