Saturday, February 27, 2010

(Aussie rules )FOOTY!!!!!

Friday night is footy night! - Footy in this case being something called aussie rules football, a primitive game played by former convict types on an oval pitch (traditionally a cricket pitch I think - sacrilege!!!).

We witnessed round 2 of the preseason cup clash between the Hawks (Tasmania) and the Western Bulldogs (Melbourne). It's a preseason knockout competition.



After some stretching we were underway - the game turned out to vary between periods of slick ball movement, catching, passing and quick kicking which were very entertaining to watch combined with small melees of players trying to gather posession of the ball (think a bunch of 10 year old soccer players in a group kicking at the ball, each other and jumping into piles). Scoring consisted of kicking the ball between four upright poles at each end of the oval.

We were rooting for the Tasmanians but they ended up losing comprehensively 1.15.12 (111) to 0.7.12 (54).

This being pre-season there were a number of players who had the night off. As we were about to get underway our neighbours entered from the field and sat beside us. Of course we had no idea of their celebrity but it turned out they were current players who Miriam mentioned might have been of interest to our single friends (this was offered to me quite diplomatically so I was unable to feel any jealousy - but I might have seen her pupils dilate a bit at one point). Further research told us they were better looking in person and that most of the team is better viewed at a distance.
Chance Bateman
Clinton Young
Thomas Murphy

OH - and this might get a chuckle from a few folks - here was one transcript from the evening.
Miriam - "Hey Will"
Will - "Yes?"
Miriam - "How many quarters are there in the game?"
Will - "How many do you think there are?"
Miriam - "Three?"
Will - "Uh-hu! Three!" pause "Why do you think they call them quarters?"
Miriam - Pause, pause..... "oh"
She did then question why the first quarter ended at 26:02, the second 28:34 and third at 27:22 which I didn't have an answer to. We left before the end of the final period and never really worked that one out but weren't concerned with our ignorance.

2 comments:

BaysYates said...

Fantastic!! :) Love the transcript.

I am appreciative of Miriam taking the photo, I agree that her single friends would be the only ones interested. That is very thoughtful of you, Miriam.

Loving the blog right now by the way. And Miriam, Kentucky is playing UT right now, Tennessee is winning!! :) Go Vols!!

hscfree said...

Of course, I am a huge fan of the Essendon Bombers. And Miriam certainly can understand the evolution of my interest in Aussie Rules as I grew older. Aussie Rules was one of the few sports that early ESPN would show back in the early 80s, so I've known about the Bombers since I was 13. And Miriam certainly witnessed me screaming at the small television in the front of the Capitol Lounge as footy rumbled across the screen, and gin & tonics were imbibed by moi.