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2007: THE YEAR OF THE CAT

Melbourne Travel Blog › entry 27 of 28 › view all entries

Melbourne Over Coffee is a 'sticky' blog of mine - one that I will add to intermittently - that will delve into the world of inner Melbourne. Find out what a Melburnian gets up to, which festivals are worth seeing, why exactly Australian football (or 'footy' as it is known here) has a knack for making us go crazy, and most importantly, where to find (good) food. Welcome to a year packed with festivities, sports, and fashion. Welcome to the sporting capital of Australia: Melbourne.

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2007: THE YEAR OF THE CAT

September 29, 2007

Grand final

Go the Catters! Geelong's 44-year flag drought has ended; after years of disappointment the Cats have finally done it, and what a win it was.

The Cats beat Port Power in the grand final by a record margin, and were only a few points short of making the highest score in grand final history. Geelong player Joel Selwood received the Rising Star Award for 2007, and his teammate Jimmy Bartel won the 2007 Brownlow Medal. The Cats also won the season clear on top of the ladder. It is for all these reasons and more that 2007 has been labelled the year of the Cat.

For those of you who aren't familiar with who the Cats are and what footy is; footy is short for Australian Football, and the Cats are the greatest team of all.

Australian football is a game that's played in an oval (not a rectangular field).

The cup!!

Goal posts stand at opposite ends of the field, like they do in a game of rugby, except on each end there aren't two goal posts, but four. To kick a goal, you have to get the ball through the middle two posts. You get a point if it goes through the outer posts. The ball looks like a rugby ball, but is a little rounder, and it's not as easy to grip (it doesn't have those bumps on it).

You can either run with the ball (although you have to bounce it every now and then), pass the ball (you do this by punching it), or kick the ball to someone else. If someone catches your kick, it's called a mark. When you get a mark, it's sort of like a free kick. So, naturally, it's good if you can get a mark pretty close to the opposing team's goal posts. And the higher you jump for the mark, the more spectacular it tends to look. You often see players jump on the back of other players to reach for a mark.

Footy fever rages through Melbourne's winter months and comes to an end when the racing season is just beginning. With cricketing season straight after that, followed by the Australian Open and the footy pre-season, it's easy to see why Melbourne is sometimes dubbed Australia's sporting capital.

If you're in town while the football's on, seeing a game is a must.