2008 AFL Grand Final

Yesterday I attended to the 2008 AFL Grand Final between the Hawthorn Hawks and the Geelong Cats. For international readers the Grand Final is the equivalent of the NFL Superbowl. Australian Rules is the biggest and most popular code of football in the country and tickets to the game are very hard to come by. There were 100,012 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday, the first six figure attendance since the 80s.

I don’t support either team so I was going along as a mutual observer who couldn’t care less about who won or lost, although I did have some money on Geelong (who failed me). In the end I was probably happy to see Hawthorn win because there were some arrogant Geelong supporters sitting nearby who were annoying me the entire game.

The first half of the game was a classic contest with lots of heavy hits and acts of courage. In the second half Hawthorn ran away with it in impressive style and Geelong wilted under the pressure of it all, despite being the defending champion and only losing one game all year.

Next weekend I will be flying to Sydney to watch the National Rugby League Grand Final. My team, the Melbourne Storm have qualified for the third year in a row and I am hoping that they can win back to back titles.