AFL--Aussie Rules Football

Last night, Friday, I got to attend an Aussie Rules Football game with Jon and some friends from the Church I am working out. For my American audience, Australian Rules Football (a.k.a "Footie," or the AFL league) is THE biggest thing in Australia, akin to our NFL. The AFL season kicks off in Australia in an about a month (good timing on my part, eh?). Until the official start, however, there are preseason matches where teams get to work out some kinks, try out new guys, and just have some fun. We went to see the first of these games at the AAMI stadium in Adelaide yesterday. It was a "round robin" type style with three teams--Melbourne, Port Adelaide and Adelaide. To better clarify: Adelaide has two teams that play at the national AFL level, Port Adelaide (The Power) and Adelaide (The Crows). I am now an official Crows fan through and through. I need to pick up a jersey soon!

Now, seeing that it was a preseason game, there were not TONS of people there and it was not the same atmosphere as a real game would have. It was a good atmosphere, however, for me to ask a lot of questions and figure out the game. Jon tells me if I don't understand this game, I will be missing out on a huge part of Australian culture (a big problem if I hope to engage the religious community here on their level). This is no problem though, as the game is STINKING AWESOME and SO MUCH FUN to watch. For real.

For those of you who have never seen the game played, you need to get games like Rugby and NFL football out of your mind. They are not like footie at all (excepting perhaps the shape of the ball and that all three involve tackling). Rather, AFL is a quick, flowing game much more like soccer than anything else I can compare it to. It is a fast paced, hard-hitting exhibition of strength, agility, ball-handling, and awesomeness. Unfortunately, I can't really explain the game to you all well; I won't even try. I leave you, the interested reader, to do some research if you are interested. I am sure Youtube and Wikipedia could be helpful in this. Sufficient to say, however: The game was awesome. I really enjoyed myself and I can't wait to go to a real game soon.

However, I did want to let you in on some insights that you can't get without going to the game personally. First, fans are extremely passionate about this game. Imagine your extreme sports fan friend and then apply that to everybody in the stadium. The Australians love this game and really take proud ownership of it, as it is uniquely theirs. Second, the whole AFL atmosphere is so much more laid-back, friendly, and community focused. This is stark contrast to American professional sports which are all about the players and the money. I made several observations that help illustrate this. When we walked into the stadium, Jon pointed to a gentleman and said "That's so-and-so, one of the best players on the team." He was just walking around the stadium and talking with people as a normal person would! That would be like seeing Terrell Owens order a hotdog prior to the start of his football game--would NEVER happen. After the game, still more players were out just hanging and talking with people. Mo security details, no paparazzi, just people who loved the game and enjoyed giving it back to the people. Overall, the environment was just more intimate and friendly. Perhaps I read to much into things, but this was my impression and it really made me happy to see a "professional" sport that was entirely about the game and the fans. It wasn't about the star power per se. We'll see if my initial insights hold true once I attend another game.

Even if they don't though, the game was a ton of fun. I definitely think I am understanding parts of the culture now :-).

Random side note: The various teams all have "team songs" just like we do with fight songs and such. It made me laugh, however, as two of the three teams last night all had songs based on American tunes. The Crows fight song goes to the tune of "Halls of Montezuma" while Melbourne's sounded like "Grand Old Flag." This made me laugh a lot actually.

Additional side note: I have played rugby and football. I have wrestled and ran track. The level of athleticism I saw last night was outstanding. Go look on you tube at the size of a footie field. IT IS MASSIVE. With as athletic as I was/am, I don't think I could ever play a real game of footie. I admire the athletes a lot. I sure as heck am going to try while I am here though :-).

In Christ,

Chris