What the A.F.L.? A sport known as Australian Football League, "Aussie Rules" or just A.F.L. This sport is something very unique indeed: something the aussies have made their own and now is the time where it reaches fever pitch - Finals Season. I will start off trying to explain the rules so hopefully you get a clearer idea of what the hell I'm writing about. Ok, take 16 team players a piece with 4 subs; add a large oval pitch; dash 2 referees into the mix; some goal posts and an odd shaped ball which would, I guess, be in the rugby ball family. This is the basic recipe for an A.F.L game. Ensure a side of noisy, patriotic fans to compliment the balance. The game commences with a "ball up", where the ref stands in the centre circle and bounces the ball off the ground as high as he can so the players can palm it off to their team. Once held, the ball can be moved on in two ways. Firstly, it can be kicked and secondly it can be... well.. I guess the best description is punted off the fist - not unlike a serve in volleyball. You are NOT allowed to throw the ball under any circumstances. If a player kicks the ball and it is caught before hitting the ground this is called a "mark". Play then stops to allow the team in possession to gain better positioning around the pitch. A mark can be taken and ignored by continuing play if it more advantageous. Most of the time an opposing team will try to "spoil" the mark by either catching it themselves or getting a hand to the ball and causing the player to drop it. Players are allowed to run with the ball as long as every 10 paces they bounce the ball: and they are only allowed 3 bounces before having to pass it on. The aim obviously is to score as many points as possible; this can also be done in two ways. There are 4 goal posts: 2 in the centre and 2 on either side of this (see the picture for a clearer idea). If the ball goes through the centre posts, this represents 6 points. But if it goes through the outside posts, this is called a "behind" and is worth only 1 point. Goals, need to be kicked, not fisted through. There is no height restriction as in rugby so even if the ball dribbles through on the ground it still counts. But, if an opposing manages to touch the ball as it goes through, it will count as a behind. Once a goal has been scored the ball is returned to the centre for another ball up. If the ball goes out of bounds a linesman will stand with his back to the pitch and throw it over his head so not to give either team an advantage at this point. So far, so good. Now, tackling. This is where the fun starts. Tackling is very similar to rugby - just grab your player and drag them to the ground. But, no high tackles allowed. The tackler can hope for two things during a tackle: either the player drops the ball and it is picked up by another team member, or you wrap them up so well they cannot get rid of the ball which results in a ball up. This is great if you are in their 50 as it puts you much closer to the goal posts. A 50 is the area around the goal posts: the markings allow the players to gauge how far the goals are and whether they will be able to kick a goal from a particular distance. There are no real rules other than this. It doesn't matter if players fumble the ball, fall over, drop it, kick it, whatever goes and it normally does! Probably most of the action happens off the ball. In most sports this idea would be frowned upon and free kicks given. But the idea here is to basically unsettle your opponent by shoving them around the pitch; this is done with elbows, holding of their bodies so they cannot run and so on. Of course, if the ref sees holding which prevents a player getting the ball then a free kick is given. But with 16 players on each team the ref can't see everything and so there is a lot of intimidating that goes on around the play. In fact, in a build up to one match, they showed some highlights of one of the worst games and it resulted in many injuries and even some footage of a player on the sidelines crying because he had been beaten around the pitch so badly. Ok, so that is basically the game. But I guess you have to see it to believe! When I first started watching it I mocked it so hard. It looked like a group of grown men doing ballet around a pitch - although not as pretty. No one could hold onto the ball for dear life and it was just a lot of pushing and shoving. But I persevered and the results were quite good. The change came when a friend got us free tickets to see our local team, the Sydney Swans, play a game (thank you Lissanthia). We rocked up to the ground and the atmosphere was incredible. Thousands of fans in team colours with banners, scarves, huge pom poms and in great voice. The game defiantly looks better in real life and you can begin to see how the game works. See the photos for a better idea of how it looked! Once the game was over I became a bit of a fan and have now watched as many games as I can. We are now into the run up to the finals and the Swans are right there in the action. They have not won the premiership since the early 1900's so it is fantastic that they are here. The last game was incredible, they were being out played in each quarter and it looked like their season was over. But in the last 10mins of the game, they managed to score a few goals which put them right back in the action. There were us 3 girls screaming at the tv, praying that a miracle would take place... and there is it was... the clock was running down, time running out and they just couldn't seem to hold onto the ball long enough to get it through the posts that one last time. We were now off our seats squealing with each wrong move and each fumbled ball when Nick Davis managed to somehow get the ball through the posts in the last few seconds of play. He grabbed the ball, fumbled it but got a toe to it and sent it through the posts to put them 3 points ahead. The fans went nuts, we went crazy and 3 seconds later the whistle went and they were into the next round. I have never seen an army of red and white so vividly celebrating an amazing come back. The team also could not believe what had happened: it was magical, a thing of dreams. Sadly this meant that Geelong's season was over, stolen from them in the last few seconds of an amazing game. Players dropped to the ground and wept for their mummies as the realization kicked in at how close they had come. So now we wait: this weekend is the next game and we can only hope for a game as exciting as the last.... GO THE SWANS!!