I am not much of a sports fan but to truly have an authentic Australian experience, I had to go to a footy match. Footy is not like American football nor international soccer, it looked like a combination of the two. Fans are just as rabid about their team as fans are in the US, complete with wearing team colored scarves around town (they look like Hogwart’s scarves.)
The game is played on a cricket oval with 18 players on each side on the field for a game. I didn’t know anything about the rules and asked incessant questions during the game. I’m sure I was annoying. One thing that bugs me about American football is that when there is turnover, it’s a big deal often with the clock being stopped. Footy was more fluid than football with the ball changing sides easily and without the clock being stopped. They just played the game in a fast paced and dynamic performance. The water-boys were all in lavender and would all run out to individual players in a time out. Quite the theater.
Although I probably won’t see another game, I’m glad I had the experience.
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