Escape Down Under 6: Sport Mad Land

Planning to fly to Australia? Sixth in the, “Escape Down Under Series,” on a Sport Mad Land.  Discover the Australian soul; sport.

Sport – The Unofficial Religion of Down Under

You know the score, thousands of Australian yobs with green and gold made-up faces staring back at you at the World Cup, the Olympic Games and any international sport event.  Puke! Holding a degree in Outdoor Recreation and Leisure, I’m all for it, but when jingoism takes hold I get butterflies in my stomach and a pink face. Still, Australians love their sports, dedicating an advanced institute to it in the Heart of the Nation – Canberra.

Aussie Rules and Rugby League

The two main football codes of Australia are:

Rugby League:

• A oval-balled game of two halves of forty minutes
• Hooter or whistles sounds finish of half
• Begin with kick-off then the teams change sides at half-time

Aim: A forward moving team must put ball over goal line whilst other team tries to stop them.

 

Australian Rules Football, Aussie Rules, Australian Football League (AFL)

• Another oval ball, but lighter, than the Rugby League ball
• Invented by Melbournians, it has two teams, of eighteen players
• Kick, handle and run the ball – with less tackling of players – a mark or high catch being the unique feature

Aim: Get ball between high goal posts, with various special rules, making the game fast-action that is unique.

That’s right, the Australian Footy Season is about to start Down Under so fly here as fast as you can!

The Nut of It All Is

Melbourne – the prime place of football-worship is the Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) where the season culminates in the Grand Final of the AFL in just a few months.  The weather chills and the big men fly, in a spectacle of adrenaline and colors, of those AFL, “codes,” ( teams ) battling for supremacy for a golden cup.  A visit here at the height of footy season is a blank cheque to luck, fortune and joyous celebration – a prime reason to Escape Downunder.

Sydney and Brisbane – Veritable Notre Dames of Rugby League passion, dominating every newspaper and Web site for the season, from April to October.  A variant of Rugby Union, popular in New Zealand and Europe, Rugby League is the lite version – full of power, passion and colour.  What a game! That season apexes in the, “State of Origin,” where teams from NSW and Queensland slaughter one another for a silver shield.  There is nothing like the pure energy, any sport-lover would cream themselves over, the core reason for a wicked Escape Downunder.

A Game of Footy Begins

Other Sports

Tennis

Stay up late in summer and watch the tennis on giant television screens in Melbourne’s Central Business District.  The whole nation grinds to a halt at four am with blurry and eagle eyes transfixed on Nadal’s rear – and of course a match of tennis played at Wimbledon. No time zone would stand in the way of Australia’s desire for a tennis match. Melbourne Tennis is the main-game for the summer, along with the cricket.

Rafael Nadal In Action, Melbourne, 2009

Cricket

Another summer spectacular involving way too many Aussies. It’s sports and it is seasonal. Cricket is for the languorous, the lazy and the beer drinking Aussie who imagines he has that gentlemanly-bent despite being way too fat.

Australians love their sports, which is why the nation punches above its’ weight, winning much-gold at the Olympics.

South Land Sports Suggestions…

• Double Olympics Down Under – Melbourne, 1956 and Sydney, 2000
• An advanced scientific sports institute, probes sports people, in Canberra
• Sports goes on sun, hail, rain or shine and is the glue of the nation

Don’t delay! Blindly, madly book your Down Under Escape now for that forthcoming footy frenzy far-away!

More in the Escape Down Under Series…

• Escape Downunder 1: Strategy to the Impossible
• Escape Down Under 2: Price ‘N Pay 
• Escape Down Under 3: Becoming an Aussie
• Escape Down Under 4: Dining Down Under
• Escape Down Under 5: Getting Around Upside Down