Auskick in Australia: What Age, What It Costs and When 2027 Registration Opens
23 September 2026
Your child can start NAB AFL Auskick in the calendar year they turn five, and the AFL's own program pages put the core program at ages four to seven. Western Australian Football publishes the only floor price we could find anywhere in the country: costs "start at $65 and range upward dependant on location", for a season of 10 to 14 weeks. At one-hour sessions, that is about $4.64 to $6.50 an hour — and in five states the government sports voucher your family may already be entitled to is worth more than the whole registration.
The date most parents want is the one nobody has published yet. Registrations for the 2026 season opened on 1 November 2025. The 2027 date is not on play.afl as at 24 September 2026, so the honest answer is: watch from late October.
Key takeaways
- Start age: "Children can start playing NAB AFL Auskick in the year they turn 5." Western Australia adds a hard cutoff — the child must turn five by 30 June.
- Cost: from $65 in WA, the only published floor we found. Everywhere else the AFL says it "varies between locations and Centres".
- Per hour: roughly $4.64 to $6.50, derived from that $65 over a 10 to 14 week season of one-hour sessions.
- Vouchers: every state and territory except the ACT runs one. In WA, VIC, QLD, SA and NSW the annual voucher is worth 1.5 to 7.7 times the $65 floor price.
- Apply the voucher during registration. The AFL is explicit: it is "unable to accept a Government Sports Voucher once registration has been submitted" — get the code first.
- 2027 registration dates are not published yet. The 2026 season opened on 1 November 2025, and the AFL notes start dates differ by state and program type.
What age can my child start Auskick?
There are two answers on the AFL's own website, and the difference trips people up.
The Auskick program page describes it as being for ages four to seven, with "one-hour sessions run each week at a local footy ground or on-site after school, with the same familiar location throughout the program". Western Australian Football says the same thing in school terms: "Auskick is typically for children aged 4-7 years old (Pre-Primary – Year 2)."
The AFL's FAQ page is broader. It says children start "in the year they turn 5" and can take part "until they are 12", because "some States/Territories have different pathway options". Both statements are current. What it means in practice is that four is early, five is the standard start, and whether your centre runs Auskick past about seven depends on where you live.
If your child is already seven or older, the ladder above is the thing to read. The AFL lists Superkick for ages 7 to 12 as the step between Auskick and a club side, and local junior footy from age 7, in age groups running to 12, then youth footy from 13 to 18. Some places also run Kinderkick for three to five year olds — we list Kinderkick centres in Alice Springs, for instance.
Auskick groups children by age, and the AFL says "optional all-girls groups" are available. In our own directory, 194 of the listings we hold are tagged female footy specifically.
What does Auskick actually cost?
Almost nobody publishes a number. The AFL's FAQ says cost "varies between locations and Centres" and leaves it there. The one official floor price we could find in Australia is Western Australian Football's: "Costs will start at $65 and range upward dependant on location."
That same page says "the Auskick season runs for 10-14 weeks depending on your local centre", and the AFL's program page says sessions are one hour. So the cheapest Auskick season in the country works out at:
| Season length | Cost per one-hour session, at $65 |
|---|---|
| 14 weeks | $4.64 |
| 12 weeks | $5.42 |
| 10 weeks | $6.50 |
That is the figure worth carrying into any comparison you make with swimming lessons, gymnastics or a term of music. It is also, to be blunt about the limits, WA's floor — a metropolitan centre in another state may charge two or three times it, and we have no published basis to guess how much.
What the registration buys, in the AFL's own words, is "a unique pack of exclusive footy goodies, an Auskick Junior Club Membership for the AFL club of their choice (including access to games!) and the chance to play at half-time at AFL and AFLW elite matches". The club membership is the part parents tend not to notice on the invoice.
The voucher probably covers the whole thing
This is the part worth acting on, and it is the reason to sort out registration before you sort out boots.
The AFL states plainly that "all states and territories (except for ACT) provide Government Vouchers to help reduce the cost of kids' sport" and that it is "unable to accept a Government Sports Voucher once registration has been submitted" — so the voucher code has to be in hand before you hit register. We read five state program pages on 24 September 2026 and checked what each is worth against that $65 floor.
The detail, state by state, each figure read on its own government page today:
- Western Australia — KidSport. Up to $500 per financial year, and it can be split "across multiple KidSport Clubs". Children aged 5 to 18 named on a current Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card. New rounds begin 1 July; vouchers are valid for 90 days.
- Victoria — Get Active Kids. Up to $200 per child. Round 11 is open 15 September to 10am on 13 October 2026, or until the round is exhausted. Children aged 0 to 18 named on a valid Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card plus a Medicare card.
- Queensland — Play On! Sports Vouchers. Up to $200 for each child aged 5 to 17, one per financial year. The round opened 27 July 2026 and closes 18 December 2026 unless it is exhausted earlier; present it to your club by 18 June 2027. There is no income test in principle, but as at 24 September 2026 the open-to-all Medicare-card allocation for this round is already exhausted — applications are currently limited to Health Care Card and Pensioner Concession Card holders, and to hardship referrals.
- South Australia — Sports Vouchers. Two of $100 per child per calendar year, covering "sport, active recreation and music fees". Currently Reception to Year 9 — and the page now carries a change worth diarising: from 1 January 2027 all children aged 5 to 18 will be eligible.
- New South Wales — Active and Creative Kids. $50, twice a year, for families receiving Family Tax Benefit. One voucher is available from 15 January for use by 31 December that year; the second from 15 July, for use by 14 July the following year.
Two honest gaps. Tasmania's Ticket to Play and the Northern Territory's Sport Voucher Scheme both exist, but both program pages refused us on 24 September 2026 — a bot challenge, not a missing page — so we are not quoting their amounts here. And the ACT has no per-child sport voucher; ACT families should look instead at school-level cost help, which we cover in our state-by-state guide to help with school costs.
When does 2027 registration open?
The AFL has not published it. What it has published is the previous cycle: "Registrations for the 2026 NAB AFL Auskick season open on 1 November 2025." It also warns that "depending on the program type and State/Territory, registration start dates can operate at different times", so there is no single national date even once it lands.
The thing that surprises first-time footy families is the gap between paying and playing. Western Australian Football says the Auskick season "commences week 1 of school term 2 each year – typically end of April". Cross that against our own school term dates: Term 2 in Western Australia is gazetted to start on Monday 26 April 2027 — though WA's own calendar notes that Monday is expected to be a public holiday in lieu of ANZAC Day, which would make Tuesday 27 April the first day in class. A WA family registering in early November is signing up for something that begins nearly six months later.
Across the other states, Term 2 2027 begins Monday 12 April in Victoria and Queensland, Tuesday 13 April in the Northern Territory, and Monday 26 April in South Australia and Tasmania. New South Wales is the one to watch: its Term 2 opens with two School Development Days, so students are not back until Thursday 29 April; the ACT is similar, with students starting Wednesday 28 April. The "week one of Term 2" rule is Western Australian Football's statement rather than a national one — so treat these as the shape of the window, not a promise about your centre.
Auskick, Superkick or a junior club?
A seven-year-old sits in the overlap, which is exactly where the decision gets made.
Auskick is non-competitive, one hour, same ground every week, grouped by age. It is designed so a child who has never touched a football is not embarrassed.
Superkick (7 to 12) is the AFL's bridge: more of the real game, still a program rather than a season of fixtures.
Junior club footy (from 7) means a team, a ladder and a commitment that runs most Saturdays from around April to September. It also means the cost structure changes — club fees, and in most codes a uniform.
If your child is on the fence about team sport generally, the better first read is our guide to what sport suits a child aged 4 to 12, and if the answer turns out to be "not football", we have activities for kids who don't like sport. For what a season of any junior sport ends up costing a family once boots, travel and fees are counted, see how much kids' sport costs in Australia.
Where the programs actually are
We list 912 Auskick centres and junior football clubs across 711 Australian suburbs. These are named programs — "Mosman Auskick Centre", "Melville Junior Football Club" — not council ovals; none of the 912 is tagged as a park.
A few you can look at right now, each checked live today:
- Mosman Auskick Centre and St Ives Auskick Centre, on Sydney's north shore
- Queens Park Auskick Centre and Hurstville Dragons Auskick Centre in Sydney's east and south
- Penrith Giants Auskick Centre in the west
- Melville Junior Football Club in Perth's south
- Saturday Auskick Centre in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek Auskick Centre
Or start from what is already near you: Sutherland, Mosman, Broken Hill, Myaree and Alice Springs all have footy among their listed kids' activities, and you can browse every suburb we cover. The AFL's own centre finder on play.afl is the authoritative list of which centres are taking registrations for a given season — use ours to see what else is on in the same streets, and theirs to enrol.
For scale: across our whole directory, footy sits behind tennis (1,549 listings) and swimming (1,543), and ahead of soccer (687) and gymnastics (295). If you want the national picture of what children actually do outside school, we have published that too, from the Australian Sports Commission's survey data: what Australian kids actually do.
What we could not check
- The 2027 registration date. Not published anywhere on play.afl as at 24 September 2026. We have not guessed it from the 2026 pattern.
- A national price. Only WA Football publishes a floor. Every per-session figure in this article descends from that single $65 and is labelled as such.
- Tasmania and the Northern Territory voucher amounts. Both program pages returned a bot challenge to us on 24 September 2026. Blocked is not the same as absent — the schemes exist, we simply could not read today's figures.
- Victorian coverage in our own directory. We hold four footy listings in Victoria against 298 in New South Wales. That is a hole in our data, not a fact about Victorian football, and we would rather show you the gap than quietly average it away.
Frequently asked questions
What age is Auskick?
The AFL's program pages say ages four to seven, and its FAQ says children can start "in the year they turn 5" and continue "until they are 12" where a state or territory runs it that way. In Western Australia the child must turn five by 30 June.
How much does Auskick cost?
Western Australian Football publishes a floor of $65, "range upward dependant on location", for a 10 to 14 week season. The AFL says elsewhere that cost "varies between locations and Centres". At one-hour sessions the WA floor works out at $4.64 to $6.50 a session.
When do Auskick registrations open?
For the 2026 season they opened on 1 November 2025. The 2027 date has not been published as at 24 September 2026, and the AFL notes that start dates differ by state, territory and program type.
Can I use a government voucher for Auskick?
The AFL says every state and territory except the ACT provides one. Apply it during registration — the AFL is explicit that vouchers cannot be applied after you submit.
Is there a girls-only option?
Yes. The AFL says Auskickers "are grouped by age, with optional all-girls groups available".
What comes after Auskick?
Superkick for 7 to 12 year olds, or local junior club football from age 7, with age groups to 12 and youth football from 13 to 18.
How we checked
Every figure in this article was read at its own source on 24 September 2026: the AFL's Auskick program and FAQ pages and its Northern Territory program list on play.afl; Western Australian Football's NAB AFL Auskick page; and the government program pages for KidSport (WA), Get Active Kids (VIC), Play On! (QLD), Sports Vouchers (SA) and Active and Creative Kids (NSW). Per-session and multiple-of-the-floor figures are ours, derived from those published numbers and shown so you can redo the arithmetic.
Listing counts are live counts from the AroundSchools directory on the same day, covering active listings tagged Auskick, AFL or female footy and de-duplicated across those three tags. School term dates are the government student attendance dates we publish on our school holidays pages. Voucher rules change mid-year; check your state's page before you rely on an amount.
