On Saturday afternoon the final match of the Australian Rules Football League took place. This is a huge event, on par with the Superbowl, including some fantastic commercials. Everyone at work was saying that we needed to see this match so, on Saturday, we left our house in Milton (see photo above!) and made our way to the Pig and Whistle Pub to watch the game.
We got ourselves a table and a drink and it really must have been obvious to the table of Aussies next to us that we had no idea what was going on because, only about 20 minutes into the game, three of them sat at our table and answered all of our questions. By the end of the game we had been adopted by a big group of "Footie Fans" and had a fantastic time. We even made ourselves look good by singing the team song at the top of our voices ("When the Saints go marching in"...we already knew it!)
What made this match so historic was that it ended in a tie! Unlike many sports, they don't play overtime or have a shoot out, they will actually play an entire match on Saturday of next week. This has happened before, but it was at a time when the players were playing part-time and all of them had full-time jobs in other fields. They couldn't play overtime because they all had to work the next day! Now the players are big money athletes, fully devoted to playing ARL football. Before the match, Julia Gillard, the prime minister who herself had just been through a tie-election, made a joke about how they had better make sure that there is a clear winner, as Australians had been through too much tension in the last couple of months.
So now on Saturday, after delaying festivals and moving concerts around to free up the stadium in Melbourne, the St Kilda Saints and the Collingwood Magpies will be back on the field and we will be watching along with the rest of Australia. Go Saints!
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