Australian Rules football (also known as “Aussie Rules” or “Footy”) was first played in Alberta in 2002 with the formation of the Calgary Kangaroos Australian Football Club. After several years of participation in inter-provincial tournaments, the Calgary Kangaroos were joined by the Red Deer Magpies and Calgary Bears to establiash a vibrant local league in Calgary and the Edmonton Wombats were then formed starting a budding Alberta rilvary.
Currently, both the Edmonton Wombats & Emus and Calgary Kangaroos & Kookaburras exist as the representative mens and womens clubs in their respective cities. The Calgary local competition includes two men’s teams, the Bears and Cowboys and two womens teams the Kingfishers and Knighthawks, and the Edmonton local competition includes the Grizzlies, Dingoes and Bison teams on both the mens and womens side, all of which highlights the growing popularity of Australian rules football in Alberta.
Women's footy commenced in Alberta in 2007 with the formation of the Calgary Kookaburras club, which competes against the Edmonton Emus in interprovincial competition. Women’s footy in Alberta continues to grow with a combined sixteen women from both the Calgary Kookaburras and Edmonton Emus representing Team Canada at the 2014 AFL International Cup in Melbourne, Australia in both Team Canada’s premier and development teams.
Alberta footy teams have enjoyed success at inter-provincial and national levels. The Calgary Kangaroos won division two of the US Nationals in 2009, and the Calgary Kookaburras won the US Nationals women's division title in 2008 and the Canadian Nationals title in 2009.
The junior program in Alberta has grown tremendously over the past 5 seasons with the Calgary Kangaroos leading the way. AFL Alberta has supported this growth through the Calgary Summer Jobs Program where AFL Alberta was able to hire post secondary students to run school and community Auskick programs within Calgary which saw 27,000 students exposed to Aussie Rules Footy in 2019.
AFL Alberta oversees Australian football programs in the province, including the hosting junior clinics, field acquisition and the establishment of new clubs in the Rocky Mountains region.