I seriously dislike football. I always have cause it seems so full of aggression and too much testosterone in my opinion! In the past I've always been the one in the kitchen on grand final day talking to the other non-footy-lovers! In fact, give me a good game of cricket any day!
Imagine my surprise (read shock, horror) when the 11 year old said that he wanted to play AFL. I was torn between my predisposition to the sport and my need to fulfil my supportive motherly duties! Thankfully Dear Husband committed himself to do all the running around to games and a lot of the running around to trainings. So I was basically outnumbered and the football-loving males in this household got their wish!
So today I went to watch my dear son play. Now, I'm sitting here contemplating what I've now learnt about AFL. Footy lovers reading this are probably rolling their eyes back into their heads by now, but just to shock you more, this is what I can say about the game in general:
* The idea is to get the ball between the goal posts at your team's designated end of the field.
* There are 2 big goalposts with 2 smaller posts at each end of the field. If you kick the ball through the 2 big posts, that is worth 6 points. If you kick it through a big and small post, that is worth one point. And if you hit it through any posts it is only worth a point apparently (confused yet?)
* To get the ball down the field you have to either kick it, pass it (with that fist under the hand movement thingy) or run with it.
* If you run with it you have to bounce it after so many steps and then hope like hell you can catch it again.
* If you kick it and someone catches it on the full, that is called a 'mark'. That means that you can have a go at kicking it further and everyone has to stand back until you do.
* You stop the other players with the ball by either stealing the ball from them or tackling them.
* You can push and nudge the player you are playing near to get in front to get the ball.
Hmmmmm.....how am I doing?
Now IMO spectator observation is more of a sport. Watching grown men and women cheering, howling, ranting, screaming and offering very vocal opinions to the players and ref was a bit of a culture shock. And not all of it I could understand. Imagine my surprise when some poor little kid was lying in the middle of the field having been winded, with tears running down his eyes, when the folks behind me were cheering the perpertrator (ummmm....I mean 'other player') for doing a great tackle! What is that all about?! If it had been my son, I would have had to restrain myself from running out onto the field to rescue him.
So maybe I'm not cut out for this footy mum stuff! Perhaps I'm better off saving my energies for the summer cricket season where I understand the whole 'hit the ball down the pitch with your bat' stuff.
Oh and for those interested, 'our' team got flogged today but my dear son did score the only goal that his team made! Pretty good for a first-timer with a non-footy loving mum, hey!
