Saturday, September 24, 2005

Super Saturday

Today we began our short road trip by heading down to Pretty Beach, about four hours South of Sydney. Today is also the Grand Final of the Australian Football League, with the Sydney Swans taking on the West Coast Eagles. Not sure if it is West Coast of Australia or just the Western Victoria coast, but it is a huge event. 90 thousand in attendance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the match.

We've been joking with the locals, whenever they mention any sports team, regardless of league or standing, 'Yeah, I think they're going all the way this year' just to patronize the conversation a bit. The Swans actually have gone all the way, surprisingly.

As we're out of city limits at the moment, radio coverage is our conduit to the magic that Aussie Rules football offers. We found a broadcast that was being done by two drunk blokes. I kid you not, they had crowd noise on loop and were watching the match on TV or something. They couldn't have been more unprofessional, making fun of players ethnicities and carrying on like two teenagers. They'd pretend to ask the crowd what they thought of their broadcast partner, then press the 'crowd boo-ing' button. It was amusing but got a bit annoying fairly quickly.

FYI - the legitimate radio coverage just stated, 'Oh yes, the ball is covered in blood'. Great sport.

posted by ncawthon at 3:10 PM