Sunday, April 13, 2008

I would say it's common knowledge that I'm not much of a sports fanatic. I hate playing team sports, and I find watching them on TV relatively monotonous. I like individual sports, and (ice) hockey, that's about it. But, upon arrival in Australia, I discovered a new sport! AFL stands for Australian Football League and they play Australian rules football. I actually find it kind of similar to hockey in that its fast moving with no delays, and not too many rules to confuse me. I used to watch a lot of AFL when I was working in Western Australia, so I was pretty excited to see it live and in person! Better yet, the game was the Sydney Swans against the West Coast Eagles. Stacey and I had a great time, and were only moderately confused. And the Sydney Swans won!

Here's a clip I took to give you an idea of the game. You can "handball" to another partner or kick the ball. You can run with the ball, and tackling is allowed at some times (I really don't know when, though). The most important part is that when the ball goes through the middle two poles, they get six points, and the outside poles get one point. Anyway, I put the Sydney Swans song on with the clip (warning!) because it made both Stacey and I laugh. Everyone else seemed to think it was a pretty great song, though.

Did you notice the Swans' players socks? Red and white striped knee socks: now that's cool.

Posted by Kathleen @ 10:01 AM