Talking Footy
By : Lim Chiao Kee

Spring is in the air and what great weather it is to be out and about in Melbourne! The past two weeks have seen temperature rising up to 27 degrees and Wilson has stopped being a wuss and started flaunting its UV rays mercilessly on all living things. Needless to say, I've foreseen a hot and charcoaled summer ahead and yet still am not doing anything about it.

Three weeks have lapsed since my last article. In between assignments and mid semester tests, a lot has changed in the footy scene. The crunch came today, the grand finals of the AFL (Australian Football League), when the glorious colours of red and black was forced to take a backseat as the Brisbane Lions won the premiership with 15.18(108) against Essendon's 12.10(82). And mind you, Victoria is home to Aussie rules football. Having the Lions win on Essendon's homeground was a disgrace to say the least. Amidst the strong crowd of 91 480 at the MCG, the Lions' colours stood out from the red and black of Essendon. Since everyone else who is not an Essendon fan is vouching for the Lions, it is hardly surprising that that is the case. And it hardly comes as a surprise that the Brisbane Lions would win. Form and fitness wise, the Lions appears much superior than the Bombers. Performance wise, they've been putting up a consistent front for the last four months or so. And from what we saw at the grand finals today, much as it hurts me to admit, the Lions deserved to win just as much as the Bombers deserved to lose.

And it fascinates me much to witness the idolisation of this sport. But of course, I'm speaking from the Melbourne point of view. The rest of Australia might not share my sentiments in this. In Victoria (and Melbourne in particular), it is almost blasphemous to slander this sport. Heck, Foxtel even has an ad that showed the Pope bowing to a football. The catch phrase "when footy rules the world" is almost the national anthem to every Tom, Dick and Harry. But things are slightly different elsewhere. Rugby is perhaps the bigger sport in Sydney. The NRL is hotter on the lips over there than is the AFL. This week showcases the conclusion of both the NRL and the AFL, and with such grandeur too. The Footy Show saw a special final edition at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park. The usual street talk and panels aside, we saw some of the footy players donned up as superstars and did renditions of Moulin Rouge's "Lady Marmalade", Westlife's cover of "Uptown Girl", the Baha Men's "Who Let The Dogs Out", ABBA and the likes. The highlight of the show was perhaps Shane Crawford (captain of the Hawthorn Hawks, dubbed the sexiest man in footy) strutting his stuff ala Robbie Williams in "Rock DJ". I really have to say, he is HOT. From anti-Shane Crawford, we've been turned to pro-Shane Crawford after seeing his moves (and not to mention those biceps, six packs and what not) that night.

The grand final parade saw the streets of Melbourne flooded with the colours of the Bombers and the Lions. The heat is up on both coaches and players. This season looked as if it was "the rest of the world versus Essendon Bombers". And it was. Supporters of the Carlton Blues and all the other football clubs banked their support for the Lions and Bombers fans are pretty much for themselves. And after today's game, I think Essendon tasted the bitterness of defeat. And what a triple whammy it is too-the Brownlow medal went to Jason Akermanis of the Brisbane Lions, the Norm Smith medal went to Shaun Hart of the Brisbane Lions and most importantly, the Premiership Cup also went to the Brisbane Lions. Essendon went home with nothing.

Well, but it wasn't so bad. At least we had a great barbecued lunch while watching the game on TV. Did I say lunch? I meant tonight's dinner and tomorrow's breakfast as well. It's okay Bombers, we'll kick their asses next year. Go Bombers!!!