You were pretty close to the mark
, Faldage, except that the familiar diminutive for Australian Rules Football, which most fans just call football, is
footy.
Without getting too bogged down with the rules, here are a few comments in relation to the aspects that you mentioned.
A ball may be passed from one player to another by kick or "hand-ball"; to execute the latter the player must punch the ball out of one hand with the other hand. If a player catches a kick which covers more than 10 metres and hasn't been touched by another player, he has "taken a mark" and he has the option of going back several metres behind the "man on the mark" - in which case play is suspended until he continues - or "playing on" immediately. Compared to the style of play in vogue say 30 years ago, there is much more use of the "play on" option and of hand-balls, resulting in a faster, more entertaining game.
The strongholds of the sport have traditionally been the southern and western states of Australia (Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania) with the other states favouring rugby. But both sports have crossed into each other's territories of late, with Victoria's state competition having been expanded and rationalized to form the "Australian Football League", although still with a preponderance of Victorian teams.
