Sydney Rabbitohs National Rugby League Game (Week 8)

Last night, I went to a National Rugby League (NRL) game with the Sydney Rabbitohs playing against the St. George Dragons. Since I will not be able to make the NRL game on May 14th, I decided to make it up by going to a game tonight. The Rabbitohs home stadium is at the ANZ Stadium, which is where the Olympics were held in 2000! The stadium is in Sydney Olympic Park, which was built just for the Olympics about 11 years ago. It was amazing walking up to the stadium knowing that records were broken and history was made in the same place I was about to enter. Luckily, we got to the stadium about 30 minutes before the game started, so we walked around for a bit exploring the complex. Right outside of the ANZ Stadium, there were hundreds of colored poles sticking up out of the ground. As we walked up to the poles, I realized that alphabetically, each one of the athletes who participated in the Sydney 2000 Olympics names were inscribed on the poles. 

Being my very first rugby game, I was extremely excited to go. We had to take a train to the Olympic Park, which let us off right in front of the stadium. The design of the stadium was awesome, because the outside structure reminded me of a roller coaster how it goes up and down, up and down.

Right when I walked into the stadium, it reminded me of being in America and going to a sporting event. There were huge screens all over with thousands of people filling in wearing their team colors. I am not sure how, but we had amazing seats. I realized that buying tickets for sporting events in Australia is not like buying tickets for sporting events in America. In America, the more you pay for a ticket, the better seat you have. In Australia, there is only one type of ticket you can buy depending on what category you fall into (adult, child, student, senior). Our seats were right in the middle of the field, and 19 rows up. Another thing I noticed was that sporting events in America attract a lot more people. The stadium was not even close to being half full, and there were only 22,700 people that attended the game. When I go to the Saints football games in New Orleans, the stadium is packed and there is probably triple the amount of people.

It was awesome going to a rugby game, especially in Australia. Since we learned about the differences in the three rugby leagues, it made me appreciate the game even more. It took me a while to remember all of the rules, but eventually I started to understand what was going on. I learned that a "try" is the rugby equivalent of a touchdown in American football. You get 4 points for a try, and then you get to kick a "field goal" for 2 extra points. To score the 4 points, you have to actually touch the ball in the try zone (endzone), or it does not count. The player holding the ball would dive into the try zone when they were about to score. I also learned that a team has 6 tries to run the ball down the field for a touchdown, and if they do not do it, they have to kick the ball to the other team. I know it is possible to score 2 points by kicking a field goal, but I am not sure of the rules of when you can do it. Passing in rugby league may only be in a backward or sideways direction. Also, when a player gets tackled, the ball is still in play, which is different than American football. A player from the other team can strip the ball out of the hands of the player on the ground, but I think they only have so much time to do so while the opposing player is on the ground. After getting up from being tackled, the player with the ball has to send it backwards behind them, usually done by putting the ball on the ground and using the bottom of their foot to roll it backwards.

As I said before, I definitely caught on by the end of the game, but I still have a lot of learning to do about rugby. Of course, I had to root for the Sydney Rabbitohs, even though their mascot was a dinky rabbit that did not look very fierce at all.

The referees wore pink shirts, in which I feel that in America would never happen. Since football is supposed to be a tough, man's sport, wearing pink even if you were the referees would not be acceptable in society. I loved the pink shirts though!

It was also interesting to see that there were only about 5 players sitting on the bench to sub in. The entire game, I think each team only substituted their players 2 times each. These men play the ENTIRE game for 40 minutes halves. Since there are 13 players who are out on the field for each team, they were getting super tired by the end. People wearing either green or orange shirts would run out during the middle of the game to bandage up any wounds or to give these players water. I feel that if they substituted their players more, the men would not be as exhausted by the end of the game or even during the game.

I could tell there were different positions, but was not sure what the role of each of the positions were. All I knew was that when a team was close to scoring, the entire stadium would scream and cheer. The way these men were built was very interesting to observe because their legs were HUGE, but they were not very tall. Each of them wore short-shorts and a very tight jersey, which is something very different from uniforms for men in America!

Overall, I had an amazing time watching a sport being played that is different from American sports. I am going to a Australian Football League game with my sports class in a month, and am excited to see the different rules and the way the game is played. Here are some pictures of rugby in action!

The Rabbitohs ended up losing 16-0, but I still had an amazing time.

Melbourne Cricket Ground (Week 7)

This past weekend, I missed going to the Indigenous Rugby League Game because I was in Melbourne. Since I was missing a field trip, I wanted to make it up in Melbourne by doing something sports related or going to a sporting event. In a pamphlet I received upon arriving at my hostel in Melbourne, there was an advertisement for the National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. I thought this museum would be extremely interesting because after learning a lot already about Australian sports and culture in our class, it would have been a great experience seeing the greatest moments in Australian sport in a museum. The museum was a chance to relieve the story of Australian sports featuring different moments for athletic legends. 

I decided to go on the last day we were there because it was raining that day and would be a good opportunity to get out of the rain since it was pouring all morning. As I walked up to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, I noticed a lot of cars were driving up and people were dressed wearing team jerseys of the same color. This is when it hit me that a AFL game was going on that afternoon with the Brisbane Lions against the Melbourne Football Club. I arrived at the stadium around 1:00 p.m., and the game started at 1:10 p.m. Trying to be optimistic about the museum being opened despite the game, I walked up and asked. They told me that the museum was closed and that I would have to come back the next day. Unfortunately, I left at 6 a.m. the next morning, and would have no chance to go back to the museum.

I went to the ticket booth and asked how much the tickets cost for the game, wanting to see AFL in real action. My friends thought the price was too much, so we decided not to go. I would have gone alone, but I realized that as a class we are going to see the Sydney Swans play against Hawthorne for an AFL game. This way, I would still get a chance to see Australian football!

Since the museum was closed and the ticket prices were a little too much, I decided to walk around the Melbourne Cricket Ground to see the stadium and observe the people coming to watch the game.

As I was walking, out of the corner of my eye I saw a plaque with the Olympic symbol on it.

I realized that the 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne! It was interesting to see this from so long ago and how 50 years later the Olympics were held in Sydney!

The people going to this AFL game seemed to not have as much energy as fans going to an American football game. In America, the fans would be blowing their horns and screaming out their team name upon arriving. Also, there was no tailgating before the game, which is very popular in America. The people walking up were taking their time getting to the stadium, even if they were 30 minutes late. I got a chance to peek my head inside for a second, and saw that the stadium was not even close to being completely full. At American football games, the stadiums are always packed with people and it is really hard to find tickets. I learned from this that even though Australians may be more competitive into their sports, Americans may at times be more passionate about their teams.

Seeing the Melbourne Football Club made me excited to go to a Sydney Swans game in about a month!

Newtown North Public School Soccer Game (Week 6)

Since we did not have a field trip this weekend, I decided to go out today and explore Australia and see what sporting events I could find. I started walking towards campus, but before I knew it, I found children playing sports at school. I live at Sydney University Village and right next to where my apartment is in the village is Newtown North Public School. 

Every single day when I walk to class or to the bus stop, I walk by the school and there are ALWAYS children playing sports outside. I decided to stand outside the fence for about ten minutes observing the children playing.

I noticed many similarities and difference from the way American children play during recess at school. Some similarities include the boys were playing sports by themselves and most of the girls sat around and talked together. There was not really much interaction between the girls and boys, because none of the boys seemed to be sitting around and not many of the girls were playing sports. At this Australian school, I noticed that the boys set up their own game of soccer, and some of the boys were teaching others who did not understand the rules. The boys wanted to play a fair game and not be frustrated if someone was not playing right. Even though I am sure this happens in America too, I do not think the children are that intense in playing sports during recess. Also, I noticed that since the children were all wearing the same uniform, they had a certain system to show who was on what team. I did not really follow what they were doing, but it was interesting to watch. It was intriguing to stand than and observe an elementary school group of children play outside from another country other than my own. Every day I learn more and more about Australian sports and culture, and getting in tune with the Aussie way of life!