Footy: Hawthorn Hawks vs. Collingwood Magpies

My colleague Ken took me to my first Aussie Rules football game, known simply as 'footy' (which goes along with my observation that Aussies have nicknames for *everything*). Quite an exciting Australian cultural experience ... made complete with the drunken Australian heckling .... let's see, the favourite expressions were "the umps on the bottle", "you f-ing cheesedick", "you're a dirty whore", and the list goes on and gets much worse (Mrs. Wong: sorry for the foul language here but trust me this is actually the censored version). Maybe not the ideal family entertainment, but I was also in general admission where alcohol was allowed (and therefore prominent).

A quick primer on footy. As you can see in the following picture, there are 4 posts at the end. The field is an oval and about 160-180 metres long and ~100 metres wide. 6 points for a goal which is a kicked/thrown ball between the middle 2 posts, or 1 point for a "behind" which is between the outside posts. As you can see, the Hawks have just scored a goal. The crowd doesn't cheer for a behind.

The rules: You're not allowed to carry the ball for more than 15m without either passing, dribbling or kicking it away. If you get tackled with the ball, it's a free kick to the other team. If a kicked ball travels more than 15 metres and is caught untouched, its called a 'mark' and the receiver gets a free kick. 18 players a side so one doesn't often get much room to run ... which makes for something always happening. From what I saw, most scoring occurs after a 'mark' within 50 metres of the goal. If one misses a kick from this area, they get heckled in a big way, with such kind words as those above. This goes on for 4 quarters of 25 minutes each.

The crowd is fanatical. You can usually identify what team a fan is cheering for simply from their scarf or hat. Some more pictures and a movie below.

A Hawk clearing the zone:


A Magpie attempting a long goal kick (you can see the 50m line)


Check this out. Here is a 16 second long video of the action. Umm, turn the volume down or off if you are sensitive to foul language ...