Recreational Football (also known as Rec Footy or Recreational Footy) was a non-contact version of the Australian rules football game first played in 2003 and later sanctioned by the Australian Football League's game development arm, it was inspired heavily by the growing popularity of tag rugby (in Australia known as Oztag). It was a more accessible version of Australian rules football that people could pick up and play. It was a mixed competition, with eight players on each team, accessible to players of both sexes, all shapes and sizes and requires minimal equipment to play. Rec Footy was criticised mainly by Australian rules players for appearing similar to netball and being too restrictive, lacking of ability for skilled footballers to run kick and play naturally whilst also penalising newer unskilled players with frequent turnovers. The AFL ceased promoting Rec Footy in 2011 officially replacing it with AFL 9s in 2016. AFL 9s is essentially similar but rebranded game which responded to many of the criticisms of Rec Footy to make it more similar to the traditional football. The obvious differences being the number of players and the equipment which were not popular aspects of Rec Footy. In AFL 9s tags are no long used in favour of umpiring touch similarly to touch football, bibs were replaced by more traditional football apparel, players are able to move more freely, run and bounce, evade players (with limitations) and kick longer but with specialist goal kickers signified by wrist bands. Maximum participation is encouraged through mixed and gender specific competitions. In mixed competition, female players are distributed across each zone to give players an equal opportunity to kick goals. Comparisons with Australian rules football Field size, number of players and duration of play Rec Footy teams were much smaller than Australian Rules Football, with two teams of 8. Unlike Australian Rules Football, unlimited number of interchange players were allowed. The field is also much smaller than an Australian Rules Football oval, consisting of a rectangular surface with a maximum length of 100 metres by 50 metres wide. Games were much shorter and do not consist of quarters, with only two 20 minute halves. Rule differences to encourage female participation The game encourages female participation, with a minimum of 3 female players per mixed side. In addition, teams were encouraged to play females in the forward line, with a goal kicked by a female