Aussie Rules Footy

LionsVsSwans,
originally uploaded by BrisbaneBryce.

Here's a shot from 3/4 time at the Brisbane Lions versus Sydney Swans game on 05APR2008. Great footy, but the Lions lost.

From the very first week I visited Australia, I have taken a shine to Aussie Rules Football, as practiced in the Australian Football League, aka the AFL. I've spent a lot of time watching the various kinds of football played in Australia. There are actually quite a few variants, even of rugby. There are several variations of soccer, with one national professional league known as the A-League. There are two major forms of rugby at the professional level, NRL and Rugby Union. NRL, aka National Rugby League, or League for short, is the most popular form of rugby within Australia. There are a lot of teams. Rugby Union is much more of the international version of rugby, though Australia, per se has only one team. The Southern Hemisphere league is known as Super 14, and there are 14 teams amongst Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Australia has three teams, while NZ has 5 and South Africa six. Super 14 is played largely to Rugby Union rules. Of the two pro rugby rules, I personally prefer the Union variant, though that is hardly a popular position amongst the locals. The local Brisbane NRL team, the Brisbane Broncos, is the best financed in the NRL and has been a very competitive team for a long time. Queensland has three teams, including the Broncos; there's also the Cowboys from Townsville and the Titans from the Gold Coast. Probably the biggest difference between League and Union is the amount of contact allowed. In League, once the ball carrier has been tackled, play stops, the player gets up, and rolls it behind him to another member of his team. The scrum in League is barely competitive, while in Union, it's the full on, who's got the most muscle and mass.

Aussie Rules football is nothing like rugby. It's played on a cricket oval, which is a huge space, typically 150m from end to end. There are three scores possible per goal, 1, 6, and 9. It's usually a high scoring game. I find it one of the more challenging sports I've ever seen. The skills required are amazing. It's a running game with a ball, but passing and kicking are essential. Scoring is done by kicking the ball through goal posts. It's usual for scoring kicks to be made on the run, sometimes from as far as 50m (and more) from the posts. I've seen people kick goals from 2m out but practically 30m away from the goal posts. Bend it like Beckham *does* apply! It's such an exciting game that I've gotten a season pass for the local Brisbane team, the Brisbane Lions. They won the Grand Finals a few years ago, and I'm sure the team has had it's moment over the years. The past few years, they have been on the build again. The real seat of the AFL is Victoria, not Queensland. That is to say, around Melbourne. There are several teams around Sydney, and every State capital city has a team, but the majority of teams, and most of the great ones are from Victoria. I'm told that Aussie Rules is a similar to Gaelic football, which might say something about it's origins here in Australia.

Regionalism within Australia does seem to have an effect, even on which sports people choose to watch and support. I mention this because Queensland is considered the birthplace and home of Rugby League, while Victoria is the home of Aussie Rules. Union doesn't really have a home, nor does soccer. So, I find it unsurprising that Queenslanders favor League. It's an interesting, self-fulfilling prophecy, though. Since no one supports Union, the local Super 14 team, the Queensland Reds, is mediocre. The Brisbane AFL team is competitive, but Victoria spends the majority of money on players, and thus its AFL teams are typically in the top four.

Regardless of the local politics and preferences, I've got the season passes and I have to say the two games I've seen so far have been some great footy. Oh, and that word: footy. It could be used to describe Aussie Rules, League or Union. You have to know the preferences of the person you're talking to to know which version they mean. One of my friend's girlfriends mentioned to my friend that she liked footy, and made further mention of short sleeve shirts. My friend took this to mean she preferred AFL, and so invited her along to a game. It turns out she's actually a League woman. I think she enjoyed the Lion's game, but it was just one instance where saying you're a footy fan can mean a lot of different things.