Well, I went to see my first AFL Footie Match yesterday and I have to say I had a pretty good time.

We had great seats and I even managed to get my head around some of the rules.

The game was played at a Stadium called the Subicao Oval I took a picture on my phone so have a click to see a larger (slightly blurry) picture.

The Subiaco Oval, known colloquially as Subi, is the highest capacity sports stadium in Perth and is the home ground for the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Football Club, the two Western Australian teams in the Australian Football League.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with the Subi and it was jam packed with supporters. Read the full story

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Well, I had to get my first AFL footie match in at some point and today is the day.

I’ve been invited by a supplier to attend an AFL match between a team called the West Coast Eagles and Richmond at the Subiaco Oval which is one of the larger stadiums here in Perth.

‘The Eagles’ Won the AFL Champions league last year so are supposed to be quite good apparently.

I’m hoping that the Aussies that I’m attending the game with will be able to educate me a little on the rules. I really have no idea whats going on when I’ve watched the matches on TV.

Lots of running around and kicking and tackling and kicking and running around throughout the four quarters which seem to last anywhere between 20 – 30 minutes. How confusing!

I think I’d actually quite like to get into AFL though. It’ll make for good bonding time for me and Junior who also fancies going to a footie match sometime soon.

Will the Eagles be our team of choice? Well that depends if they win of course!

Come on the Kangaroos, err Eagles!

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Perth Sports

Perth is very conducive to an outdoors lifestyle, and this is reflected in the wide variety of sports available to citizens of the city. Perth was host to the 1962 Commonwealth Games and also the 1987 America’s Cup defence (based at Fremantle).

Australian Rules Football is a popular spectator sport in Perth, with over 1,030,000 attending WAFL and AFL matches, more than any other sport in the state. [1]

Interestingly, Perth has the strongest regional (State/County/Province) field hockey competition in the World. There are many field hockey clubs for children, men, women and veterans (over 40 year of age). Western Australia (especially given it only has 10% of Australia’s population) hugely contributes to the national Australian men’s and ladies’ hockey teams which have both been winners of Olympic Gold Medals.

Perth is home to several teams which are part of national sporting competitions:

Two teams in the Australian Football League (AFL): the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Football Club (the “Fremantle Dockers”). The “home” of Australian Rules football in Perth is Subiaco Oval.

A state cricket team, known as the Western Warriors.

A football (soccer) team, Perth Glory, which is a part of the newly re-formed soccer competition known as the A-League. In the past Perth Glory have been a relatively successful team by winning the last two NSL (National Soccer League) seasons (2002-03 & 2003-04).

A team in the National Basketball League, the Perth Wildcats, who are one of the most successful teams in the league’s history. However, the popularity of basketball as a spectator sport in Australia has sharply declined since the early 1990s.

A rugby union team, the Western Force, in the Super 14 competition. Perth also hosts the “Perth Gold” team in the Australian Rugby Shield competition. Rugby league briefly maintained a Perth team in the national competition (1995-1997), known as the Western Reds (Perth Reds in the Super League season)

In 2002, Perth hosted the World Lacrosse Games, which included the World Lacrosse Championships (won by the United States), the Australian Youth Lacrosse Championship, a Masters (35+ year old), Grandmasters (45+), and International Open Championships.

The 1991 and 1998 FINA World Championships were held in Perth.

Every year Perth hosts the Hopman Cup, an international tennis tournament, generally in the first week of January. This is held at the Burswood Dome, and presents Perth on an international stage.

Perth is also home to the annual Avon Descent whitewater event, and the annual Rally Australia.

Every summer the Australian cricket team plays a test match and one one day international matches at the WACA ground. Of the two touring teams for the one day internationals one will play two games the other will play once.

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The weather has been traditionally British recently, Lots of snow and very cold (averaging all of 2 – 3 decrees Celsius. However the 2006 Commonwealth games started in Melbourne yesterday and it was great to wake up to some live footage of some of the sports over there.

The weather appears to be pretty pleasant in Melbourne, averaging a very comfortable 75 Degrees Fahrenheit most days. Saying that, back on the other side of the country in Perth its forecast to be in the 90′s everyday for the rest of this week

As Melbourne is getting some good exposure at the moment, I thought you folks might be interested in a little more information about the city (clicking the images below to open a bigger version in a new window if your interested).
Read the full story

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