Sydney Swans AFL Game

Earlier today we went to the Swans v. Hawks game at the Sydney Cricket Ground to see my first, live AFL game.  We were running a little late, so we arrived after the start of the game, so I was shocked to see how many people had packed the stands when we arrived.  Compared to rugby this place looked like the whole city was there.  I guess when there is only one Sydney team the whole city does come out to support them.

After finally getting seated, I tried to catch up with what was going on in the game.  After watching so much rugby and finally understanding it, I had a little bit of a difficult time transitioning to AFL.  First of all, there are now 18 players on the field and I noticed that even though there are certain positions, the guys are running all over the place.  Also, it was different to see the guys kick the ball to pass to their teammates; I know that they can only go about 15 metres before they must bounce to ball to continue, but it seemed they always kicked the ball instead. One thing I was sure of was the athletic ability of the players; to run around constantly on that large of playing surface, for the almost 2-hour game, takes a lot of endurance.  Unfortunately, the Swans got destroyed and lost by 46.  I’m not exactly sure about AFL standards, but in my opinion, the Hawks crushed them.  Either way, I think I enjoyed being at the AFL game more than the rugby games; I like the atmosphere of the circular stadium and I liked the quickness of the game.