The Birth of Betty the Blue

I grew up in a country where Australian Rules Football means nothing, and had never seen a game before I moved to Australia and watched the 2005 Grand Final. It seemed quite an exciting game, but I had no idea about the rules. Were there any rules? It was certainly a very physical game. I liked how pushing and shoving seemed to be encouraged. It was a game played by Proper Men, not pussies. Also, the shorts were longer than I thought they would be. And I wasn't sure what a 'mark' was but I understood they were very important.

Last year, we were in Sydney visiting family and watched The Grand Final with them. I still didn't really know what was going on but I started to ask questions. Stupid questions like "Is there four quarters?", which definitely amused a certain person. I started thinking about supporting a team. But what team?

I spent another six months thinking about this.


Well, not just about this. But it's not that easy when you only have a very sketchy idea of the rules, the clubs and...er...everything about the game. I considered supporting The Sydney Swans as they were in both the finals I watched, but supporting a Sydney team seemed wrong. Then I was going to support Collingwood because I liked their nickname - The Pies - before discovering this was actually an abbreviation of 'magpies'. Then I toyed with supporting a team...I forget who...because their colours were black and red.

What was a girl to do?

Then I decided to support Carlton, because a certain person supported them and it meant we could go to games together and that would mean we were Doing Stuff and not just sitting at home, smoking dope. So I went to my first game and saw Carlton win the final of The Nab Cup. Lordy! Aussie Rules was a crazy feckin' game. It was so unlike any sport I had seen before.

I was hooked.