All things sporting

Some great marks here.

chris63 wrote:we are the Eagles, west coast eagles and where here to show you why

Is it because the stadia is located near to the West coast?

Yes Ally, Perth West Australia

Well played.

West Coast are a team from Western Australia. Two teams over there: West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers. The clip shows plenty of violence, but there are other things going on. Lots of skills. I forgot to mention, it has many similarities to Gaelic Football (Ireland) too. A few particular idiosynchrasies might interest you, Ally.

(1) A Goal is worth 6 points, but if you miss, you get one point (a behind), though if you really stuff it up, it's out-of-bounds (no points).
(2) The game is 120 minutes (plus time-on - sort of like injury-time). It is broken up into Four Quarters. There is about a ten minute break between the 1st and 2nd quarters, a half hour break between the 2nd quarter and thec 3rd, and a ten minute or so break break between the 3rd quarter and the 4th.
(3) there are no other lengthy breaks, unless someone has been killed or seriously injured. If a player gets taken off on a stretcher, he don't come back on the ground after being given a life saving spray. (If he were to, the crowd would jump the fence and kill him for bad sportsmanship or cowardice or both; that's if the opposition players, or his own players, didn't get to him first).
(4) There are so many Rules no one knows them (though we all have strong opinions about them). Also, most of them change from year to year.
(5) It is a game that exists in a Universe of Total Flux. Suits the Ozhobbit psyche perfectly.
(6) We are starting to get Americans and Brits and a host of other Foreign-like types coming over to try it out. All of them become Australians, having drunk the water here and grown a penis.

I could go on. Hey Chis put up sometghing that shows players kicking 60 metre goals, or swerving between eight players to kick a goal, and heap[s odf speckies, and gut busting runs... that kind of thing...


There will be editorial issue in this post - my Missus is giving me the hurry up. Back later!

/troll

Just felt it was necessary to point that out...Ally!

This is one hell of a mark. Got to luv this game.

Ahh- I get it now- its like a girls version of Shinty.

Not a lot of Shinty gets filmed as its really remained a grass roots sport of the Highlands and West Coast. But I did find this promotional video- it makes it look a lot tamer than it actually is. There is no rules on swinging the stick, any height full force, if you smack someone in the face instead its only a foul if you miss the ball. Shinty players are often recognizable from missing teeth and broken noses.



The ball is small but hard as a rock and can move at quite a speed- for this reason the bravest men on the pitch are usually the goalkeepers.



I include this not only because it features a goalie winning the cup in a penalty shoot out with is face but because it also has some moments of nice ball skills for Orwell to appreciate.



You may notice the odd player wearing head protection. Head protection tends only to be worn when necessary to protect a previous life threating shinty stick to the head injury from being aggrivated.

Ahh! We call it hockey. The same genre as hurling, I guess. Not so brave hitting other people with sticks, it's body against body in Aussie Rules. Confess hurling (and possibly shinty) is even crazier than AFL, but not as entertaining. Aussie Rules allows you to (1) kick the ball, (2) punch the ball, (3) handpass the ball (not throw it), (4) run and bounce the ball (can't run without bouncing it for more than fifteen metres - try that with a bouncy egg, laddie), (5) mark the ball (the ball must be kicked a minimal distance of fifteen metres without having being "touched" in between by any other player) - marking the ball means you can have a "free" kick, so to speak, you get about ten seconds without being tackled to do it before the umpire (referee) calls play on, but you get longer if you are taking a direct shot at goal, and (6) do other assorted things with it. You can kick or punch or hand pass the ball with any hand or foot - a very two-sided game if you're good enough.

Extra Exciting Things to contemplate:

In Grid Iron, a kicker kicks about 60 metres. In Aussie Rules, nearly every elite player can.

If you jump on top of someone's head and "mark" the ball, everyone drools with excitement. If you land without being killed or being seriously injured, people are pleased but mildly disappointed.

With have Three field umpires because the ground is too big for one, and frankly there's too much going on. We have boundary (side line) umps and goal umps too. Everyone gets a job in this egalitarian game of ours.

There are 36 players on the ground at all times.

Unlike in Rugby, there is actually skil involved, not just brute force (not that that isn't worthwhile though).

The crowd is so caught up in everything happening on the ground (pitch) they don't have to entertain themselves by making up ridiculous songs (except the Cheer Squads) or fighting other supporters because of boredom (or ancient feuds ).

I'll tell you more, but not now, how long can one post be? LotR length? Mmm... there's enough to tell but I'm tired...

Spurs 1 Man City 5
Great win again by the blue boys

Man Utd 3 3 0 0 10 9
Man City 3 3 0 0 9 9
Liverpool 3 2 1 0 4 7
Chelsea 3 2 1 0 3 7
Wolves 3 2 1 0 3 7
Newcastle 3 2 1 0 2 7
Aston Villa 3 1 2 0 2 5
Wigan 3 1 2 0 2 5
Stoke 3 1 2 0 1 5
Bolton 3 1 0 2 1 3
Everton 2 1 0 1 0 3
QPR 3 1 0 2 -5 3
Sunderland 3 0 2 1 -1 2
Norwich 3 0 2 1 -2 2
Swansea 3 0 2 1 -4 2
Fulham 3 0 1 2 -3 1
Arsenal 3 0 1 2 -8 1
West Brom 3 0 0 3 -3 0
Blackburn 3 0 0 3 -4 0
Tottenham 2 0 0 2 -7 0

Yeah just a shame for your lot Chris that the Man Utd song sheet seems to be 'Anything you can do, I can do better'! 8-2 over Arsenal is some reult- evern ths Arsenal. (And no, don't panic I'm not a Man U fan! Can't stand them in fact, nor Potato Rooney (anyone remember him? ) but 8-2. 8. In the modern game at the top level. 8!

If an AFL team kicks 8 goals or less they usually lose.... Goal after goal is our way... non-stop excitement! Non-stop action...

Yes but that's because it takes actual skill to score a goal in football.

8-2 be an Arsenal fan

Watching the boys take on the old enemy with my family in the local pub!!!! Well i'm getting a drink at the mo, thank god for free wi-fi!!!
Hangon, think someone's just scored

ARGH, F#@%ing hell!! England have scored.

As it should be Ally!

Wales well on top second half, England played so poorly second half (sorry Kafria, it's true!)
But oh, Rob!

I think Wales can take the moral victory out of this match!

Unlucky Ally! Have a buckie or ten to drown your sorrows, at least you put up a spirited fight against the Auld Enemy thats what counts!
Scotland finally got back to winning ways, 1-0 and we missed a penalty - all we need to do now is hope the Czechs slip up, beat tiny Lichenstein and then, um, beat Spain the World Champions, in Spain.....

Australia have won their first two qualifiers. Doesn't look like we'll be seeing Scotland or Wales at the World Cup though. Sad really....
Ummm... soccer (football?) is our fourth rank sport in Australia. It's almost embarrassing how good Ozhobbits are at everything we put our minds and bodies to.

REFLECTION ON ABOVE: It's the absence, I think, of a Class system, the lack also of age old stupid etnic or religious or fair dinkum political rivalries - we don't take politics very seriously, truth be known, though sometimes we pretend we do. Our economy is pretty sound too - imagine if we took it seriously... Nuh! We just get by --- quietly, and successfully....

Mmmm... America calls itself the Land of the Free. If that's the case, maybe I should call Aussie the Land of the (Benevolent) Anarchists!

We are a Super Race, frankly, though I mean it humbly.

No doubt we'll win the World Cup before ever a certain Pedigreed Country (England) will do it again. Ho hum.. it'll be a bit like the Ashes fiasco all over again in a way... Ho hum... all in a days work....

[Our fourth ranked sport! Did I say that? Did I also say we win everything but only have a population of twenty million? Why is that? Egalitarianism? The ANZAC spirit? A truly (as far as possible) Equal Society? A (fairly) genuine Meritocracy? Hee hee... All of those things - and more --- but mentioned with Ozhobbitt humility, but of course! ]

Perhaps the reason OZ tends to qualify for football events is because you only have to beat tribes of pygmies and other nonfootballing nations to get there. Whereas the Welsh and Scots, living on the sensible side of the planet where all the civilization is, have to beat the best teams in the world to qualify.
A fact which tends to be proved after the qualifying stages and in the competition proper when the OZ team is back on the plane home before they've even had time to unpack!

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Perhaps the reason OZ tends to qualify for football events is because you only have to beat tribes of pygmies and other nonfootballing nations to get there. Whereas the Welsh and Scots, living on the sensible side of the planet where all the civilization is, have to beat the best teams in the world to qualify. A fact which tends to be proved after the qualifying stages and in the competition proper when the OZ team is back on the plane home before they've even had time to unpack!

You know, much of what you say about we Antipodeans is quite scurrilous, and not made less hurtful because it's largely true... We do, however, tend to beat England every time we play them. And don't call them "Friendlies" because Ozhobbits and Anglehobbits don't do "Friendly." Also, remember Italy are a pack of cheats who bribe umpires (2006) and Pim Verbeek coached Ozhobitstan (2010). Things may have been very different otherwise. (I may be a Tiger supporter, and somewhat delusional, but not on this thread I'm not!)

Well of course the Italians cheat, its not their fault, they're Italians! And the English say the French are arrogant- which from anyone else looking in at England is really funny. The Germans are precise, they will even kick out a fan if he is the slightest bit out in breaking the perfect sine efect required for a mexican wave. The Norwegans are hampered by not having anywhere in the entire country flat enough to build a full size pitch. The Spanish can be great but every time it gets hot they knock off for the day. The Eastern Block countires only have a choice of football or potato vodka till you go blind. The Welsh expect to lose- a legacy of all those imposing Norman castles. And the Scots always go down fighting, playing with more heart, spirit and grit than the other team but sadly not actual skill.
This how you can tell Europe is much more civilised than anywhere else in the world- we hate each other with the pasion of centuries of loathing behind it.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Well of course the Italians cheat, its not their fault, they're Italians! And the English say the French are arrogant- which from anyone else looking in at England is really funny. The Germans are precise, they will even kick out a fan if he is the slightest bit out in breaking the perfect sine efect required for a mexican wave. The Norwegans are hampered by not having anywhere in the entire country flat enough to build a full size pitch. The Spanish can be great but every time it gets hot they knock off for the day. The Eastern Block countires only have a choice of football or potato vodka till you go blind. The Welsh expect to lose- a legacy of all those imposing Norman castles. And the Scots always go down fighting, playing with more heart, spirit and grit than the other team but sadly not actual skill.
This how you can tell Europe is much more civilised than anywhere else in the world- we hate each other with the pasion of centuries of loathing behind it.

So you're saying Ozhobbit Freewheeling WILL work in the end, is that it? Our current Coach, Holger Osieck has let us off the leash, and we're winning every time now. He obviously understands the Ozhobbit psyche...