This Is Aussie Rules Football

Black And White (And Cred All Over)

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There can be nothing like the pain of a loss in the Australian Football League. Well, yes, there is, actually - it's even worse when your team gets beaten in a complete upset that even has the bookmakers shaking their heads at the size of the total payout. Yesterday we headed to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the Collingwood Football Club (black and white club colours) take on the Richmond Football Club (black and yellow club colours). This is Round 19 of the national Aussie Rules competition and Richmond, having won only a solitary game all year, came out firing and thumped Collingwood. This shot (above) was taken on the concourse near Gate 6 of the MCG.


We got to our seats very early and I took this shot (above) to give you an idea of the size of the historic sporting arena. We call football ``footy'' and night footy has a completely different feel to afternoon football fixtures. My fellow blogger Dan, who recently posted a glowing review of my novel Vegemite Vindaloo, might be interested in this shot. You see, the novel begins (and ends) with the depiction of a night Grand Final here at the MCG.


Here's a sight (above) that you don't see too often at the footy. The woman on the left is a Collingwood loyalist, while her father (right) is a Richmond fan. When we first came to live in Melbourne 20 years ago, most families has single-club loyalties, with children barracking for clubs because their parents barracked for them. But now that the competition has gone national, it is more common to see members of one family who follow different teams.

This shot shows the black-and-yellow colours of the Richmond cheer squad, celebrating an all-too-familiar sight - a Richmond goal. But we won't go into too much detail on that subject! But you might be interested in the configuration of the goalposts. A goal (a kick through the centre posts) earns six points, while a behind (a kick between a centre post and a shorter side post) earns one point. Hope you enjoyed your brief introduction to Aussie Rules.