Footy

Australia is a very sporting orientated nation so Friday night Football is a big sporting event. In fact there is a lot of it over this Easter weekend. Of course Football i an incredibly overloaded term but the 3 most popular forms over here involve feet and prolate spheroids. They are in rough order of popularity Aussie Rules, Rugby League and Rugby Union although the more familiar round ball football is increasing in popularity.

Aussie Rules is an interesting game. Of the three games it's by far the most active as the players are constantly running up and down the pitch. The pitch is an oval shaped one, usually the same size and shape as a cricket pitch. That makes it's around about 50% larger than most Rubgy/Soccer pitches. There is an awful lot of high catches which necessitate very athletic jumping from the players. The game itself runs for four 20ish minute quarters and the players spend most of the intervals lying on the ground looking very knackered. As a result of the very free flow of the game it's also quite high scoring. It's not a game that encourages a team to get ahead and then try and sit on their lead. Basically the players don't stop until the final whistle has blown before they head off to spend a few days letting their bodies recover.