my first footy game

Well we crossed another thing off our friend's "top ten thing to do in Melbourne" list. We went to a footy game! Australian Rules Football is the closest thing you can get to college football here, and since we are missing out on that this was a good way to slightly satisfy that craving. There were no frat guys yelling obscenities at the footy game, instead there were middle aged men who were obnoxiously passionate, and acted like they were still in college. There was no band to get the crowd pumped, and no high-fives any time a team scored, but boy do these aussies love their footy teams.

The footy field is an oval, and since we had absolutely no idea what was going on for the majority of the game, it looked like pure chaos. We learned that you cannot throw the ball, you can only do this weird thing that looks like you’re under-hand serving it or kick it. If you are running with the ball, you have to bounce it every seven steps. The amount of control they have over the ball while doing that is incredibly impressive. There are four goal posts, so sometimes you get 6 points and sometimes you only get one. The outfits the guys wear are skimpy little shorts and tank tops, but these guys are ATH-LETES!! They are all tall and lean, but solid muscle. I wish yall could have seen how high they were able to jump..I was blown away.

I did the most Australian thing you could do at the game… I ate a Meat Pie. These things are so popular here but look absolutely disgusting, so naturally it took a ton of convincing for me to try it. I was told that you CANNOT get the full footy experience unless you get a meat pie at the game. My friend Em agreed to buy me chocolate if I got one so I could get the bad taste out of my mouth if I didn’t like it. After only 6 weeks of friendship, she already knows the way straight to my heart (: It tasted like brisket inside a pot pie. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but I couldn’t finish the whole thing. 

The game we went to was the last round before finals start, and it was between the top two teams in the league! Geelong dominated Collingwood. GO CATS! The grand final is at the start of October, and apparently if you don't have tickets you go down to Federation Square with the rest of Melbourne to watch the game on some outdoor screens they have. It is most likely going to be Collingwood and Geelong in the finals, and if the game looks like it did last night then Geelong will for sure take home the title! 

go. fight. win. break.

& WRECK EM