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It's like a time machine to the 80s! Aussie Rules ESPN2!

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by UPChip, May 22, 2010.

  1. Big Circus

    Big Circus Well-Known Member

    I saw that when I was putting together TV listings and couldn't help but smile.
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    The same with the one-arm pointing signal for the single point.

    And wasn't the single point called a 'Behind' or something like that?
     
  3. Shoeless Joe

    Shoeless Joe Active Member

    +1
    I remember watching Aussie rules in my early days of ESPN viewing as a kid. I've been noticing it when doing the TV log. I haven't actually watched any of it lately because it comes on at midnight (of course it's already Tuesday or something in Australia) but it does bring a smile to my face.
     
  4. D-3 Fan

    D-3 Fan Well-Known Member

    Aussie Rules Football, not Sportscenter, is what attracted me to ESPN as a kid.

    I remember those Sunday nights after the news and George Michael and his Sports Machine, watching Australian football.

    It was captivating and fun as hell to watch. The following morning, I would take my football and start emulating the players and trying to do a bicycle kick, in which I land on my ass all of the time.

    Damnmit Mediacom, stop pussy-footing and make ESPN3.com available online.

    I was so happy to end my night watching the match!
     
  5. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    Yep, I don't understand the game at all. But I can watch an entire game with no problem.
     
  6. Birdscribe

    Birdscribe Active Member

    Yes, it is.

    And the way the referees stand there with blank looks on their faces and their fingers pointing like statues -- to make sure that all 106,000 in the Melbourne Cricket Grounds or wherever they may be can see and note their call -- is priceless. Simply, utterly priceless.

    Aussie Rules was the first thing I ever saw on ESPN. Not George Grande or Gayle Gardner doing "SportsCenter," not the lumberjack follies (which has been co-opted by "History" Channel), not the other quirky programs ESPN threw up in those early days to pass time.

    No, it was Aussie Rules Football and I was immediately hooked.

    I became an Essendon fan because they -- along with Hawthorn -- seemed to be on every week. Hated Hawthorn (just because) and Carlton, because of their ugly unis and that weird Bruce Dool guy who looked like a combination of a homeless person and 19th century president.

    We used to have parties during the Grand Finals, which were usually the last Friday (Saturday in Australia) in September. Half the room had no idea what was going on and I'd spend most of the night explaining stuff learned through a crash course and from picking up a book in those pre-Intertoob days. But the drinking that went on every time a goal or behind was scored. . . Christ privy.

    We had a thread on this last year during the Grand Finals, which was Geelong (Hi, Blitz) and St. Kilda, which was everyone's bitch back in the 80s when I started watching. So I was amazed to see them playing for all the marbles. I hadn't seen a game in about 15 years before that.

    Beautiful, beautiful stuff.
     
  7. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    I loved watching rugby on ESPN growing up. It was a rarity.
     
  8. doubledown68

    doubledown68 Active Member

    I saw a piece of that too... is kicking the ball betwixt the posts at various distances the only way to score? Or is there a "try" like rugby?
     
  9. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    You can bat it in too, I know that. And as fascinating as footie is, I thought the hurling they used to show on Wide World of Sports was even wackier.
     
  10. Clerk Typist

    Clerk Typist Guest

    Aussie Rules Footy is the most insane sport in the world. I love it.
     
  11. wicked

    wicked Well-Known Member

    Gaelic/Irish football is really fun to watch.
     
  12. Iron_chet

    Iron_chet Well-Known Member

    I was really amazed when I lived in Australia how regional Aussie Rules was. If you were from Queensland you thought it was a poofter sport and that real men played Rugby (Union or League)

    It was fun as hell to see live and everyone was hammered, lots of fun.
     
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