Today I went to an AFL (Aussie Football League) game for the UTS Bats (as in Batman, not baseball bats). AFL is a very fast-paced sport - it's played on an oval field with two sets of goalposts at either end (a middle one worth 6 points, and a wider one worth 1). The two teams (18 players on the field each) are trying to get a roughly rugby-shaped ball across the field and kicked through the opponent's goalposts. The ball must be kicked to score. To move the ball, the players can either run with it (but they have to bounce it once every 15 meters or so - a referee judges when they've done this wrong), pass it, or kick it. A tackle does not end the play - when someone is tackled they can send the ball off to a teammate (hopefully) but hitting it out of their hand with their other hand (not throwing, hitting - it's kinda like an underhand volleyball serve). If they are taken down and the ball ends up wrapped up under a pile of people, the ref blows the whistle and he takes the ball and throws it in the air at that spot kinda like a basketball jump ball. All in all, it's a quick, rough game - very entertaining to watch.
Some pictures (my camera is not exactly of the best quality for sports photography, but you get the picture... no pun intended):
One end of the field - you can see the goalposts against the trees on the left
UTS Bats in black and green; the cheer, or so we're told, is "Up the mighty bats!"
In the end, the Bats were victorious, which prompted the singing of the Bats Victory song (or shouting, as the case may be), sung to the tune of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home":
The UTS Bats won again today
hooray, hooray
we proved that we're the better side
today, today
we knocked 'em down, we drank their blood
and then we rubbed them in the mud
we'll be victors in 2009
they've never seen a team like us
before, before
when we get down we get back up and
fight some more
around the ground and through the sky
the Bats are always flying high
we'll be victors in 2009
The weather was perfect, the home team won, and a great time was had by all. What a day.
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