Melbourne Storm

Some of you have asked how much longer we have in Oz...four weeks left in Melbourne (Mark's last day at work is Sept. 7, and we leave for our two-week vacation in the Whitsundays (Airlie Beach area) in Queensland the next day. I wanted to see a rugby game here, so on Sunday afternoon the weather cooperated long enough for us to enjoy a match where the Melbourne Storm played the Brisbane Broncos at the Olympic Stadium in Melbourne. The game's history goes back to 1800's in Great Britain, and was favored by the working classes- in fact, there is a documented historic division between working classes and upper classes who were involved with rugby. The first Aussie club was formed by Sydney University in 1864. The British and Aussie rules differed and evolved over time. If you'd like more in-depth reading go here. There were about 13,000 at Sunday's game and although we still couldn't explain all the specific rules to you, it was interesting to watch. Like the footy match, if someone got injured, they usually just kept on playing while a medical staff person attended to the person on the field. I've posted some photos, and will try to post a little 'movie' I took but it was only my second time using the video feature so it's not very good. Mark and I found some good seats and I got some coffee and one of the sugary, jelly-filled little donuts they were selling. One interesting thing is the players throw the ball backwards to a teammate who tries to run with it but gets tackled by two or three members of the opposing team, who are able to hold him down (but not too long or they'll get penalized). Besides the actual game, the atmosphere was much like sports I've seen in the United States. They have too-tiny seats you have to try to squeeze into. They have silly mascots riding on flame-shooting scooters and running around signing autographs for the kids. They have slightly inebriated middle aged adults yelling at various players on the field, and groups of teenage men shouting things like "Brisbane are wankers!". They have angry rock music blaring. They have bleach-blonde cheerleaders in tight outfits, and little kids that come onto the field during halftime and play a "mini" game of rugby (if you're a boy) or do a "mini" cheer routine (if you're a girl). The adult cheerleaders had the sponsor's name, Jim Beam (whose slogan is "the stuff inside matters most") across their rears. Thank god the little girls didn't. As Mark observed, "Nothing says family fun like rock n' roll, flames, and girls in leotards with liquor ads on their butts". It doesn't take much for me to get cynical at major sports events. I'm glad we went though. It's stuff like this that has made us feel more like part of a community here and less like we're constant tourists. And Melbourne Storm won the game so there was a happy vibe in the air as people walked home.