Bring on the Bunnies!

My Australian experience wouldn't be complete without a trip to a footy game!

Now let me clarify some things for anyone who, like me, has their head spinning with the names they give to their different sports down here.

Footy (or Footie) may refer to Australian Rules Football, Rugby League, Rugby Union (sometimes) and even, on occasion, soccer. 

What I went to see was an NRL game, or National Rugby League, which is quite popular in New South Wales. This is a bit different from what I have experienced the game of rugby to be, which would be referred to as rugby UNION here. The main differences include the fact that rugby LEAGUE consists of a series of tackles and rugby UNION maintains the consistent use of scrums (those wild full team pile-ups, broad shoulders clashing!) as well as the fact that they don't use those crazy throw-ins where they hike the dudes up by their short-shorts in rugby LEAGUE. Surely there are other differences, but for the layman, those are the biggest disparities. 

Although I have alluded to Aussie Rules in this post, I will save an in depth description for when I get out to a game and can really give you the low down. As of now I know that they are leaner guys running around in a oval touching the ball with all sorts of body parts, and I will leave you to ponder that image....

So in fulfillment of Tracy's resolution to get to a game of her new-found favourite NRL team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, we set out on Saturday night to take in the action at Sydney Olympic Park. Now don't be alarmed and think that we took in multiple games, this team, partly owned by Russell Crowe, is also referred to as the souths, the bunnies and the rabbits, the sea of green and red jerseys kept us on track! Think the Maple Leafs but in the NRL, a huge and avid fan base but very few big wins to their name, perhaps this is why Tracy (and now I) are so drawn to the bunnies! 

Fact: The Bunnies are not cute and soft and white as their logo and your thought schemas would suggest, they are huge, hard hitting, testosterone filled men with very large quads and well sculpted glutes. 

The experience was typical to most sports games I have seen, there were loud and obnoxious fans, expensive snacks and plenty of swag to spend your moula on. The one thing that was exaggerated was the betting, the fans bet on everything at every game!!

We ended up losing the game but it was a blast to watch and our opponents, the Melbourne Storm, are really a top class team. 

The real hilight came after the game had finished, in Oz they do this thing called Fans on the Field. The name is very telling, the fans literally run onto the field after the game finishes and the players have walked off. The swarm was amazing! Kids sprinting around, tackling each other while throwing rugby balls, couples getting their pictures taken and people lying on the grass. It really was a great feeling to stand down there and look up with a player's perspective. 

I will definitely be putting some more effort into my Aussie sports education after this experience!

SHOUT OUT TO THE BLUE JAYS

step it up dudes