Mullets, tank tops and punch ups

Friday night was footy night!! This weekend I finally experienced my first taste of live and up close Aussie Rules football (or AFL as they call it), yes that weird game where a bunch of guys mostly with mullets wearing tank tops and ridiculously small shorts kick and throw an egg shaped ball around with the odd punch up thrown in.

On the lead up to the game I was quite excited as I love any live sport (well most of them) and I’d seen a bit of the old Aussie rules on the ‘telecast’ (apparently that’s what you call it over here!!).

The game in question was Geelong vs Sydney Swans (AKA the Seagulls as I call them) at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) which is a great venue for live sport. Charlotte and I had been to see Twenty20 cricket here a few years ago and it’s definitely one of those grounds with the wow factor due to its size and historic nature (even though they are knocking down a big section to renovate it).

I was accompanied to the footy game by my close friend Mickey/Oz Mick and his buddy Kooksy, who had driven up from Canberra and were in town for the footy and a few beers. As Mike was a Geelong fan, plus the fact that their ‘uniform’ as they call it (gay!) was blue I guess that this will be ‘my AFL team’…..Go Geelong!! Kick a goal!!! Plus the Sydney Seagulls play in red and white, so definitely not gonna support that bunch of scummers!!! Mind you Kooks supported the Seagulls, so it was shaping up to be an interesting game with him cheering on the Seagulls and us Geelong.

We arrived just in time for the ‘ball up’ and I excitedly watched (and tried to understand) the game. AFL footy is played on an oval pitch (hence why they share grounds with cricket teams), with 4 vertical posts at each end, with the 2 middle posts being taller than the outside posts. The game itself is split into quarters each lasting 25 minutes and the games can be pretty high scoring as you get 6 points for kicking the egg (sorry ball) through the middle posts, 1 point for kicking through the outer posts or if a ball is kicked through any post but touched by defence first or even if they hit the post (yep, they get a point for technically missing the goal – that’s why is called Aussie rules).

Me and Mick enjoying a beer with the game

To my surprise all fans (home and away) were not only mixed in together, but there was an equal mix of families, groups of blokes and groups of women. I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that you were allowed to drink beer in your seat, whilst watching the game…superb!

The Seagulls started at a cracking pace and ‘kicked 7 goals’ without reply. Not a good start for the Cats as they started so slowly and were way behind at the buzzer for the end of the first quarter. With the beers flowing and the atmosphere building the Cats managed to get themselves back in the game and took the lead with only minutes of the game left, cue plenty of jumping around for me and Mick and a glum face from Kooksy.  

Kooksy looking a bit worried after the Seagulls gave up a massive lead

But to our horror the Seagulls pulled it out the bag and kicked a winning goal in injury time just before the siren. Cue, Kooksy jumping around. The Seagulls had won 80-74, Gutted, oh well, I had seen a cracking game and it had definitely wetted my appetite for more AFL games.

So, it was off to the Rocks to commiserate (for Micky and Me) and celebrate for Kooksy.