Aussie Rules

Went to my first Aussie Rules Football game, last Sunday (June 6th) where the undefeated St. Kilda Saints (a Melbourne club) took on our hometown Sydney Swans. The Swans, basically beat the pants off them, getting an early lead and running with it.

Here is the

match report if your interested


Aussie Rules if fun to watch live. It is played on the cricket ground so the pitch (i.e. field) is pretty big. Rumor has it that Sydney is one of the smaller pitches too. The players get up and down the field in a hurry. So there is a lot of action when watching live. On television, you basically only track the ball, so it is misleading to what is happening on the field. I view Aussie rules as organized chaos. The flow of the game is pretty easy to follow (some of the rules make no sense, but it is not major detractor from the event). It is a long game as well, it is played in 4 20 minute quarters, but they play running time like soccer, so the elapses time of every quarter on Sunday was at least 26 minutes. There is not a lot of dead time during play as well, so the players must loving running b/c they get up and down the pitch in a hurry.

I don't' even know how to describe Aussie rules, but it definitely reminds me of something that a bunch of 9year olds playing in a snow field made up. When the ball goes out of bounds the referee runs over to where it went out, turns his back to the pitch, and hurls the ball over his head, as high as he can, back into the playing field. To re-start play, at the change of quarters, or after stoppages, etc, and if the ball is still in bounds. The referee, takes the ball, and slams it against the ground sending the rebound a good 20-25 feet in the air. In both of this situations, then there is a mad dash for the control of the ball. To pass the ball to a teammate you are not allowed to throw it. You have to "hand-pass" where you basically hold it in one hand and punch it with the other, or you have to kick. If you kick it more than 10 meters and your teammate catches it, he is not allowed to be tackled and can kick or hand-pass from there. But he is also allowed to back to get a run at a kick if he wants to try to kick for goal or something. He basically can't go past the line where he caught the ball. If you receive a hand-ball or a kick you are allowed to run, and if you run for more than 10 meters you have to pass the ball or "dribble" it by bouncing it off the field. The other rule is to try to kill the guy with ball. Scoring is 6 points for a goal, and 1 point for a "from behind". A goal is anything between the 2 big posts, and there 2 smaller posts on the outside of these worth 1 point. That is about it. I particularly like the refs who field the out of bounds balls, because before they launch the ball back into the field, they hold the ball and are swinging it between their legs up then up to eye level (to warm up) then the ball swings low, the squat, and then they jump up at the same time are swinging the ball upwards, and the launch it over their heads back on to the pitch.

This totally reminds of rules a bunch of kids came up with on a winter day when they made up their own game. (i.e. if you one of the players had to throw the ball back in bounds, the only way to make if fair was for him to turn is back to the field, close his eyes and throw it as hard as he can over his head) which is what he basically does.


The one thing about Aussie rules are these neon yellow guys. Basically there is group of 3 guys for each team, and 1 of them are allowed to be on the field at a time. They are wearing this horrendous, hi-lighter, neon yellow jersey and shorts, and they are running around during play. They surprisingly fall into the back ground quite easily, but every so often they pop up into your consciousness. I found out, that they are runners, giving information from the coach to the players on the pitch. Can you imagine a basketball game, where you could run the play into your point guard as he was walking the ball up the court ? There are all sorts of rules to make sure these "runners" don't impact the play on the pitch, but I still found this odd.

It was a totally fun experience, and I imagine I'd go again if I had the opportunity. (not sure if I would seek it out unless someone was visiting or something)

I'm intrigued to see if I enjoy it more watching aussie rules on television than I previously did.