Australian rules football exhibition matches

Exhibition matches in Australian rules football have been used to promote the game as a demonstration sport outside of its heartlands in Australia. Since its Victorian origin in 1859, the sport's beginnings in other states and territories (then separate colonies including New Zealand) has contributed to such matches being played since the 1880s, while the sports origins in other countries has been sometimes attributed to organised and scratch matches held since World War I. == Exhibition matches played outside Australia == === World War I === During World War I, Australian troops organised matches across Europe, in countries with the highest profile matches been played in the United Kingdom since 1916 but also one-off matches in other countries including Belgium and France (1919).

Source: Wikipedia — Australian rules football exhibition matches (CC BY-SA 4.0)