by Jishi Santos

Created on: September 26, 2008

A perfect season.

I will change but one thing in the title to this article as I write from Australia on the morning of our A.F.L. Grand Final 2008. The change is from N.F.L. to A.F.L. which stands for Australian Football League. It has been the perfect season for me as my team, Hawthorn from Melbourne, Australia is playing off in the main match of the year against the ladder leader Geelong, who have only lost two matches over the season as opposed to Hawthorn losing four. These two teams have stayed 1st and 2nd for the season and it is the perfect Grand Final for me. Quite literally they left the other fourteen teams for dead and both teams have an amazing skill level. One of the reasons that I am writing this article is to tell Americans about our great game 'Down Under'. If you are ever in Australia and particularly Melbourne and there is a game of "Aussie Rules" on then you must try and witness it.

Let me point out the differences between your game of gridiron and our game. First your game is more like rugby and you run with the ball trying to get it over the line. Also you wear protective clothing. Our game requires you wear shorts and a colored football jumper, these can either be sleeveless or full sleeve.Colored socks and white boots make the players look smart. Unlike rugby players, who are rather thickset, our players look more like yours, physically kinda lean and muscley and fit. In fact a few of our A.F.L. Players have gone to America to play Gridiron. One guy Darren Beckwith, from the Melbourne football club played with the San Diego Chargers a while ago.

The game takes place on a large oval with two sets of goal and point posts at either end. The goal posts are bigger than the point posts and go in first with the two point posts on either side. If you kick through the centre of this configuration, in other words between the two taller goal posts, you can score 6 points or a goal for your team. If you get it through either side of these, in other words the smaller posts, you score one point for your team. There is always action and some scores have been known to end up for example 18 goals 15 points =123 points in total, to say the losing team scoring 16 goals 12 points =108 points. As the game consists of four quarters, each 30 minutes long, you can see there is plenty of spaced out even action. Sometimes in soccer you can wait that long for a score of 3 to 1. Kinda boring, unless you are into skills and not action.

The ball is bounced in the centre and the teams of eighteen each are evenly placed around the oval into forwards and backs. The backs try to keep the ball away from the other teams forwards and vice versa. Free kicks can be awarded for rough play such as grabbing round the neck or pushing in the back or kicking over the boundary line on the full. The skill levels come in as you can run and bounce the ball and kick it as long as you want or short pass to a team mate with either a handball or short kick. But the greatest skill and one which brings a roar from the crowd is the aspect of high marking. Some of our best markers can get right up on a 6 foot opponent's shoulders and pluck the ball out of the air at a height of 12 feet above the ground!

Anyway it's been the perfect season for me as my team has performed consistently well and plays off for top season position today. The real point of my article is to tell you guys and gals on the other side of the world to come and witness our great game if you are ever in the land Down Under or Oz land as we call it. You won't be disappointed!

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