Footy training for Alice Springs & Central Australia
The CAFL has produced AFL players including Darryl White, Joel Bowden and Liam Jurrah. Unlike Darwin, Alice Springs plays through the winter — which means the pre-season lands in desert heat.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.
Footy in Central Australia runs through the Central Australian Football League, based in Alice Springs. Its senior men’s competition has five town clubs — Federal, Pioneer, Rovers, South Alice Springs and West Alice Springs — alongside a women’s competition, a Community League of clubs from remote communities such as Papunya, Yuendumu and Hermannsburg, and under-18 boys’, under-17 girls’ and under-15 boys’ grades. It plays through winter: the 2025 community grand final was on 24 August and the senior men’s on 13 September.
Which club your address belongs to
The NT Academy runs the Territory’s talent pathway.
- NT Academy
- Formerly NT Thunder Academy. Under-16 and under-18 boys’ and girls’ teams that play selected Talent League games — four in 2026 — without being eligible for the premiership.
AFL NT can confirm this season’s Academy programs and any Central Australian sessions.
The competitions
- CAFL senior men
- Five town clubs: Federal, Pioneer, Rovers, South Alice Springs and West Alice Springs.
- CAFL senior women
- Five clubs, since 2022.
- CAFL Community League
- Clubs from remote communities including Papunya, Yuendumu and Hermannsburg.
- CAFL junior grades
- Under-18 boys, under-17 girls and under-15 boys.
Set it up for Central Australia
Four things, in the order the app asks them. None of them needs a coach.
Choose footy, then your team nights
Onboarding asks “When do you train with your team?” Pick your club nights — CAFL senior men or wherever you play — and your gym and conditioning are scheduled around them, lighter the day after a big one. Tell it your equipment and any niggles and every exercise is fitted to both.
Match the program to your league’s start
The CAFL plays through winter, so the app’s default footy calendar broadly fits. If your first game is later than March, hold the pre-season longer by setting the phase yourself. The phase lives in Program → Your year.
Know your numbers on day one
Your first testing session is ready immediately: 2km time trial, Bench press 1RM, Max pull-ups, Trap-bar deadlift 1RM, Running vertical jump. It is re-run every 8 weeks, and the results re-price your training weights and conditioning paces.
Put your suburb on the board
In Social → Town, set where you train. Your minutes count toward that town’s weekly conditioning and strength top-10 boards — only the town is kept, never your location.
What you start with, by the month you join
Every block is four weeks — three building, one deload — so a free month is one complete block.
The footy year in Central Australia
- October
- Off-season. Rest, then rebuild general strength.
- November – February
- Pre-season, in desert heat. Aerobic base first, trained at the coolest times of day.
- March
- Final preparation. Practice matches and testing.
- April – September
- Season, through cold desert winters, with grand finals in late August and September. Volume comes down, weights hold.
Desert heat, freezing winter nights
Alice Springs summers are extremely hot and dry, and winter nights drop below freezing. Train the pre-season at first light, treat heatwave weeks as extra load and follow the Sports Medicine Australia heat guidelines; in winter, a thorough warm-up on a cold ground is part of the session.
Coaching a side in Central Australia?
A club licence is A$8 per player, per month (minimum 5), and every player on it gets full Train Smart membership at no cost to them. You write the block once, it lands in each player’s app, and the console shows who actually did it.
Footy in Central Australia: questions
What clubs are in the CAFL?
When is the CAFL season?
Where these facts come from
Checked September 2026. Zones, grades and dates change — if something here is out of date, the governing body is right and we are wrong.
Nearby and related
Turn up to round one already fit
Pick footy, tell it your team nights, and your first block and testing session are ready before you leave the car park.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.