A Little More Sport

Just a quick note to add to what I wrote in my last post. Geelong beat Port Adelaide in the AFL Grand Final this past Saturday afternoon. I watched the final minutes of the match...it turned out to be the most lopsided score in the Finals history. I also watched the post-game ceremonies. On Sunday evening Melbourne beat Manly in the NRL Grand Final. I got to see more of this one, and again I watched the post-game ceremonies. Of the two, the NRL seems a bit wilder. At the AFL Final it looked like most of the fans stuck around for the ceremonies, which were full of brief speeches from both the winners and the losers. The same occurred at the NRL, but, maybe because it was nearing 10:00 and it wasn't the winners' hometown, the seats were nearly empty when the PM, John Howard, gave all the players medals. I heard this morning that the 17 players get to "share" the $400,000 purse, which means that one of the players will make--oh my!--at least $140,000 this year!!! In contrast to American football, many (all?) teams here have a corporate benefactor, and the players wear their sponsors' logos on their uniforms. Geelong are sponsored by Ford (and home to its largest plant in Australia), whereas the Melbourne Storm are sponsored by Optus. I think I have figured out the scoring and the basic game play of rugby league, but Aussie rules football is still a bit of a mystery...