Aussie Rules players suspended during the season for disciplinary breaches are ineligible from the sport's top award, the Brownlow Medal.

BBC: Australia: What the rest of the world gets wrong

"I have used it in a number of stadiums without issue and it is used every week in Aussie rules, rugby union and rugby league, " he said.

CNN: Navigating injury: Can GPS help reduce player burnout?

That comment is almost sure to rile up Victorians, Western Australians, Tasmanians and South Australians, many of whom will be devotees of the rival code, Aussie Rules (AFL).

BBC: State of Origin

Victoria and South Australia are bastions of Aussie Rules.

BBC: Australia: What the rest of the world gets wrong

Since the release of the report, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) has informed six rugby league teams (Manly, Cronulla, Newcastle, Canberra, North Queensland and Penrith) and one Aussie Rules club (Essendon) that they are under investigation.

BBC: Is Australian sport badly broken?

Despite this city being home to one of the best rugby league club teams in the world in the last few years, albeit with a now tarnished reputation, Melbournians are far more in love with Aussie rules than rugby league.

BBC: England await stern Melbourne examination

Rather like Aussie Rules teams, beers increasingly pop up in places where you would not normally expect them - the New South Wales rugby league is presently sponsored by Victoria Bitter, for instance - but regional drinking habits still die hard.

BBC: The amber nectar

In determining which Saturday to choose in September, Ms Gillard also admitted that avoiding a clash with the Aussie rules grand final in Melbourne, one of the biggest sporting events of the year, was a major consideration, reports the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney.

BBC: Gillard sets Australia poll date of 14 September