The Otago side will make its first trip to the national championships, in Auckland this weekend.
Otago will be one of five teams at the championships which have been going for more than five years.
The side is a combination of two teams which play in Dunedin and is coached by Otago Boys' High School teacher Warwick Kain, who also teaches Australian football at the school.
There are 18 players for each side in an Australian rules game, for which the field is about 180m long and 130m wide, in an oval shape. Otago is taking about 25 players to Auckland.
Mick Bruhn, a player and one of the organisers of the Otago team, said the sport was attractive to a lot of people as it combined skills from many sports.
The team is mostly made up of students though there are several high school pupils. They have been training up to three times a week at Logan Park for the past three months. The team is captained by Chris Bailey, who plays up front for the side.
The side played against Canterbury twice last year and was heavily beaten. Canterbury has won the national championships the past two years.
Bruhn said the trip was a bit of a journey into the unknown but the team wanted to simply play to the best of its ability.
It takes on Wellington and Canterbury today then Auckland and Waikato tomorrow.
The championships are played in a round-robin format. There is no final.
