Last Saturday I made my way to the Oval where the Western Bulldogs played an exhibition match against Port Adelaide. This was my first AFL match which I have ever seen, but I am sure it will not be the last match. I had little expectations as I knew very little about this sport. In fact the only thing I knew about the sport were from two short videos which my cousin had sent me. Here are the links to these videos:
My initial thoughts on the sport were that all these rules would make the game very complicated, but when after about 5 mins of the game some of the rules became clear. As the game went on I started to understand more and more of the rules and the game started to become enjoyable.
The game seems to be a mix of many sports, as it is played on an oval pitch (usually a cricket pitch) there are certain rules from football, rugby as well as basketball. Fans of these sports will surely like the game, as an alternative to their sports, in the close seasons.
The one concern I had was that my cousin and I seemed to be the only non-Australian people there. This seemed rather odd considering the British public are usually sports mad. What was even odder is that the cost of the ticket was £40 cheaper than I had paid to watch Arsenal v QPR the week before. Questions have to be asked of the marketing of the sport in the UK, the week before the NFL had packed out Wembley stadium. Yet the AFL could not fill The Oval.
I do not think that the sport is even televised in the UK, this is something which needs to be copied from the NFL. In my opinion Aussie Rules is better than rugby, and that it should have more coverage in the UK. A reason why the crowds were less could be that the match was scheduled on a day when there are many football matches taking place very near by. This again seems to be poor organisation, If I were to have picked a time to play it would have been either on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.
If anyone has any more information about AFL/Gaelic football in the UK please let me know. I would also like to adopt a team, so please leave your comments as to who I should adopt as my team.
The game seems to be a mix of many sports, as it is played on an oval pitch (usually a cricket pitch) there are certain rules from football, rugby as well as basketball. Fans of these sports will surely like the game, as an alternative to their sports, in the close seasons.
The one concern I had was that my cousin and I seemed to be the only non-Australian people there. This seemed rather odd considering the British public are usually sports mad. What was even odder is that the cost of the ticket was £40 cheaper than I had paid to watch Arsenal v QPR the week before. Questions have to be asked of the marketing of the sport in the UK, the week before the NFL had packed out Wembley stadium. Yet the AFL could not fill The Oval.
I do not think that the sport is even televised in the UK, this is something which needs to be copied from the NFL. In my opinion Aussie Rules is better than rugby, and that it should have more coverage in the UK. A reason why the crowds were less could be that the match was scheduled on a day when there are many football matches taking place very near by. This again seems to be poor organisation, If I were to have picked a time to play it would have been either on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon.
If anyone has any more information about AFL/Gaelic football in the UK please let me know. I would also like to adopt a team, so please leave your comments as to who I should adopt as my team.
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