The Footy

For an early birthday present Amy bought me tickets to "The Footy".  In Australia, there are four types of football; Australian Rules Football called AFL, American Football called Gridiron, Rugby Union called Rugby and Rugby League called Footy.  Now these tickets she bought me weren't for any ordinary game, they were for the State of Origin III.  New South Wales and Queensland each pick an all-star team and play a best of three series for bragging rights.  It would be like if the Pro-Bowl were a real game that meant something.  New South Wales won the first game and Queensland won the second so this was the decider.  

The game was at Olympic Stadium and there was a sellout crowd of 80,000+.  As you can see the sign says "ANZ Stadium." ANZ is a huge bank here and just like stadiums in America they sell the stadium name every year.  Last year it was "Telsra Stadium" and who knows what it will be next year.  

Here is a view from our seats.  I went with Dan, a buddy from church.  I would show you a picture but in all the excitement we didn't get a picture and also we were sitting with the rowdy boys and I was afraid I might not get my camera back if I asked someone to take a picture of us.
New South Wale is in the blue and their team is cleverly named the Blues and Queensland in the the maroon and they are even more cleverly named the Maroons.  We were cheering for the Blues but to no avail.  Since Queensland won they get to fly their flag on top of the Harbour Bridge here in Sydney.  If we would have won our flag would be flying on a bridge in Brisbane.
I told you they take this very seriously, it is quite an honor to play in this game.  One guy broke his arm, two guys got concussions, a few black eyes were handed out and there were several fights throughout the game.  This picture is just two minutes into the game.  Amazingly enough there wasn't a single penalty for fighting in the entire game, even in hockey you have to sit in the box for a while.