Melbourne = Sport

Hi All,

Just thought I'd post a quick blog (if thats possible) to let you know the sporty side to our stay in Melbourne.

On our first proper day in Melbourne all three of us took in our first Aussie Rules Football experience, and what a different experience it is. Melbourne, like Sydney, has a Telstra Dome Stadium (Telstra is a sponsor by the way) which was the venue for the pre-season NAB Cup between the teams in the AFL (Aussie Football League) culminating in this cup final. Fortunately for Melbourne one of the many local sides Carlton had made the final along with Queensland's Brisbane Lions.

The game had all sorts of pre-match fun, plenty of banter, then the kick off which included running through team banners and team songs (very cheesy). The game itself is pretty difficult to explain in a brief blog, but there were four refs and two goal refs, lots of players and lots of posts (scoring between or outside them scores you different points). The game is faster flowing than British football, and was certainly more rough (high tackles!) and higher scoring (the difference between the two teams was about 30 by full-time). The whole occasion felt more like a American Football match really but without the padding and complicated defence/offence stuff.

The next day was Sunday - and in Melbourne that meant Formula 1. Both Chris and I decided to brave the high prices (for backpackers anyway, for any Silverstone regulars you'd probably be shocked!). The Australian GP is big news in Australia, and Melbourne is particularly proud to have it over Sydney! The build-up was all over Aussie TV, but once you get down to Albert Park and see the whole event for yourself you can see why it gets so much attention.

Once we got into the track, we found ourselves a position near a corner on a hill, so the cars would be going fairly slowly when they went past. Unfortunately we had a large gravel trap in front of where we were looking, as well as the debris fence, but it wasn't too bad. Before the actual race we had Australian Car Racing which is an up and coming sport over here. Then we had the Porsche Carrera racers having a non-points race to demonstrate their sport to the crowd.

After that I decided to explore the mass of extra events and displays going on at Albert Park which included all kinds of bars (one with live music) and food places, an F1 Expo (including PS3 F1 demo game), F1 shops and an alley of chav cars lined up away from one straight behind a hill (plenty of suped up Hondas and Hummers). The final pre-race was some Aussie celebs in BMW 3 series cars, and they did quite well to not crash, apart from one guy who clipped the wall on his final corner!

Before the race a Qantas Boeing-747 diverted from Melbourne Airport on its way to London to do a 1000 foot fly past, and a F-18 Jet did some stunts. Then the race began. The noise and speed of the cars eclipsed anything we'd seen prior to the start - we were half way round the track along way away from the start line but you could hear the cars start up over the other side of the park even with ear plugs on (which were necessary to avoid damage!).

The cars just zoomed past compared to what we'd seen before. You could just about tell the cars apart (drivers was slightly more difficult), the Ferrari's just stand out from the rest of the rich red colour, and it was Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari that led the way pretty much from start to finish, despite the best efforts of the Britain's Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso of McLaren.

After the GP had finished, we were shocked/surprised to be let onto the track, so we walked all the way round to the start/finish line and the pits which were crowded by the time we got there. There was also a free gig laid on, the band playing were New Zealand rockers Evermore who are taking Australia by storm currently.

On Monday we had a day of rest from sport and did some cultural things which unsurprisingly escape my simple brain. On Tuesday however, I managed to convince Chris to join me on a tour of Melbourne's Eiffel Tower/Statue of Liberty (according to a quote on the promo flyer) the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). Despite being slightly anxious of some sledging after England's humiliating Ashes tour (slightly rectified by some one day wins following that) we made our way in.

If you've (assuming its only sports fans who are reading by this point!) been to places like the Nou Camp in Barcelona, or Wembley before it was knocked down, you can tell that a place has a certain history of sport and events. The MCG had a revamp a couple of years back but is still hugely impressive, capable of housing 100,000 people for either Cricket or Aussie rules.

We were given a tour by a Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) member who was very enthusiastic and really informative. We went out on the pitch, in the dressing rooms, up in the posh Member's areas, up in the highest seat and ended up in the MCC Cricket Museum, which catalogues important moments in Melbourne and Australian Cricket and the goings on at the MCG.

Our final sporting moment was taking in some swimming at the FINA World Swimming Championships at the Rod Laver Arena (where the Australian Open Tennis happens). Despite not knowing much about how swimming events work (other that lengths happen), it was a bit of a shock when Laura and Chris said it was a Synchronised Swimming Final, which I know even less about. Laura and I tried to outguess the judges, failing miserably - and in the end the event was won by Russia (who apparently win everything), followed by Japan and Spain.

I hope this blog gives you an insight into how busy you can make yourself in Melbourne. If you enjoy any kind of social activity, sport, theatre, music, drinking, Melbourne can cater for you. For a sports idiot like me, Melbourne more than catered for the sport deficiency left by not watching football back home (probably for the best). Australia even has an up-and-coming soccer league so they'll soon have the full set!

Assuming no-one else does another blog in the next few days, we've arrived in New Zealand. The Kiwi Experience bus tour has kept us insanely busy!! We're currently in a place called Wanaka and hopefully one of us will bring you up to speed soon! For those who have been made aware, my bungy jump is in the next couple of days!!!

Hi to all!
Rich