AFL Hawthorn Hawks vs Sydney Swans

On Saturday we went to our very first AFL game at the MCG (melbourne cricket ground -100,000 capacity stadium!). It was the Hawthorn Hawks vs. the Sydney Swans so we rallied around and supported the team from Melbourne (hawks) - I even went all out and bought a scarf which turned out to be more expensive than the ticket to the game! Having said that, the ticket was only $22 which was a bit of a bargain if you ask me...! We were about 4 rows from the very top/ back of the stadium but the view was still pretty good.

There were over 72,000 people there that night, Sydney and Hawthorn are two of the best teams so I think we picked a good night to go - the atmosphere was great and the crowds were all mixed, so no separate stands for each side. We'd had a prep session with a local aussie before we left, so just about knew the rules, although at first we had to watch which supporters were cheering to work out whether what had just happened was a good thing for us or not! After the first quarter we were seriously into it, booing, ooing and cheering along with everybody else - we are really hooked now and are desperate to go again next weekend!

They play 4 quarters which are roughly half an hour each, although some were a little longer and some a bit shorter, still don't completely understand why... There are 18 players on each team and they aim to kick it through the inner set of posts (6 points) , but if they miss and get it through the outer ones they get one point. They can't throw it but have to kick it or punch it and if a player catches a ball from a really long kick then nobody can tackle them, so they try and catch it within the 50m line so they can have a good chance at kicking it through the centre posts without being tackled. Other than that i'm not completely sure what happened but it was great fun to watch and would highly recommend to anybody that gets the chance!