Am I turning into a footy fan or just becoming more and more Australian?! The question needs to be asked 😉
Not so long ago, I had the pleasure to attend to my very first footy game at the Adelaide Oval on the Sunday March 31 and it was fantastic. Not only it was a bit special as it was a first time for me BUT on top of that I was lucky enough to see The Crows girls team winning on that day: what an epic match with those amazing players but also for Adelaide feminine footy history as the Oval was packed and super excited and proud to support our girls team !!!
Funnily, call it luck or faith, shortly after this game, I won a footy ticket via my work to see Adelaide Crows versus West Coast Eagles on Saturday 25th May. So this time I was supporting the boys team (I m all about equality lol) and what made it special this time is that I was invited to sit in the open boxes in the VIP suite zone with some other lucky colleagues of mine who also won the tickets! And it was pretty awesome!
It was indeed a fun experience, I must say (despite the cold) to enjoy the match while drinking champagne and enjoying some good food! We really had a good time and felt spoiled.
As for the game…. do I understand the rules better? Well… as mentionned in a previous article , Aussie Footy is very different from Frenchie Soccer and if you add in the equation on top of that a couple of glasses of champagne and wine, it becomes more and more difficult to get the essence of the game, please don’t blame the frenchie, it is too easy 😉
But sadly, despite all those good vibes, Adelaide Crows were defeated by West Coast Eagles and the fans were a bit disappointed. Come on boys!!!! Well I guess the boys footy team were not at their best on that night and the The Eagles came from 33 points down in the third quarter to prevail 13.7 (85) to 10.13 (73). With scores level with three minutes to go, 12-gamer Oscar Allen and Jack Darling booted late goals for the Eagles to consolidate their top-four slot.
It was still a pretty cool experience and I encourage all my foreigner friends and followers living abroad to at least once in their life, even if you are not a massive sport fan, it does not matter, please trust me on that, you will not regret it: pick the national sports of your country of adoption and go to a match in a stadium to feel the atmosphere and embrace the spirit with the locals, you will have the best time even if you don’t get all the rules, the main point being experiencing the real thing and having a good time!
I am not sure I understood the rules… but I managed to get a few things! So there are 2 teams playing on the field so you pick the one you want to support (generally I base my choice on the jersey colour). It is a bat and ball game so basically one team bats and the other bowls and then it is the other way around. The goal is to score as many runs as possible, easy! It is good to do a WICKET or a FOUR (people seems to be happy when it happens). It is bad to do a LEG BEFORE WICKET you don’t want that, never! I personally like the WICKET thing because the stick flies in the air and there is a little flashing light on its end which is pretty original.
The cricket match is divided into periods which is good so you can go in peace during the break to the food stand in the meantime to get some nachos or fries… because there are not actions all the time during the game so you don’t want to miss it when it occurs… it is like fishing, you never know when the fish is going to bite and you want to be there when it happens! Applaud and stand up when your team scores and don’t hesitate to encourage them shouting “Hit the Ball!”, “Come on guys!”, take some pics and post them on Instagram and you’ll be all right 🙂 people won’t even noticed it is your first time!
Hello World! 