Since I told Christian I wanted to experience all the cool Australia stuff, he decided this would be a great place to go. First off, the stadium they are using is ancient and not currently used for anything else, nor has it been for quite some time. So the bathrooms are port-a-potties and the concession stand looks like one at a high school football game, well, in NY anyway...I'm guessing TX takes their football concessions a little more seriously. The concourse behind the seats had mainly broken windows and birds nesting everywhere (along with the waste that comes with it). The bleachers were old and wooden and would give you a splinter if you moved too much. Guess women's sports everywhere get poor conditions to play in.
Besides all that, there was a game to be had. The Melbourne Demons vs. Collingwood Magpies started as the sun was setting. The game is played on an oval field with a circle in the middle and 50 meter arcs around the goal area. This is the first sporting event I've seen with such a field. Before getting to the game, we had gone to a gathering of Christian's touch AFL team and the guys there were trying to tell me what the game would be like. One said it was aerial soccer, one said it was like football, one said it was like soccer. No one said it was like basketball with a side of hockey. That would have been my comparison. Damn, these girls were rough. Full on tackling with no pads or protection of any sort. They just went after each other! There were no fist fights, however there was plenty of elbows thrown, sliding, pushing, shoulders, grabbing and throwing to the ground. And one of the girls even got hit so hard she passed out and had to be carried off the field in a stretcher. I've confirmed that she is ok and was awake and talking after the game...they say she "only" has a very bad concussion. Not sure that is an "only" type of thing.
Anyway, the play was fast and confusing. It would probably help if I went with someone who knew the rules, however Christian had some basic understanding of the game. The game starts in the center circle with a jump ball like basketball and then girls fighting to get the ball (I later found out this is called a centre bounce). Even if you have control, the other team is allowed to tackle you and throw you to the ground to get the ball away. There were a lot of jump balls (or what I later learned are ball-ins) all over the field, whenever a pile of people built up over the ball. It's crazy that if you catch the ball after someone kicks it, you are given a free opportunity to kick it again without anyone attacking you, however if you catch the ball after someone handpasses it, you get full-on attacked. So the ball has a tendency to be loose a lot of the time, which means there are girls diving, pushing, and kicking to get control of it. It was a constant back-and-forth game which provided some difficulty in keeping track of who had possession of the ball. There were some penalties called that gave teams free kicks, however I don't know what the infractions were, and I don't understand how they worked. Like soccer, they were given free kicks within the 50 meter line, however there were a bunch of other people inside the circle with the kicker. I'm still confused about that whole thing.Scoring was another interesting part as the ball needs to be kicked to get points. Kicking through the two center (and taller) uprights provides 6 points and the ball goes back to the center for a jump ball. Kicking through the outer (and shorter) uprights (I looked this up, this is called a behind) provides 1 point and the ball gets thrown back in right there and play continues. Speaking of throw ins...the refs do the throw in when a ball goes out of bounds. The ref stands with his/her back to the field and chucks the ball high over the shoulder to get it back in play...and then a mass of humans starts fighting over it again.
And there were like 10 refs all over the field. Probably because the field is so big it would be impossible to cover that much space as play moves very quickly. It was nice to see there were a couple female refs, although it was predominately male. The coaching staff also seemed to be weighted heavily on the male side, with a few females included. It is better than most sports in the US as far as equity goes.
Overall, not nearly as disturbing as bull fighting, however I would hate to see the bruises these girls wake up with in the morning. Interesting concept, and it really makes me realize how much our male football players in the states are a bunch of wussies.
