Footie Game

September 1, 2006

The Townsville Cowboys played their last game against the Parramatta Eels for Rugby League yesterday. Em and I had gotten tickets to the footie game for only $15. We were told to get “lawn seats” because then we would really enjoy the experience. We tried to get as many of the Aussies to go with us, but no one really wanted to go. I guess the Cowboys weren’t really that great this year, and no one wanted to see them lose again to the Eels.
This is Emily, Alli and I at the game

Em, Alli and I took the bus to the game. We were warned before that it might rain, so I brought Bryce’s nifty difty little rain jacket – and it came in very useful. We got there about an hour before the game started so we could get good seats and met up with a bunch of our friends from college (some Aussies actually did end up coming after all). We sat on the lawn, which was right by the in-goal (endzone). We had pretty good seats. Beers were only $4, so we got a few of those, and sat and watched the game. The hour before the game, the minor league teams play each other. One of my friends from college, Dozier, actually played for the league just below the minor league, so he introduced us to one of the other players and the two of them hung out with us until it started to pour. This is Dozier, Greg and I

The stadium was the most bootleg stadium I have ever seen. There were four grandstands, a few box seats and the lawn. The stadium was not nearly as big as Georgia Techs, and they still couldn’t fill it. The stadium was sponsored by the Dairy Farmers, so they sold milk and raffled off prizes for people who had certain milk cartons. They blew up giant cows on the field for the pregame show and for half time. And there were a ton of cheerleaders, who went around with the 5 different mascots getting autographs during the game

It rained on and off during the game. But it wasn’t bad at all. And because it is footie of course there were no rain delays. Rugby League is a completely different game then the rugby I know. Dozier was trying to explain the differences to me but I had a hard time understanding. Supposedly, you get 6 tackles to get to a try. After the 6th tackle you have to give up the ball, so they usually kick it after the 5th tackle. There is no stopping play after the tackle. The person who got tackled has to put the ball back into play. This means that there are very few scrums and absolutely no line outs – my two favorite parts of rugby. The game is different, but it was fun to watch. It reminded me of a mix between red rover and American football (which is called Grid Iron here for some reason that I haven’t figured out why yet)

So the Cowboys won 22-8, which was really exciting. They put off fireworks for each try, which was awesome.

After the game we took the bus into town and hung out at Flynn’s for a while, then just went home. We were in bed by 2 – just to be woken up – quite rudely – at 6am because there was a cross country race and everyone who ran from John Flynn got John Flynn points towards the Fisher shield – which is the prize between all the colleges and halls. So we were woken up at 6, just to stand in the rain until 8 [with no food or water], then walk 6k around the college. Every time we got to a water station – they had just ran out of water –not so great after a night of drinking and 4 hours of sleep. Some of our residents ran; one girl won it all and one of our guys placed 3rd. So that may help us toward the Fisher shield, but our college was definitely the least represented out of all the colleges. This is me and Em in the morning - we're not happy

Needless to say I got back to the college – ate a huge breakfast and slept till 1pm.
But TOMORROW I GET TO GO ON THE YONGALA!!! Will be the best dive trip I have ever been on and I can’t wait!