AFL
I’d heard a lot about Melbourne, and thanks to the AFL, knew the names of many places, which is where I started. Carlton, Fitzroy, St Kilda, Richmond, Collingwood, Hawthorn, I discovered Geelong was not actually in Melbourne and as they were playing Collingwood in the Final, I would be barracking for them. You either support Collingwood or you hate them it seems, for me though it was more that they were deemed to be the underdogs on this occasion. I’d already found myself a local, a very important part of being somewhere new and that was where I would watch the game. That was not for a few days yet though, so a visit to the G was called for, got on my first tram, went to the MCG, a walk along the Yarra, saw Rod Laver arena, Crown Casino, and Flinders Square. One day while riding the bike across the bridge at Flinders Square, when there was a bit of an AFL exhibition on, this big lanky black fella jumped out of a cab right in front of me and ran across the road. I thought fuck me, I just almost ran Nick Natinui down. My mate Craig would never forgive me, what would the Eagles do without him? Melbourne was abuzz and there were black and white and blue and white scarves everywhere, a fantastic place to be at this time of year. The 2011 season came to an end with Geelong the victors, by a huge margin in the end and the banter in the pub was classic. Coming from England and being brought up with the rivalry of Football, on and mostly off the field, it was great to see the comradery from supporters of both teams. If it were soccer in England or in fact, anywhere else in the world, with that much piss in them, they’d have been at each other’s throats and blood would no doubt have been spilled. Here though, the victors rubbed it in and the losers just carried on drinking and made sure everyone knew next year would be very different.
“A fantastic day in Melbourne Australia”
I am….THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!