Perth Has Gone Nuts

 Why, you might ask. Well, in these plague times some things have had to change - and one of these is the AFL Grand Final. For those of you from other parts of the world AFL is Australian Rules football or Aussie Rules and the state of Victoria claims it as its own despite it having always been equally popular elsewhere. For years the VFL (Victorian Football League), made up of the Victorian club teams, enticed away the best players from local teams in the other southern states where AFL is also very popular. As you can imagine this made for some considerable ill feeling. Eventually the VFL decided to expand the competition to include other states, changed its name to AFL and now there are AFL teams located in Western Australia and South Australia which had always had a healthy local competition as well as New South Wales and Queensland where rugby league is the dominant game. The AFL in Victoria still largely runs the competition which means, despite the teams from other states, they claim the Grand Final at the MCG every year and they've signed a contract that all Grand Finals will be held there until 2059.

I have to say this rankles, especially in Western Australia, where Aussie Rules has always been the dominant form of football. We now have two teams as part of the AFL and they are have a huge following although neither has reached the finals this season but even when one of these teams does come out on top of the ladder the Grand Final is still played in Victoria. Given the distance we are from that side of the continent this means that the majority of the fans don't get to see their team in a Grand Final causing much resentment. Speaking for myself - and having been to an MCG Grand Final some years ago - I actually think we're better off watching it on TV. What you lose in atmosphere you definitely gain in seeing the match but obviously not everyone agrees. 

Sadly in this pandemic year the whole of Victoria is in lockdown and COVID is rampant there. It's heart-breaking because they had been virus free for months after a lengthy lockdown last year until the virus made its way from NSW. I won't go into how this happened but it's not a pretty story and since Pisces and I both have family and friends in Victoria it's very distressing for us and many others. This left the AFL struggling to find a venue and Perth, which is currently COVID free and has a new state of the art sports stadium, was their only option.

Western Australia has embraced the event. The teams might not be local but many local footy fans have adopted one or the other. There are decorations, competitions, fans who have somehow acquired team merchandise holding finals parties all over and huge enthusiasm with free public transport included in the tickets meaning trains and buses have been crammed with excited fans. Knowing this is likely to be a once in a life time event for most West Australians they are determined to make the most of it and at least the telecast will allow all those folk stuck in lockdown elsewhere to see it.

With that, I'll say goodbye for now because the match has started and although I'm not as rabid a fan as Pisces it is the Grand Final.