The Sydney Swans against Melbourne Kangaroos: Have you heard of “Aussie Rules”?

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After having watched a rugby match last week in New Zealand, I decided to go also to a local football match. The local football is nick-named “Aussie Rules” and I believed it is played only here. It’s a strange game that’s somewhere between rugby and normal football (what they call soccer). I must say, I don’t understand how come this and the American football call themselves FOOT-ball when they are mostly playing by hand. At least in the Aussie one, the target is not to “touchdown” but to actually score goals by kicking the ball into the goal which is 4 high poles like rugby, no goal keeper. BTW, there’s also no net and the ball does go to the terraces. At one point, I got the ball! It actually bumped my leg, luckily not the one where the camera was placed.
The Sydney Swans kicked the ass of Melbourne Kangaroos, with a final result of about 101-44, if I remember correctly. Unlike the match in Dunedin last week, here the stadium was almost full with fans in the local colours (red-white), and the atmosphere was fantastic, full of energy, lots of fun. Liz and me enjoyed watching the muscly players, but also tried to follow the game. My final judgement is: I like rugby much better. Well, I like our football (the real one) a lot, but if you go for the more aggressive games, go to the real thing, rugby, where you see scrums all the time (a pile of player one of top of the other and all on the ball…), where you see real action!

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