Our Moose In A Box: Australian Footy

During our visit we're fortunate to be catching the tail end of Australian Football League (AFL) season. I'd never heard of Australian Football, but Brandon had confusedly worked his way through a TV broadcasted game in the States and really wanted to see it in person. We watched the AFL semifinals on TV with our host last week which was super helpful in understanding the game. To me, it seems like a combination of football, soccer, rugby, and more. Here are some basics:

Terminology:

"Footy" = Australian Football
A "mark" = a clean catch of a kicked ball that has traveled over 15 meters

Allows the player who catches it to release the ball again without bodily interference for a few seconds

"High" = an illegal high tackle above the shoulders
"Back" = a player is pushed in the back, an illegal tackle

Field and game set up:

Leagues first began in 1896
The game is 4 quarters of 20 minutes each
The ball looks like an American football and can be kicked, thrown, or bounced
The field is an oval shape with four posts on each side of the field

Getting the ball between the two center posts is 6 points
Getting the ball between the outer posts is 1 point ("we give one point for trying" as our host puts it!)

No blood allowed on the field

Many players have bandages hiding blood
From a physical therapy standpoint, there seem to be a lot of injuries as there is no padding in the uniform or helmets

http://www.brec.org/index.cfm/page/2518/n/276

Our host is a hardcore Hawthorn (a Melbourne team) fan, so we rooted for them during the semifinal against Fremantle (a Western Australia team) or risk being thrown out of our Airbnb. Hawthorn won and we'll be watching them in the AFL final against West Coast on Saturday. The final is being held at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG), so there will be parades and all sorts of festivities in the city.

Watching the West Coast Eagles vs. North Melbourne Kangaroos Semifinal with Isis. West Coast won and will be playing the Hawthorn Hawks

It is near impossible to get tickets to the AFL final, not to mention financially unfeasible. But, we were able to get tickets to the Victorian Football League (VFL) finals at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne last Sunday. The VFL is a minor league, and we were excited to find that tickets were just $20 AUD each. It was a very worthwhile experience! As it was a final, both teams, Boxhill and Williamstown, were neck and neck until the 4th quarter when Williamstown pulled far ahead. The stadium wasn't very full, so we were able to move to a new seating area and vantage point each quarter. So much fun!