Why I'm Basically Obsessed with Footy!

I was pretty shattered finding out that to enjoy the good old gridiron football I would need to walk up at the butt crack of dawn. I'm not joking! With the time difference, I would be waking up at about 3 am to watch the Lions play. Sometimes I would get lucky, and the games would be on Monday during the day but very rarely would the Lions game be shown. When hockey season rolled around, I was in a similar predicament. I don't know about you, but I need my hockey and football fix. If I don't witness at least one person get Kronwalled a season, Pasha be the magic man he is, and stress out when Howie's in goal, I'm a very cranky Wings fan! What was I going to do without my sports fix?

I quickly found out that Australia was not just all about Cricket and Soccer. When I was here on holiday, a friend had mentioned Aussie rules to me but somehow did not correctly convey just how truly awesome this sport is. SERIOUSLY! This is like NFL and Rugby had a baby, and then Hockey and Lacrosse had a baby and then those babies had Aussie Rules. It's a badass sport! Still, need more convincing why I'm basically obsessed (and you should be too!!):

1. Every team has that player. You know the guy. Everyone knows his name, and he's basically the greatest thing since sliced bread? For me at Melbourne, that player is Nathan Jones. He is the equivalent of Kronwall for me. I don't care how crappy a season he's having if when I watch the game, he levels someone to the ground. 

2. Let's be real, there are rules, but most people don't know them (or do they?). It makes watching the game so much more fun! When I first started watching I didn't know ANYTHING outside the fact that if you kick it between the middle posts, you got 6 points and if you kicked it between the outside posts, you got 1 point. But it didn't matter! I had just as much fun watching a game I knew nothing about as I do now!

3. Following the notion of not knowing the rules, do the rules even matter in AFL? Let's be real... does anyone seriously follow the rules? I mean come on... There's no way the players bounce the ball every 15 meters, it's just more like when they deem it appropriate. 

4. Have I mentioned how friggin awesome the game is? That's reason enough. Even if you had no prior knowledge of the game, knowing its awesome should suffice.

5. Unlike most other sport, there are no pads in Footy. I've heard from a lot of Aussies that the violence of the game has decreased to keep the players safer so I feel one day they may have light padding. But these mo' fos play an entire game, levelling the shit out of one another with zero padding! If that isn't the definition of bad arsery, I'm not sure what is.

6. There is consistent play throughout the game. I love Football (NFL) don't get me wrong. But sometimes it seems like I watch them stand around more than actually hit someone. There are also plenty of times that people get hit, and the game is exciting. In Footy, its almost constant excitement. Stoppage in play rarely occurs so for the entire length of the quarter, there's action. It's fantastic! Amazing! Incredibly entertaining!

7. And the last reason I love Footy, it reminds me so much of home. The cold winter weekends are dedicated to footy matches and chilling with your mates. Sunday Funday isn't really a thing here, but Sunday Footy Sessions make the week totally bearable. Having a great day, with great mates, watching a great sport really is what tolerating winter is all about!

As much as I hate to see summer leave us behind, at least I have footy to look forward to and get me through the winter. So lets all chuck on our scarfs and beanies, grab a meat pie and VB and enjoy this magnificent sport with our mates. Australia.... well I guess more so Victoria... thank you for Aussie Rules!

Are you a fan of footy? Be sure to let me know which team you barrack for!

And until next time...

Stay Curious!

**There are various links in this post linking you to videos that reinforce the awesome of Kronwall, Pavel, and AFL. Please enjoy!**