The vines of Victorian victory

9th September 2006, Day 172

Victoria, Oz.

I've seen a bit of sport now, the two footballs anyway. One round and the other slightly misshapen in my opinion. Misshapen, but not egg-shaped; Soccer vs Australian rules Football.

Victoria and Victorians, according to all the travel guides, live and breath sport. I wasn't about to miss taking a gulp myself before departing for playing fields new.

I went to see Melbourne Victory play Sydney FC last Saturday as I mentioned in my last blog entry. It was good fun, not least because Melbourne beat Sydney 3-2, but it was also a nervy affair because of the hype around the event. After the successful world cup, Australian attention on soccer had this domestic fixture red-ringed as the litmus test of whether the A-league was really turning a corner in popularity. The game was switched from the smaller Olympic Park - where Victory normally play - to the Telstra Dome to accommodate the 40,000 crowd which eventually saw the game. This broke the attendance record of a league match by some margin. Melbourne's new Brazilian signings Allesandro, Claudinho, Vargas and Fred were all on display as well as Grant Brebner, a close season signing from Dundee United. Also in the Melbourne side were World Cup heroes Kevin Muscatt and Archie Thompson.

I arrived early and was impressed by the easy access to the stadium, tiny queues for food and beer (which you can take to your seat), the foot room whilst in your seat and the sight lines. On the downside, there wasn't exactly a pressure cooker atmosphere despite the large crowd and closed roof.I was sat next to some first timers, who were just getting to grips with the game, helping each other out with some of the finer points of the rules. It was great to see that soccer's popularity is growing and to be part of that. There were plenty of families around me; no discernable intimidating atmosphere. I looked for the vocal elements of the Victory fans and the visiting Sydney-siders. They were present, but swallowed up inside the 60,000 capacity venue which muted them to some extent. Frankly it was all a bit synthetic and unreal. I was a too far from the pitch for my liking, but keen for the game to get underway.

The game tore into life and to start with it looked as though it would be a night to remember. 3 goals and a sending off within the first 18 minutes ('who said this game wasn't exciting?' was the remark from my right). A goal for Danny Allsopp, followed by winger Alessandro being hauled down in the area after a good run, which lead to captain Muscatt's second succesful penalty in as many games. Shortly after that, two successive fouls by Mark Rudan - Sydney's skipper - meant that he got his marching orders. This was down to a fair bit of play acting by Alessandro which was disappointing, especially when there are myths to explode about Brazillian football. Melbourne got their just desserts immediately when Sydney pulled a goal back through Fyfe. Phew!! Only 18 minutes on the clock!... then everything died off a bit. The players remembered how many were watching and started to get a bit to self-conscious. The game started petering out approaching half time. The second half started with another goal for Victory but this in turn gave way to another down beat thirty minutes of scared midfield ball hogging. The half was sandwiched with an own-goal by Vargas to put the score back to 3-2 in the last ten minutes. That's the way it ended, a bit of an anti-climax, but not a bad game. It all felt like a showcase match rather than the cut and thrust of two bitter rivals. I enjoyed it, but it just ain't Torquay United.

* * *

This Friday I went to check out the 'real football' as Victorians no doubt refer to it - Aussie Rules or AFL as it is commonly known. This was at the recently re-built MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) , to watch the first round of the 'finals', watching my local club St. Kilda Saints take on Melbourne Demons. I say local club, they haven't played in St. Kilda for years; the Saints play their home games at the Telstra Dome now. This evening didn't go quite so swimmingly as the previous Saturday, as St. Kilda let a wide advantage be narrowed twice to eventually lose 72-90.

I should explain a little about Australian rules Football. Scoring works by getting the ball between the two main posts (a goal - 6 points) or getting it between one goal post and a smaller side post (a behind - 1 point). It flows fantastically, is very physical and entertaining. It's much swifter the Rugby (Union or League) and when the game starts or the ball goes out of play (if unintentional) the Umpire whizz the ball up in the air, bringing the ball up from between their legs and tossing it behind them. It's ace. Perhaps my favourite thing are all the little spats between the players which happen all over the huge oval pitch (there 18 players on each side) to the seemingly oblivious 5 man umpire team. They just let them get on with it!! Also, no off-side rule.

AFL has a rich and long tradition which I know very little about. One thing I do know is that Aussie rules originated in Victoria and the Australian Football League was once the Victorian Football League. The nationalisation came as late as 1990 and previously there were no teams in NSW, Queensland or WA. Orginally all the teams were localised drawing their support base from that area like most sport. This has now changed with teams like Essendon, Collingwood, Melbourne Demons, St. Kilda, Richmond and Carlton (all Melbourne teams) all playing in either the MCG or the Telstra Dome. That really doesn't appeal to me. If a team loses their home ground, what are the criteria for supporting a team? Hereditary links? Success? It all sounds fishy to me. Anyway, I don't follow the history so here's the match.

This is Flinders Street station on match night. Match night was too damn cold but I'd at least eaten at my local veggie Krishna restaurant, Gopals, beforehand. I rushed across Federation Square to make my way through Birrarung Marr to the MCG.











Here's the MCG from the walk way. It's the jewel in the crown of the stadiums they built/re-built for the Commonwelth Games. Right next to the MCG are the Rod Laver arena and Olympic Park, where many other Victorian sporting activities take place. The MCG is no small venue with a capacity of 100,000 - that's 10,000 more than the new Wembley will hold when it finally opens. It had a few nice foibles - the walkway to the stadium pumps out Aboriginal music walk, which had a calming effect on me despite being late. I suppose this must be intentional. The AFL season's structure is a little complicated so I'll let Wikipedia explain on my behalf:

"The AFL Premiership Season, contested between the 16 teams from around Australia, lasts for 22 rounds and begins in late March.

At the end of the 22 rounds, the top eight teams compete in the four-week AFL Finals Series. In the first week, depending on the their ladder position, teams play in two Qualifying Finals and two Elimination Finals. The two lowest placed losing teams are eliminated, the two highest placed winning teams progress into a Preliminary Final (in the third week), and the other four teams play in two Semi Finals (in the second week). The losers of the Semi Finals are eliminated and the remaining four teams play in two Preliminary Finals, with the winning teams play in the Grand Final."

Confusing, huh? I'd give more kudos to the team who wins the league after 22 rounds (the minor premiership), but then what does an ignorant pom's opinion matter?

Inside the MCG: St. Kilda have just scored a goal here, hence the red, white and black pom poms shaking behind the goal. I had met up with my flatmates Richie, Leanne and Graydon (James was there too) outside and we got in a bit late. After being flabbergasted at the size of the stadium, we grabbed some beer and sat down to soak things up.

The game was played at frightening pace with St.Kilda taking a strong early initiative in the first quarter producing a lead of about 10 points which they held onto until the beginning of the forth and last quarter. I was pretty entertained although it was really cold and I had to endure Graydon making a home video of the match (with ill-informed Asker commentary) to send back to his pals in Calgary, Canadia.

Here's how the game went in a little more detail. St. Kilda bossed the first two quarters, and although it was all end to end, their conversion rate of chances was miles better than Melbourne. For people who whinge about the length of soccer matches - these matches really do go on for ages. Although each quarter is supposed to be 20 mins, but the clock is stopped every time the ball goes out of play so the four quarters last for 30 minutes each. This duration is added to by two 5 minute intervals and one 15 minute intervals. You get your money's worth.

As the match went on, we wondered who (in addition to the 5 umpires) the funny men in luminous tracksuits were invading the pitch. It turns out they are the coach's runners, delivering information directly to the players. It didn't seem to interfere with play, but I haven't seen enough AFL to say for definite. The 18 players can swap with 4 subs as many times as they wish, so it's a bit difficult for a first timer to keep abreast of who is on and who is off the pitch. It's all very permissive compared to the football I know.

Anyway, after plenty of humourous scraps, forced goals and scraped behinds, Melbourne's tenacity told in the last two quarters and St. Kilda tired. The demons came biting back to finish with the score line which is written this way:

St Kilda 10. 12. (72) def. by Melbourne 13. 12. (90).

The scores in brackets are the ones to worry about; the overall total. The first number is the number of goals scored. The second number after the dot is the number of behinds. They like their statistics in this game.

Blown it! Actually this was the beginning of the match but it looks as though it could be the Saints about to troop off disconsolately. It was a bit of a sad way to end my first match, but the Demons deserved the win from what I could see.

Melbourne will continue in the final series, but the season is over for St. Kilda. Things start afresh in March.

I did like the game a great deal more than rugby. I don't think I'd ever like it as much as soccer, but who knows? I hope to catch some more on the television when I finish work in three weeks and take up a life leisure once more. Hooray!