#51 – Scream your heart out at a footy match at the MCG … and go with somebody who can explain what’s going on – August 16, 2013
Australia is a country with a strong sports culture, which makes sense if you consider the good weather and thereby excellent conditions for sports outside. Early on we were introduced to the culture through the Australian Open in January, the Formula One in March and the excitement that built up throughout those events. However, if you follow the news, those events represent only a glitch in the sports year. The major share of news coverage goes to what the Aussies call footy (which is the abbreviation of Australian Rules Football, Aussie rules or even shorter footy) – even in summer and early autumn, when the season wasn’t even on. Footy is Australia’s contribution to the “kick the ball in the goal” ecosystem of sports, which from an outsiders perspective looks like the love child of soccer, rugby and American football.
At this point, I’ve lost the respect of every Aussie who started reading and no Australian continues to read this post. Comparing footy to American Football is for any Aussie at least as offensive as faking a British accent in front of a Brit and expecting him to find it amusing. Now that we’ve lost the southern hemisphere, let’s continue with the post.