AFL or "Footy" for friends

I am not a huge sport fan and my days spent in the stadium in Bremen to watch my favourite soccer team Werder Bremen (am Weserstadion jungs!) date back 10+ years ago, but sport is always an expression of a particular population and part of a culture, so when my colleague Ed mentioned he is a big fan of “Footy” (Australian Football League) I wanted to know more. Ed was kind enough to attempt an explanation but my only take-away point was that Footy is similar to Rugby :-S

In accordance to my self-imposed more open attitude given the new country I am living in, I enthusiastically asked Ed to join him next time he would go see his favourite team from Melbourne (where he originally comes from).

The day arrived and the crew was made up of the 2 of us, Charlotte (Ed's wife) and Blair, another colleague from our same team who would support the opponents of Carlton (from Melbourne), the Sydney Swans.

The night could have not be more inappropriate due to adverse weather conditions: pouring rain on Sydney. Obviously our seats were chosen for their proximity to the pitch and not for their better protection in case of rain.

But for the ridicolous price of 5 bucks ladies and gents here at your disposal a piece of plastic with few holes! Run people before they are sold out!

The game was pretty long (3 hours alltogether), it was pleasant to watch after I understood the basic rules. The objective of the game is to score points by passing the ball through the opponent's goal. The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the major goal posts (there are 4 posts that create 3 spaces, if the ball goes through the space in the middle it is 6 points worth, if it goes in the lateral 2 is just 1 point). The players use any part of their body to move the ball. The primary methods are kicking, handballing and running with the ball. What I found weird is that throwing the ball is NOT allowed, players can pass the ball by hitting it with a fist bottom up. A distinctive feature of the game is the mark, where players anywhere on the field who catch a ball from a kick (with specific conditions), are awarded a free kick.

And what differences with Rugby are concerned, Rugby is a very tough game where power and strength are the main elements and where the direction of the game is bi-directional – back and forth – whereas Australian Football fans appreciate this game because they find it have a stronger balance between power, skills, courage and endurance. The balls have the same shape though.

The game of that night started to become more interesting after the second half. In the first half, Sydney Swans were up 20 points, Blair was giggling and boasted it was a sure win. Ed was stumping his feet, half-mouthed admitting a turn around would be unlikely although he kept his fingers crossed behind his back. But back from the break, Carlton found renewed vigour and carried out an unforgettable recovery. During all this, the core part of the Melbourne team (where of course we were sitting) who in vast majority travelled 800 kilometres, never stopped to shout both at their team AND at the referees. What I also noticed is that the attendance to the stadium was high and broad: I have never seen so many elderly people go to the stadium and take the game personally!

The stadium is nice and the surrounding area as well, with palms and lakes – Moore Park is its name, in the southern part of Sydney but not too far from city centre as we walked there deciding to follow the croud, until the point where we found ourselves following one family after the crowd dispersed. :-D

Ed just participated to one historical game and very important for the season ranking, I was there with him, I met his lovely Swedish wife, discovered a lot about footy and had fun observing people and Ed getting excited; an excellent night I would say, with a sentence to close both the night and the article: “Carlton wins and Sydney Swans....BACK TO THE LAKE!”