Saturday - Game on!

After a nice long lay in this morning we wandered along to the South Street bus station to sus out the airport transfer bus for next Thursday (when we do an internal flight to Sydney).  After a quick shop at Coles (our now favourite supermarket) we dropped off our purchases at the hostel and walked into the centre of town.

A quick shopping stint around the Melbourne shops for stamps and other necessities and we headed off to the MCG to pick up some tickets for the AFL match that was being played there that afternoon between the Collingwood Magpies and Melbourne Devils.

All the roads to the MCG were packed with people, all sporting their teams kit.  As we got nearer to the MCG we made our way to gate 1 to pick up some match day tickets (which were cheaper than pre booking).  We got seats in tier 1 and made our way up to the top seating area where it was general public seating (although we were surrounded by Magpie fans).

As the pre match bits started we were both fascinated by the procedures; both teams came out to their own songs being played and ran through their massive banner onto the pitch.  Then after several soundings of the claxton and the toss up for who calls ends, the match started.

We counted 7 referees on the pitch at any one time, players were allowed to come and go off and on the pitch as and when they liked (normally they were told what to do by men in high vis shirts who ran on from the team bench to tell them).  It was a long and strenuous game, and quite a lot of supporters only seemed to turn up after the 1st quarter had ended (there were 4 quarters each at 30 minutes).  The scoring was based on kicking the ball through the 4 posts - the 2 central ones meant 6 points, and the 2 outer equalled 1 point.

The game ended with Collingwood scoring 86 points and Melbourne scoring 85...and the fans only seemed to wake up and make some noise in the last quarter, mainly because the scoring was so close for that half hour!

After the match ended we walked to a park that had Captain Cook's parents house in it.  It was shipped over in the 1930s from the UK and reconstructed in this park; slightly strange, as historical evidence shows that Cook himself never set foot in the house as when they lived in it he was off out discovering the world!

We hopped on the free circular tram back to the hostel and had dinner and sat planning our east coast road trip.