Mark Twain, A Race and a Footy Match

Well today is a Public holiday in Melbourne. There is an event that happens here every year on the first Tuesday in November. A horse race called the Melbourne Cup.

I guess it is somehow typical of Aussies that one of our biggest public holidays, a spectacle that brings the state to a halt, is a horse race.
And I really mean to a halt. Today is an official public holiday which means employers are obliged by law to pay anyone working today two and a half times their normal pay. Not surprisingly most businesses shut up shop for the day.

To be fair “The Cup” has a long tradition as a big event, this year sees its 150th Anniversary.
Mark Twain was in Melbourne in 1895 and he said of the day:“Cup Day, and Cup Day only, commands an attention, an interest, and an enthusiasm which are universal—and spontaneous, not perfunctory. Cup Day is supreme it has no rival.”

Now that is all I have to say about The Cup. I enjoyed the day off but I didn’t go to the Flemington Racecourse to watch the race run.

Instead I will talk about another sporting event that would arguably be even more important to Melburnians. The Aussie Rules Grand Final which happens at the end of September.

In Victoria there are two sports that really grab the public attention. Cricket in the summer and Australian Rules Football (or footy) in winter. Footy would be the closest thing there is to a universal passion in Melbourne. If you want to have a conversation with a Victorian a good starting point is almost always footy. The passion for the sport somewhat bewilders me as I am from Queensland where Rugby is the local "footy" and I have to admit I am not much interested in that either. I maintain I am the quiet writer type :-)

However this year Deb and I went to the Grand Final.
Deb is a big fan of The Saint Kilda Football Club and they were playing. More to the point Deb was given a pair of corporate tickets worth… Well I dread to think what they were worth, the face vale was $345 each but I know they always sell for $700 - $1500. Safe to say we wouldn’t have gone unless we had been gifted the tickets.

So the big day came Deb and I arrived very early to avoid the worst of the crowd. We walked from Flinders Street Railway Station towards the Melbourne Cricket Ground the home of footy (the MCG also affectionately known as ‘The Gee’). We used a footbridge to cross the lines running into Flinders Street.
The view from the footbridge back to the Melbourne CBD

As you get close you realise just how big the stadium is.When we arrived the stands were fairly empty.The teams came out on to the ground to warm up.Deb snapped this shot of me to prove I was there.

“Entertainment” was provided like this ‘footy’ shaped hot air balloon.One of the coaches discussed kicking with Nick Riewoldt the St Kilda Captain.
Who then had a go himself.INXS played their hit “Suicide Blonde” as the ground continued to fill.They are starting to look like old rockers.
QANTAS did a flyby with their latest Super Jumbo.And the players (who had disappeared as INXS played) made their formal entry to the field.
The first ball up was held by one of the referees (there are four on the ground plus two goal keeping umpires) and the game was on.I won’t even try to explain the rules, the game is very different to any other form of football (the closet is Gaelic Football played in Ireland). If you want to get some idea of the rules you can go here.

Probably the most important thing to understand is the game is fast, very fast. Often scores of 130 or 150 are achieved by both teams.It is also very intense as you can see by the face of this St Kilda player.The ball flies high and the players leap high into the air to try to ‘take a mark’ which gives them a free kick.The whole crowd scream their heads off. Deb screamed (so much she lost her voice that night), and even me, the least football minded person on the ground, ended up screaming my lungs out.

The writer in me has filed this experience away. The atmosphere is amazing, very much as I imagine the feel at a Roman spectacle must have been.

The result a draw!

Collingwood kicked 9 goals and 14 behinds for a score of 68, while St Kilda kicked 10 goals and 8 behinds for a score of 68.Under AFL rules the teams would have to come back to play again the next week. This is only the second time this has happened in over 100 years!

A word about Aussie crowds, as you can see when the ground is at its fullest fans of both teams are intermingled. There seems to be little or no ill will between the supporters of each team.
I think this has two causes: first Aussies tend to be relatively laid back, we aren’t generally aggressive to each other; and with such high scores the supporters of both teams get plenty of outlet for their passions!

So that was the (first) Grand Final of 2010.

The day had a final treat in store. As we walked back towards Flinders Street the evening light and a rapidly approaching storm did wonders for the light over the city.The Eureka Tower in particular looked spectacular.The colours of the building have some symbolism. The gold face represents the gold of the 19th century rushes. The red represents the shed blood of the Eureka rebels and the blue and white stand for the colours of the Southern Cross flag they fought (and died) under. I may say more about the Eureka Rebellion around the anniversary later in the year.


Ps. In the replay St Kilda were defeated by Collingwood (but as Deb is still smarting I won’t say any more).