I went to Metricon Stadium tonight to cheer on the 2 year old team The Gold Coast Suns while they fought against the veterans that are The Essendon Bombers.
The first quarter felt terrible. The Suns scored in the first minute and pretty much let Essendon have their way with them until the 2nd quarter when they evened the score somehow.
I don’t understand Aussie Rules Football yet, but it’s a pretty awesome game anyways. There’s hardly any break in the action unlike dull old Football or Baseball. Even when they’re tending hurt players on the field the game will continue around them. They stopped only 2 or 3 times to check on a hurt or vomiting player, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to die they started the game back up.
The Suns lost, but they put on a much better game than I was led to believe they would. Since they’re so young everybody writes them off, but they even impressed some of the Essendon fans I was sitting with.
If I had to explain AFL in terms Americans would be familiar with, I couldn’t. There’s doesn’t seem to be very many rules, but they’re not obvious at the same time. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s kind of like football, but there’s no stopping the clock. Man, that really cheeses me off, all the timeouts in football and basketball. Quit strategizing or trying to psych out other players and just play the game.
I know there’s an Aussie Rules team in Nashville. I’ll definitely try to watch them when they put on games, but first I need to figure out these crazy rules.
