September Glory

September Glory said the flags and posters around the city. Yes it was the culmination of the Aussie Rules football season, the Grand Final, to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). My hotel having been fully booked for some time for the weekend, I had to decamp to the Vibe Savoy at the other end of the CBD on Thursday for 3 nights, which was a bit of a nuisance.

Friday saw a great influx of footy fans. The final was between the West Coast Eagles from Perth in Western Australia and the Sydney Swans - a rematch of last year's Grand Final. Everywhere around town there seemed to be people in the Eagles' Yellow and Blue, with rather fewer in the Read and White of the Swans. But that is maybe because they had further to come so came earlier (Perth is 2 timezones ahead of Melbourne).

On the morning of the big day, I went round the corner to a little side-street cafe for breakfast. (Bacon and egg roll with a mug of coffee for $5). Brazenly decked out in the Swan's colours though it was, I found this group of Eagles fans tucking in to a hearty breakfast.

Of course I didn't have a ticket (there were none to be had even if I had tried to get one), but I went down to the MCG to sample the atmosphere. Even 2 1/2 hours before bounce-up, the place was teeming with people. And, all of a sudden, the Swans fans had appeared.

It seems that 'footy' is a passion of all ages, both men and women. Here was one family group.

I'd heard that a good place to watch the game on a giant screen was the Punt Rd Oval, home of the Richmond Tigers, and hardly more than 1/4 mile from the MCG.

Entry was free and there were food outlets, children's games and a beer tent to go with the 2 big screens. There must have been a good 2-3000 people in the ground by the time the match started, the majority being in Swans' colours (The Swans used to be a Melbourne team before they moved to Sydney).

One of the pre-match rituals is the singing of the team songs. Here are the Swans' fans singing their song.

And almost without noticing it, the match was started. (The TV coverage was focussing on two players trying to rip the shirts off each other at the time). Within minutes the Eagles were a dozen or so points ahead.

Eventually, the Swans scored a goal and their fans had something to cheer.

But at 1/2 time the Eagles were 26 points ahead. A bit one-sided, I thought. The Swans fans looked a bit miserable.

Now I'd also heard that Federation Square would have a big screen and that might be a good place to watch the match. So during the 1/2 time interval I went back past the MCG and on to Federation Square.

Here I found almost as many people as were at the Punt Rd Oval crammed into a smaller space.

And, to my amazement, the match was far from dead. The Swans came roaring back in the 3rd quarter and, by mid way through the final 1/4 had got the game back to 1 point. And then the Eagles scored another goal (and 6 points). And then the Swans scored another goal back. And then....

Eagles soar over the Swans said the paper headline afterwards, but it was a pretty frantic finish and they clung on to an 85-84 points victory. The Eagles in the crowd went wild.

Well that was the first Aussie Rules game I had watched, and what a spectacle! Hard lines to the Swans, but maybe they shouldn't have let the Eagles get so far ahead.

Oh, by the way, I took lots more photos. You can see them here on Flickr.