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Hi All:

___Our local ABC affiliate has three channels now that the digital TV switchover has occurred. The std. channel, a 24-hour weather channel of sorts and a 24-hour sports challenge with some really interesting coverage. I have seen bike races, gymnastics, Volleyball and diving. Yesterday, I caught 5-minutes of something called Australian Rules AFL and it was a very interesting sport. Team members were in almost continuous motion like soccer but some football was included as there were people getting tackled and they were kicking the ball looking thing through 4-uprights. I thought I saw a score move up by 4 on one “goal” and 6 on another but I am not sure what the rules are.

___Anybody know anything about this game as it was a lot more fun than watching a football or soccer match.

___Thanks in advance.

___Wayne

Aussie Rules is BRUTAL!!!

I played Rugby (Rugby Union) in College. Aussie Rules is Rugby on Crack.

Basically- ball is continually in play, it must touch the ground every 15 meters, ball cannot be thrown, and the ball must go between the goal posts. Rugby-style tackle rules are in effect (wrap ups, multi-man tackles called "Mauls", and scrums). Different points for clean goals, banging it off the posts, own goals, etc...

Yeah, its fast, fun, and it hurts like hell.

Wikipedia appears to detail it fairly well here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football).

Hi WH and Matthew:

___Thanks for the info and links. I hope ABC shows more of that sport as it was really fun to watch! And I wish the US would take it up as well. I could see some more protection for the players with Lacrosse style helmets that have a cage on front and kneepads and shoulder pads but the rest was fast moving and totally cool. Fascinating would be a more appropriate description as the winning team had something like 118 points on the board.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wayne-

AFL.com.au has a subscription streaming service called Aussie Sports TV.com http://www.afl.aussiesport.tv/page/Faq. Has Aussie Rules and Tri-Nations rugby IIRC.

Protection? We don't need no stinkin protection;)

Thats what advil and post-parties are for. Besides, you have to be crazy to "shoot the boot".

I played some when I was younger. It is BRUTAL!!!! Not uncommon to see broken nose's, bones and teeth flying like sweat in the under ground league I played in back in the day in SoCal. The shocker was the women games. The mens games were off the chart. But when the lady's played it was psycho. One of my buddy's sister played. When she won a game she busted a full bud long neck against her head then drank the shot from what was left in the long neck. Them chicks were crazy and not to be messed with at all!!

I watched a few games back in 2000 while we were visiting down there. We found it a fun sport to get into watching, and easy enough to pick up the basics to understand what's going on. Definitely brutal physically. It would be exciting to see the sport catch on over here.