The biggest complaint I hear about soccer in America is that it's too slow; more specifically, no one hardly ever scores. I have the solution: Australian Rules Football.
I loves me some footy (and not just because they wear those adorable little shorts) (though I will admit that helps). It's just a great game to watch.
Imagine soccer -- the ball always in motion, possession changing every few minutes, people running, running, running -- but allow the players to use their hands. In fact, they aren't allowed to "bump" the ball with their head or their body parts. They throw it or punt it up and down the field.
Oh, yeah, and get rid of that silly goalkeeper. Wiiiiiiide open goals that are absurdly easy to get a ball through. So it's quite normal to have a score of, say, 120 - 95.
And did I mention the little shorts?
OK, that's Australian Rules Football.
Jeff and I went to see the season opener last week for the local team, the Brisbane Lions. They were playing the Freemantle Dockers (whose colors exactly matched my purple hair. Woops!). The Dockers wore the cutest striped long socks.
Ah, it's possible they wouldn't like them being called "cute"....
We went for the cheap seats -- $25 -- and were surprised that we were close to the goal and maybe a dozen rows off the playing field. I think if you're up a level you get a better view of the entire field of play (and don't get whacked in the face when a ball goes sailing into the stands) but we loved it.
The field is large and oval and play covers the entire thing. The actual size of the field is roughly 150 x 135 meters (165 x 145 yards) (it varies a bit from stadium to stadium). These guys run their legs off!
The ball looks a lot like an American football with more rounded ends. They can kick it or punt it (hit it with their hands) or toss it. I don't remember anyone doing an overhand pass like an American quarterback would do.
Forward progress is a bit like sailing into the wind: tacking left and right to eventually end up going forward.
The goal is 4 poles. You get 6 points if you get it between the center two poles. You get one point if you get it through the outer poles. The "goal refs" have these very stylized movements they do to signal the type of goal it is, which cracks me up every time. The "field reps" also have a funny way of tossing the ball back on the field when it goes out of bounds -- the stand with their backs to the field and toss it high and hard over their head.
The game has 4 quarters but they're 30 minutes each. Except the 4th quarter which often is longer than 30 minutes due to calculations I will probably never understand. So when the game is close, I don't actually know what "zero" time is (since the clocks count up rather than down). You just keep cheering.
The game we went to was a lot of fun. The Lions were 25 point underdogs, according to the bookies, but they took the lead early and kept it, except for a few minutes, through the entire game (which actually lasted about 2.5 hours). At times, they were ahead by more than 10 points.
Until the last 6 minutes. Which is when they lost the game. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh!
Very frustrating. They lost by 2 points. TWO POINTS. Kill me already.
Two guys got taken off with bloody faces (so, yes, it has some resemblance to rugby too). One of these guys is going to need reconstructive surgery, it turns out. Ouch!
Very physical game.
And I love it!
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