AFL. I really should’ve been born in Victoria. Why is it that whenever I am asked what team I “go for”, I am left to defend the length of shorts and later continue my google search on Aerial Ping Pong?
Despite all this, I am not afraid anymore to support the code in NSW. It’s football, fullstop. Why else would a crowd of 86,000 flock to the MCG of a Saturday afternoon other than to observe a league of talented sportspersons to play a game that has been around longer than said NSW rivalry? Yes that’s right. “Aerial Ping Pong” had its first recorded match in 1858 between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, the same year the Melbourne Football Club was established. This is a fifty-year head start on league. Ah-hem.
Alright, I feel I’ve adequately justified its placement in Australian sport. So I’ll get on with reason two of loving Melbourne even more. They live and breathe the sport down there.
The air is thick with rivalry and the animated spirit at the stadium the afternoon of my first MCG experience was exhilarating. The newspapers have 12 pages dedicated to each round and the channels will broadcast it live. I didn’t get crowd phobia coming to and from the grounds.
I could have walked in there with “Swans Fan” written on my forehead and still kindly been shown my seat in row x, section q32.
And the place is enormous.
I rest my case.
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