Footy Fun

In Melbourne, the popular winter sport is Australian Rules Football, or "Footy." Rugby is more popular in Queensland and New South Wales, and Cricket is the sport of choice in summertime.

Footy was invented in Melbourne as a winter sport to keep cricket players fit during the off-season. Out of the 16 teams in the AFL, 9 of the teams call Melbourne home. Unfortunately, this week's round of play has been split over two weekends, and we could not find a game playing in Melbourne.

However, an hour long train ride away is the city of Geelong, who were playing host to the Brisbane Lions. The Geelong Football Club "Cats" are on the top of the ladder (standings). We decided to hop onto the train Sunday to catch the 1 pm start-time.

It was raining for the first quarter, but afterwards the rain stopped and the sun peeped out of the clouds occasionally.

The game is played on a cricket pitch (a large oval field), and a goal is scored by kicking the ball through the center two posts. A goal will fetch you 6 points. If you kick the ball through the posts next to the center posts, you will score a "behind." Behinds will add 1 point to your score.

Since it was rainy, the game looked really sloppy in the first half. No one could hold onto the ball, and the Brisbane team didn't even score a goal before halftime. Luckily the weather cleared up and we were able to enjoy some more scoring second half.

In the end, Geelong won 85 - 35 which was a low scoring game.

Mia and I purchased some local attire to fit in and cheer for the home team.