OZ +4: Aussie Rules...OK!

It's Saturday afternoon and it must be sport!

For some reason, this brings back memories of the Grandstand theme music (after Swap Shop) and Egg and Chips dinner.

Anyway, it's football, but not as we know it. First of all, it's played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (or MCG, not to be confused with McG, the film director).



This is explained away by the fact that the game of Aussie Rules Football arose out of an exercise routine for the cricket team, hence it still being played on a cricket oval.

It's quite good to go to your first match not having any idea of the rules, such that they are. This means you really have to pay attention to what's happening to work out what's going on, how the scoring works etc...



Not that this strategy works because, after watching, I still have only a remote idea of what it was all about, beyond the fairly obvious bits involving two opposing teams wanting to get the ball between posts.

In normal invasion games, the teams start at different ends of the field, but in AFL, they can start where they like. The ball gets chucked up in the middle and then it's shifted around fairly randomly, some of it involving violence and tackling - even if the player doesn't have the ball. You can kick it, chuck it at other people and catch it and run with it (so long as you bounce it every so often).

It seems if you catch it when you're inside the arc markings near the posts, you can keep it and have a kick at the goal. Knowledgeable crowds wearing appropriately coloured scarves cheered when someone did this, so it must have been good.

Here is my action shot...



...which, if you've seen my ice hockey photos, you'll know is about as good as it gets.

We won (allying himself with Melbourne and adopting Mitchell and Webb "We won the football" phraseology) even though we weren't expected to, and that's another cultural opportunity ticked off the list.