Saturday night, second week in Sydney, I got together with the other EAPSI folks working in Sydney (Laura, Nik, and Larisa, left to right) to witness our very first live footie game. It was an Australian Rules Footbal Game (Aussie Rules is typically referred to as "footie" here, though I've also seen this term used, confusingly, to describe league and union rugby games). The Sydney Swans were playing Collingwood, a team based near Melbourne.
The game took place in Telstra Stadium in Sydney's Olympic Park, the impressive complex of sports venues that were built for the Sydney games back in 2000. It was a very nice stadium, partially enclosed with large screems showing closeup game action (lucky for us, as we were up in the nosebleed seats).Unlucky for us, it was an abysmal game-- Sydney was favored to win as it was the older and more experienced team, whereas the Collies, though young and fast, had a lot of injured players.
Well, Sydney couldn't hold on to the ball for poop (excuse the editorial censoring) and the score was A LOT to NOT MUCH withing the first quarter. We left before the end, but I captured the third quarter score.Yes, that's right. 13 to 47. You can see why we left early. But Sydney did make most of its points towards the end of the game, something they're apparently known for.
Still, good game or not this really gave me a taste for watching sports in Australia-- a fun, well-attended game in a clean and well-equipped stadium, and the crowd was enthusiastic but affable, with people barracking for the swans (don't say "rooting" here, it doesn't mean what you think it means) sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Collie supporters.I'm really looking forward to catching a few more live games while I'm out here-- rugby league, rugby union, aussie rules football, netball, soccer, cricket.... there will be plenty to keep me entertained.
2 comments:
I'm confused. What sport is this? Shouldn't football (which I'm assuming is soccer) have scores more like 2 to 1? Or is this American football?
No, no, no-- This is Australian Rules Football. Completely different game, but I'd say closest to rugby. There's a goal at one end made up of a set of tall posts flanked by a set of short posts. If you get it cleanly through the tall posts, that's a goal (see the "G" heading on the scoreboard?) and that's worth 7 points. If you only get it through the short ones or a member of the opposing team touches the ball as it goes through the tall ones, that's a try, and you get one point. So game scores can easily get up into the 80s.
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