Thursday, September 3, 2009
Hawks vs. Ess
short-talk:
I found out something new today during my Transport lecture. Usually, Malaysian lecturers pronounce 'λ' as Lan-da right? But Australian lecturer pronounces it as Leng-teh..haha..kinda cute and hilarious though.
The more he pronounces Leng-teh, it sounds more like Liang-Teh to me instead! lol
When we reached the venue, all I noticed was supporters and enthusiasts strolled to the stadium in lines. And that was like one hour plus before the game!! What amazed me was to even encounter senior citizens, carrying umbrellas and joined the throng of crowd too! Clearly, footy is for all ages.
Truly when it comes to Footy, people's punctuality was one the dot.
Boo to Ess~~~
So you can imagine the whole stadium immediately became a Cow Farm, "moo...mooo..moooo..". Okay, just kidding.
Hawks lost. =(
I found out something new today during my Transport lecture. Usually, Malaysian lecturers pronounce 'λ' as Lan-da right? But Australian lecturer pronounces it as Leng-teh..haha..kinda cute and hilarious though.
The more he pronounces Leng-teh, it sounds more like Liang-Teh to me instead! lol
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Before i get myself into hibernation mode from blogging again, I better post about my awesome and fresh experience of Australian Footy League. Up to this time, the massive hurray from the crowds is still echoing in my mind! I would have never imagined myself going for a Footy match, but i did! Too bad, Hawks was defeated by Ess.
Even so, i am so keen to share with you all about this wonderful sport adventure i had. As far i could tot up, this was perhaps my first sport game i watched in a stadium. The match was held in Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was a crucial match for both clubs, because which team that wins will enter into the Final league. Hence, I could imagine how grand the atmosphere will going to be.
When we reached the venue, all I noticed was supporters and enthusiasts strolled to the stadium in lines. And that was like one hour plus before the game!! What amazed me was to even encounter senior citizens, carrying umbrellas and joined the throng of crowd too! Clearly, footy is for all ages.
Truly when it comes to Footy, people's punctuality was one the dot.
People were queuing up to purchase the last minute tickets. Merchandise stalls were everywhere. Supporters of Hawks and Ess were found scattered around too.
In the stadium, we settled down on the best sitting view that we can and took a brief look at the mammoth stadium. The stadium was huge!! People were slowly filling up each section. Good enough, we managed to grab on a perfect view of the field. Exactly just right in front of the goal poles.
Couple minutes passed and the entire stadium was packed with supporters. Families came dressing with the favourite team colors. Youngsters came carrying the huge flag and banner.
After the final rehearsal, the game then started with a loud blow of trumpet sound. The first half of the match was kinda bewildered to me as i was trying to understand the exact rules of the game. And i did! After the first quarter, i was into the game! What particularly astonished me was the total number of people turned up for the game! Initially, i made a rough estimation of 20,000 people. However, the huge screen displayed 77,798+ people during the game! Insane!
What's worst was when the game was just about to get started, i saw two people fighting on the field! Later did i know, it's permissible to do a little rough punching to the opponents if either one "be-song" the other team. And this of course has added up to the excitement of footy when fighting becomes legal during the game!
Australian Footy is almost identical to American Rugby. There were the few odd moments when someone snatched the ball and everyone would just jump on him. And they would metamorphose into Sumo wrestlers for that moment and squeezed the poor little guy into a pancake. Ouch!
What's worst was when the game was just about to get started, i saw two people fighting on the field! Later did i know, it's permissible to do a little rough punching to the opponents if either one "be-song" the other team. And this of course has added up to the excitement of footy when fighting becomes legal during the game!
Australian Footy is almost identical to American Rugby. There were the few odd moments when someone snatched the ball and everyone would just jump on him. And they would metamorphose into Sumo wrestlers for that moment and squeezed the poor little guy into a pancake. Ouch!
The atmosphere since the first quarter was consistently electrifying. I hardly spend few minutes to watch American Rugby on the television at home, but it's totally different here. Sitting in the middle of the uproarious supporters and seeing the crowds waving those banners and constantly yelling were indeed an experience for me.
However, as i looked around our seating, our seating plan was literally surrounded by Essendon Red supporters! So you try to imagine us, wearing Yellow supporter wears and slotting ourselves in between the huge Red crowd. Who cares though. Whenever Hawks scored, i would stood up and yelled "Y-E-A-H!!!!" at the top of my lungs!
After the third quarter, there was a huge gap between Hawks and Ess. And clearly that Hawks was on the winning side, and the Hawks supporters, which included me went overjoyed!! The Hawks team was doing well! You can hear war cry of "Hawthorn! Hawthorn! Hawthorn!" from the west to the east and all the way through the stadium. And as usual, it was at this time that Essendon supporters sat down solemnly and kept their waving banner low on ground. Haha!!
Boo to Ess~~~
And off to the fourth quarter, something nasty happened. When the trumpet blasted off the start, some of the Essendon players knocked one of key players of Hawks down and the entire stadium went completely inaudible for three seconds. Straight after that, the supporters of Hawks started boo-ing to Ess. 'Boo.....boo.....'
So you can imagine the whole stadium immediately became a Cow Farm, "moo...mooo..moooo..". Okay, just kidding.
As the game continued on, I persevered and kept on yelling and screaming for Hawks. It was obvious that the Hawks' spirit was down, and Essendon made a come back and had amazing kicks during the fourth quarter. The supporters of Essendon went crazy and started to re-wave their banner once again.
Eventually after a few good kicks by the Essendon team, they managed to outscore Hawks. Because of that, instead of hearing "Hawthorn!!.... Hawthorn!!.. Hawthorn!!...", the stadium was overlaid with "Essendon!!.. Essendon!!.. Essendon!!.."Ten minutes before the game ended, most of the Hawks supporters stood up and walked out from the match.
Hawks lost. =(
Supporters of Hawks were despondent of the match on that evening whilst on the other side, the Essedon's supporters were shouting and cheering like mad in the stadium. But frankly, even though this was my first Footy match, i did feel for the defeat. I couldn't imagine how would those faithful and die hard fans react.
Nonetheless, something funny happen. On our walk back to the train station, I heard someone playing bagpipe. And when i took few steps closer, i saw this girl, wearing Hawks supporter wears and played Aug Lang Syne and Amazing Grace! Okay, that's funny though! lol..
Still, it was no doubt a wonderful experience for me in Melbourne. I get to taste a different culture of a sport which Australians are fanatical about!
I want to watch the Grand Final!!! Someone please teach me how to purchase the online ticket?? Now i finally understand why Australians are so mad about Footy!
1:15 AM
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4 comments
Comments:
hawks was the champion last year
By 
JorZac, at
Friday, September 4, 2009 at 10:21:00 AM GMT+8
jorzac: yeap! i know man.Too bad they couldnt make it to the final league for this year
By Johnson, at
Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 12:04:00 AM GMT+8
Yikes...is this you bro? When did you start wearing glasses de? Go there terus pakai specs dy? HAha...glad you are having a great time there bro...Have all the fun you need as long as you remember that studies must always come first! :) GBU bro..
By 
, at
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 1:30:00 AM GMT+8
watched final destination4??i m sure u dun dare to go to the stadium anymore..hahaha..have fun ya..
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