On Friday night Ash took me to an Australian Football game. His favourite team St.Kilda was playing Hawthorne. I tried to guess how many people were there and I said around 10,000 and at the end the final count was 49,000!!! I was WAY off.
We took the tram through the city to the docklands right on the water to the stadium. It was a beautiful but cool night so we bundled up. I was mad because Ash made me wear leggings under my jeans and I felt like I could barely walk like the Michelin man but I was thanking him later because it got SO cold in the stadium.
We sat in the third tier and you can sit anywhere up there. We got beers and went up into the stands an hour early to get a good seat. The game is played in a big round oval shaped field with two goals at either side. There are two tall goal posts and then two smaller ones on either side of those. If you get the ball through the middle goal posts it's a goal and it's worth 6 points. If you get it through either side post it's 1 point. You can only kick it through the goals. Players pass the ball by a hand pass sort of like punching the rugby like ball or by kicking it. If someone catches your kick it's called a "mark" and nobody can touch you until they kick or pass the ball. They don't wear any padding and tackling is fully encouraged unless you have marked a kick.
I got so into the game it was phenomenal. The teams were so evenly matched the whole time and from where we were sitting we could see everything that was going on. People were getting so rowdy and screaming and standing up and cursing it was amazing! I don't know what was more entertaining for me, watching the game or watching Ash's reaction to the game! St.Kilda was down in the final quarter and then they kicked a goal making the entire game a DRAW! So we might go again this Friday to see them play at the best footy stadium in the world the MCG. We took a packed tram back towards home but we were so hungry we stopped on Lygon street for pizza and pasta and then we walked down and got gelato as well. It's crazy here, even past midnight tons of places are open! I LOVE IT.
Anyway, I LOVE footy now and will forever be a St.Kilda's fan.
Love Australia & miss you all!
xo
sar
