General Chat

OH went to MCG, Boxing Day 1975

100F

almost 100,000 spectators


loads of eskies and beer

Because we are an ultra multi racial country we too have all those sports. Our football grand final draws a crowd of around 90,000 to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Yes it is called MCG and they do play cricket there in the summer time and football (AFL) in the winter time.

Our home and away games of AFL draw between 10000 and 40000 depending on which teams are playing. Likewise with the cricket.

Spectators, usually Brits, Italians or Croatians, for the soccer matches generally attend because they have been given free tickets. If they are lucky enough to have scored corporate box tickets they usually spend their time watching the AFL match of the day on TV in the box.

Basketball. Well that is interesting. You could lift a whole team from the Australian national basketball league and plonk it in any American city and the Americans would never know the difference. Most of our players are USA imports over here to hone their skills during their off season.

yes, it is this weekend


and that ad is causing ructions all over the place.


Luckily for me, OH isn't interested in American or Canadian Football.


We got level 3 of cable so he could watch Rugby, but he lost interest in that after he stepped down as Secretary of Canadian Rugby because of the shenanigans that were going on.


He doesn't even watch Welsh Rugby!



sylvia

Is this weekend their overhyped bizarre Superbowl extravaganza?

No.1 is going to tape the halftime Who show for me (I'll be abandoning the chesterfield for the duration, watch for me here ...). He didn't hesitate to note that it's on CBS, which happens to have 3 shows with Who theme songs, so shall we bet which songs they'll be performing ...

Will have to wait for youtube to see the appalling anti-choice Focus on the Family ad. A women's organization in the US is threatening to bring a false advertising action -- the football player's mother who claims to have resisted coercion to terminate her pregnancy was pregnant in the Philippines ... where abortion was illegal ...

oh definitely Canadian football, CFL style


not that I understand it any better than American!


BUT there is nothing better than going to watch American football at an American university ........... 60,000 spectators, and incredible athletes.



and yes it is called soccer in Canada



we also have RUGBY ......... amateur style, although jobs may be found :)))))



sylvia

*I* know that, AuntyS - soccer. You just never know who's reading along and might get confused. ;)

Canadian football is the real thing. The CFL. Although most Canadians would disagree, and watch US NFL. It is the one thing I flatly refuse to have on TV when I'm in the room. It is a wall of noise, from beginning to end. And the hi-techiness of it is ludicrous. They draw lines on the field by computer for the home viewers. Obviously because nobody would have a clue what was going on if they didn't. Not that I do anyway. I don't care to. Oh, and btw - those guys don't just look fat, they *are* fat. Hugely.

My only US football soft spot is one of my favourite movies. Heaven Can Wait. I watched it for the 97th time just over Christmas ...

Oh my goodness I am running out of soap here. Janey you must be frothing at the mouth.

English football!! Gives Janey the cake of soap again.

It is soccer. S o c c e r. They play soccer them lot. Kiss and giggle with free acting lessons chucked in. There is only one proper football and that is AFL or Australian Rules.

And the Americans have gridiron. which no one understands at all. Some sort of game where they dress up in costumes that make them look very fat and try to run from one end of a ground to the other. (Oh the memory just clicked.... What it was was football!!!) And I have absolutely no idea what the Canadians play with a ball, oval or round.

Whoops I must away. Body torture class. I hate it when the real world intrudes on my education.

Summer Olympics hockey, what an utterly ludicrous idea. ;)

Tier II Junior A -- guffaw!! -- you mean they spend all their time fighting??

Not like the NHL, of course ...

Okay, has anybody never seen Don Cherry, hockey commentator extravulgaire and champion of hockey fighters everywhere?

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=don+cherry&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

a gallery.

What kills me when I have the ... uh, unparalleled joy ... of watching English "football" every Saturday is the constant ethnic/national references to the players: "the Swede", "the Italian", etc. etc.

Other than by the vile Cherry, not the sort of thing gets done on Canuckistanian TV!

oo'er




don't think I've ever heard of any of those NHL players before lol!!!

Janey!!!! Do we have a hockey team??? Wash your mouth out woman. Of course we do.

"The Australia national field hockey team (nickname Kookaburras) are the Australia's national men's hockey team, and one of the nation's most successful top level sporting teams. They are the only Australian team in any sport to receive medals at the last four Summer Olympic Games (1992–2004), and have placed in the top four in every Olympics since 1980.

The Kookaburras' inability to win an Olympic gold medal despite their perennial competitiveness, led many in the Australian hockey community to speak of a "curse" afflicting the team,[1] finally broken in 2004 with the win in Athens."

Oh you mean "ice hockey team". Hmmm now that's a bit different. Apart from the fact we need all our ice to cool our drinks, I suppose almost the answer might be yes..............

In 2008 we were ranked 33rd in the world. So the sport probably has the same impact over here as Australian Rules Football has in that part of the world.

The Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) is Australia's top-level ice hockey league. It is sanctioned by Ice Hockey Australia (a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation) and is run by its own Board of Directors.

AIHL players are semi-professional. Typically this means that players are not paid to play in the AIHL, but receive other benefits such as the use of a car, accommodation, flights/travel within Australia, and other benefits. Often these benefits are supplied or funded by sponsors and vary from team to team.

The AIHL is typically regarded as being somewhere equivalent to Canadian Tier II Junior A Hockey, or similar in standard to some of the less-known European professional leagues such as the Dutch National League. To support this claim, a great deal of imported players have gone from the AIHL to the Dutch league, and vice versa.

The AIHL has attracted players up to and including NHL players: Steve McKenna (Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Minnesota Wild) played for the Adelaide Avalanche in 2005, Rob Zamuner (Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning) played for the Brisbane Blue Tongues for half a season in 2006.

In 2007 Mel Angelstad (Washington Capitals and Portland Pirates) joined Adelaide Avalanche, and goalie Tyrone Garner (Calgary Flames) played in net for the Brisbane Blue Tongues.

In 2008 the Gold Coast Blue Tongues recruited NHL and LNAH veteran Gaetan Royer to play in the AIHL

Oh bother I just put a missing item request on a different thread.

It seems my very stylish green and gold bedspread is under threat from some furriners. Just because I hung it out to dry from the window.

Might also add that said flag is the cornerstone of a very successful education program for children over here. Teaches them all about the Olympic ideals and striving to do your best.


And re Steven Bradbury

His comment after reflecting on winning the race in such weird circumstances was along the lines of

I wondered should I throw my hands into the air and celebrate such a strange win. Then I thought of the prior 12 years of pain and hard work and decided it would be OK to celebrate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bradbury

I loved it


I thought it was great!

I do remember that! All fall down, surprise, you win!

watch out

AuntyS will be after you!


remember, an Aussie short track speedskater won Gold in Salt Lake City in 2002

.......... he was the last man standing after a demolition derby type event



sylvia

The trick is to catch them when they aren't looking, with their money-grubbing ways, that IOC.

The Aussies should do with their flag what we did at other Olympics -- the unfurling of the giant flag at the ceremonies and them all standing under it.

Or maybe they could bury a kangaroo at centre ice. ;)

... Do the Aussies have a hockey team??

Kinda like the Jamaican bobsledders if so, I imagine. Hahaha.

The green and gold boxing kangaroo flag

The 2010 Winter Olympics start here in Vancouver on Feb 12.

The athletes are now moving into the Olympic Village

The Aussies have hung a giant flag down the outside of their part of the building ....................... it's bright green, with a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves

It's their "mascot", talisman, whatever you like to call it. They have apparently had it at several previous Games.


Now the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has ordered them to take it down

Not because it is obscuring the light and view from 2 floors of flast ......... but because it is trademarked

.................. and things trademarked by other than official sponsors are not allowed.

The Australian Olympic Committee trademarked the flag a number of years ago to ensure that the company that made it wouldn't do so.


Daft eh?!


It almost ranks with the lack of snow on the mountain where snowboarding and aerial ski events take place ........ and dump trucks bringing in 150 loads of snow from 200 km away




sylvia