This game is easy to get hooked on. I’m in the United States and I have watched this sport since I first discovered it in the early 1980’s on ESPN. Now, it is often on around 4:00 AM EDT on Fox Sports World. Rugby from New Zealand is on during most of the year, but I think Aussie Rules is more fun. Have any Aussie dopers been to a match? What do you think of it?
First time I saw it, I thought ‘HOLY JEEBUS!’ Unfortunately, I no longer have cable, and never did understand the scoring, re the fellow in white suit and his hand signals. It was kinda like watching a streetfight, without the weapons.
Off to watch the Brisbane Lions vs the Adelaide Crows at the Gabba tonight.
Go Lions!
It’s a much, much better game to watch live at the grounds than on tv. The tv cam follows the ball while most of the real action happens off the ball.
Being originally from South Australia I grew up with Aussie Rules, and yes I’ve been to a few matches in my time, mainly as a kid. It never grabbed me the way rugby (union) has though. It’s the main football game played in all states of Australia except Qld and NSW. Aussie Rules comes second to Rugby League in those two states.
One American friend told me Aussie Rules reminded him of a bar room brawl but to my eyes rugby definitely fits that bill.
I managed to get to a few Lions games before they got so poular you had to book weeks in advance. I’m watching the Kangaroos demolish the Hawks at the moment.
Well, I’ve never been to a game. But that mighta just been the whole, not living in a town with a stadium thing. And I’m a hockey girl.
I hadn’t really watched the State of Origin before until this year, and I only watched the final game, and I CAN’T BELIEVE WE LOST :eek: 
But it’s who won the fight that really counts 
It’s pretty much a religion here. There’s nothing quite like walking from Richmond station to the MCG on an early spring day to watch the footy. I agree with Sisyphus’ Stone’s comment that it’s a much better game in the flesh - there’s a lot that you can’t catch on TV.
Carna Saints.
I love Aussie rules football. Don’t follow closely enough to get to know the teams, but the game is pretty cool. My favorite part is when the official signals the score by what looks to be a pantomime of drawing two revolvers at once.
I love it. I just recently started watching on Fox Sports World, but the sheer magnitude of the game gets me. The field looks so big, and there are so many loooooong kicks.
I think I’ve got the scoring down with goals and behinds, but I don’t really want to know the rules. It’s more fun watching without them. 
Yes! With surgical precision! And that fabulous white uniform, too.
The scoring is not difficult. A team scores six points if it kicks the ball between the middle set of goal posts (a goal) and one point if it kicks the ball between either of the outer sets of goal posts (a behind). Scores are thus quoted as three numbers e.g. Team ABC has scored 4.7.31 i.e. 4 goals, each worth 6 points, plus 7 behinds, each worth 1 point, making a total of 31 points.
We don’t get to see it here often but you got to love the teeny shorts and sleeveless shirts 
Aussie Rules???
Aerial ping-pong more like it…
(League fan here - go the Eels…) :smack:
I grew up watching rugby (league and union) in Sydney, so i never really got into Aussie Rules as a kid. I really grew to enjoy it as an adult, however, and by the time i left Sydney i was attending Swans games quite regularly.
It’s a lot of fun to watch on TV, but i agree with those who say that it’s an experience of altogether greater magnitude when you’re at the ground.
A yank who is a footy fan here. Picture the scene. it’s a Friday night in 1984 (85?) and I’m flipping through the channels, when I stumble, on ESPN, on a shot of ceremonies at the friggin’ HUGE stadium in the bright sunshine. When I realize this is a live telecast from Australia, where it’s already Saturday afternoon, I am intrigued, and when they start playing, I am seriously hooked. This game is actually fun. Continuous action, like soccer, but high scoring (unlike soccer) and thus fun. A huge field, tremendous athleticism, no pads, and the chance to pickup a few Aussie phrases like “offloaded” for “slammed to the ground” — what’s not to like?
It didn’t hurt that the game I watched was the Grand Final between Essendon and Hawthorn, which featured a great come-from-behind win. Of course, I had to wait six months for the season to come around again (there’s another thing to like - a full half-year season), but I followed it carefully for the next several years on ESPN.
Then in 1990, the Foster’s Cup competition was held in three overseas countries, including London and…Portland, Oregon (just 90 miles from where I live). Working for a small town newspaper, I was able to wangle a press pass for my wife and I and sit in the press box. The West Coast Eagles were playing the North Melbourne Demons at Portland’s Civic Stadium, which was hardly the MCG in size, so much of the team’s strategy was altered to fit the small space. The Demons handled the Eagles with no problems, so it wasn’t a close match, but I was proud that 15,000 Oregonians and Washingtonians showed up, filling much of the small stadium.
But the coolest thing to me was sitting next to Eagles 7-time leading goal scorer Peter Sumich in the press box. Of course he hadn’t been 7-time scorer then, and he was in the press box and not on the field becausehad been suspended for an infraction in the preliminary final (another thing to love about footy - one of the best oxymorons in the world - “preliminary final”) and he offered to go get a Fosters for me! A footy star is waiting on me! (OK, it wasn’t waiting on me; it was better, more like something a friend would do casually. I was in heaven for some time after that.
When ESPN dropped them and the best the AFL (formerly the VFL) could do was on a premium pay channel (Fox Sport News) I was out of luck. It’s only available on satellite in our area, and we don’t have such at our house.
A brother-in-law last year taped several games for me, but he had to subscribe to FSN to do so, and it’s something he wouldn’t do otherwise, so I haven’t pushed for it this year.
I do highly recommend AFANA , the Australian Football Association of North America which carries news, a chat board, and lobbies for greater TV coverage on our continent. There’s plenty on their website.
<nitpick>
That’s the Melbourne Demons. North Melbourne has the Kangaroos.
Carn the Dogs.
Aren’t the Roos in Sydney now. Or did that little experiment fail?
I played as a teenager in Canberra a long time ago. I came to the U.S. and played baseball at a high level (Big 10) through college, but I have never played a game as fun as Aussie Rules.
Aussie Rules rocks.
Not yet, at least, though they have a couple of home games in Sydney, I believe. Other teams appear to be trying this out. The Dogs have one in Darwin soon. Think the Hawks might have had one in Tassie recently, though I could be wrong.
I don’t know why noone appears to be going for the “North Brisbane” option. Surely Brissie could sustain a second team soon.
I have to third that. The game is not as friendly for TV as other football codes. Watching the game live you capture much more of the game, which does not all follow the ball.
Hawthorne I always assumed you were a Hawks fan (and someone had already taken the correct spelling).