VU has academic experts on all matters relating to the AFL. We can help with player fitness, psychology or ethics, club management, football history and culture or the laws governing clubs and the code. 

Professor Football

Professor Football is the name given to a group of VU staff with expertise in a range of sport related fields, with a specific focus on AFL.

VU's School of Sport and Exercise Science and our new Institute for Sport, Exercise and Active Living (ISEAL) are home to many of these experts. We also have experts in psychology, communications, history and law whose work focuses on the AFL.

Search for them here under their expertise:

Players, fitness and sports science

Rob Aughey: Physiology, fitness and injury

Con Hrysomallis: Weight training, injury prevention and protective equipment

Kevin Ball: Biomechanics and skill acquisition

Footy culture and society

Tom Clark: Football commentary, writing and promotions

Matthew Klugman: The role of fans in sport and football as a religion

Robert Pascoe: Social history of the game

Bob Stewart: Fans, fandom and code management

John Weldon: Media relations, football culture, football humour

Margaret Trail: Football as performance, crowd-sound and sounds of sport media

Drugs, ethics and the law

Dennis Hemphill: Violence, player welfare and ethics of the sport

Matt Harvey: Football governance and politics

Footy history

Rob Hess: History of the game and its ethnic dimensions

Women in sport

Caroline Symons: Women in sport, gender, sexuality and homophobia