AFL
When Tony said about going to see an AFL (Australian Football League) game I figured that, not being a sports fan I wouldn't really like it that much. But then, I thought, I've never been to one, so how do I know? I might just enjoy it, and to be honest, I did.
Tony, Marie and I went to the Subiaco oval to watch the Fremantle Dockers vs the Essendon Bombers. AFL or 'footy' as its locally known is played on an oval, rather than rectangular pitch. I'm not 100% sure why its called Football as the game seems to be based on the popular playground game of 'catch' (mind you, Australia wouldn't be the first colony to adopt this approach).
The players throw a rugby ball to each other (in any direction) and are allowed to perform a drop kick whenever they like. If another player catches the ball then they themselves are awarded a free drop kick (obviously, as any school boy will tell you, because catching a ball gets more difficult if it goes higher?!?) They then have to kick the ball through a pair of tall posts (for 6 pts) like those in rugby. As if this rougher version of catch, with only a few rules isn't easy enough already, there are also to extra goal posts (1 pt) to either side of the main ones in case they miss.
There was a Dockers fan sitting a few rows back to the left of me, listening to the game on a walkman and screaming out anything he thought might make him sound enlightened during the game. He then mixed this in with his own cutting witticisms "go home to your mum McVeigh!... You were never good enough for the Dockers anyway!" Poor McVeigh, I bet that'll keep him up at night.
I was planning on cheering for the local side, but realised I'd rather see the Bombers win just to see what the bloke behind me did. Not a good move in hindsight. Don't get me wrong, there were some flashes of sports genius (like when one of the bombers couldn't catch the falling ball in time so just punted it between the posts (not easy with a rugby ball) for 6pts and the adoration of the crowd. On the day though, the Bombers just weren't as good as Dockers.
It had been a pretty close and enjoyable match all the way through until the third quarter (a quarter is 25 mins + injury time) when the Freo Dockers picked up the pace and pulled another 8 goals from nowhere (I say nowhere, but really I think it was from the Bombers inability to catch a ball.) Essendon where playing catch up from then on. I couldn't quite believe I was getting annoyed that the Bombers were losing. It was 50/50 decision I made an hour or two before which wasn't based on the teams so much as the vocal bloke behind me!
The bombers pulled a few back in the fourth quarter but not enough to save the match.
The Dockers fan behind me took to screaming at nearby 5yr old bombers fans. "You're a smart young man, you've got time to change! Go for the team of the future, not the team of the past!" Before launching into a chorus of 'Yesterday's Heroes.'
Final score was Frematle Dockers 131 - Essendon Bombers 100. We all left the match humming the catchy Dockers club song...
"Freeee-O, where will we go. We are the Free-o Dock-ers"