Aussie Rules footy, the hung AFL grandfinal, other famous draws (with a wonderful video moment), emotions, and twitter

“What emotion! ..I’m shaking, I don’t know how you feel but this is the most emotional thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

So said one of the television commentators of the famous ‘One point Barry Breen’ 1966 AFL grand final, in which St Kilda won its first ever premiership by one point, kicked in the last few moments of the game.

Yes, they take their footy very seriously in Victoria.

One of my FB friends says that her Dad even had an LP recording of that game, which he’d bring out and play every now and then.

St Kilda supporters have been waiting ever since for another grand final win, and last weekend was an almost replay of that 1966 match – with the Saints going up against the (Collingwood) Pies again.

So for those of you in other parts of the world who were wondering what #aflgf and #Collingwood meant and why they were the trending* topics worldwide on twitter for much of last weekend — or why those expat Aussies in the apartment next door were making so much noise in the wee hours — here’s a taste of what makes grown men cry on the last Saturday in September in Melbourne, Australia. (Worth watching – it really is amazingly exciting.)

*And for those of you who aren’t into Twitter – a hashtag is a word or acryonym with the # sign in front of it that becomes used by informal consensus to label posts on a particular topic. So you can add this to you tweets, and search on it, to join in a vast conversation across the nation or globe.

(Other recent examples: #ausvotes was used for the Australian federal election, and #auswaits for the 17 days following while the hung parliament was sorted out.)

Last weekend, with an average, apparently, of 45 #aflgf tweets per minute through-out the game, and a massive flurry towards the end, the small inner city suburb of #Collingwood was one of the highest trending topics in the world.

Now, I have a very love-hate relationship with aussie rules footy. I can’t deny that it’s in my blood. But fortunately it’s there more as a dormant benign virus that only activates for a few hours once a year. More so if I’m living in another state. (Funny about that.)

Having recently moved back to NSW I was a bit taken by surprise last weekend when my blood started to pump a little faster around 2pm in the afternoon. Problem was, I don’t have a television. And didn’t know any ex-Victorians nearby who might be watching it. (And to be honest, wasn’t that sure if I could be bothered… as I said, very love-hate.)

Fortunately, I’ve recently become a Twitterer. Still learning the ropes, but knew enough to type in #aflgf into the search and away I went. My first ever footy grand final via twitter!

Quite surprisingly exciting even at that remove. 100,016 people at the G*, and with 45 tweets per minute — including tweets from people around the world saying “WTF is this #aflgf hashtag?” — there was quite enough to keep this ex-Melbournite happy whenever I felt like a little imersion in the game.

(*the G refer to the MCG – Melbourne Cricket Ground – where the grand finals are always held. I’ve only been there once, in the Standing Room Only section for a grandfinal back in the early 1980s. Can’t remember who was playing. Couldn’t see a thing, even standing on beer cans. But it was incredibly exciting being part of such a huge roaring crowd and packed in like woolly sardines.)

Of course I only tuned in now and then. Almost gave it up at half time because the Pies (aka Collingwood, The Woods, the Magpies, the Maggies) were winning by miles. Almost double their score. According to a tweet that was being retweeted a lot, only twice had a team come back and won when it had been trailing by more than 4 goals at half time. So, it looked like all was lost for the poor old Saints.

Now, keep in mind that Collingwood is a team that is at or near the top of the ladder just about every year. And has won many premierships. (Not as many as their top of the ladder status might suggest, because of a phenomenon known as grand final ‘Colliwobbles’.)

While St Kilda has long been the underdog of Aussie Rules. Only won that one premiership, and had to wait about 60 years for that one. And often taken out the Wooden Spoon (bottom of the ladder).

So this was frequently referred to not as St Kilda vs Collingwood, but Australia vs Collingwood. Even folk who never barracked were rooting for the Saints for this one.

Collingwood is a very old old working class suburb – even now not nearly as gentrified as many other inner city suburbs of Melbourne — and has a strong loyal following. Many a Collingwood bedroom is decked out in black and white. So there was also a lot of tweets flying around with jokes about Collingwood bogan supporters… So you get the picture.

Meanwhile I was also following tweets from those on my list who were primly trying to ignore it all… listening to increasingly rowdy parties up the road, and that kind of thing.

So I went off and did some other stuff for a while and then thought I’d check back in and see how things were going. OMG! Three quarter time and the Saints were ahead!

By now I’m retweeting and tweeting out to my non-footy group, as are others from around the country, and you can almost hear that click as more and more tvs are being turned on as the word spreads.. But not here, because as you know: no telly. And then suddenly, only a point between them, and not long to go..

Then: the scores are even! Oh no…

Is this 1966 all over again? I was riveted to my iphone, reading these tweets and talking aloud to myself, my Victorian blood doing a great dance. In some ways – it sounds bizarre – I think it was even more exciting than watching it. (Yeah, yeah, I know..)

Anyway, you know the outcome. A hung grand final. Here’s the last moments on youtube, so you can see the look on their faces:

Lots of OMG! tweets. And then within seconds: a rash of tweets about a hung grandfinal, and ‘can’t Australians make up their mind about anything’ and ‘Oakshott wants full forward’, etc etc.

So. If watching footy on the teev isn’t your thing. Why not have a twitter-footy experience? (or do both!) Join me – whoops, games already started, better get going to the couch with the iphone.

@bethspen

Thanks for reading. Comments welcome.

And if you follow me on twitter, or subscribe to this blog, send me your email and I’ll send a copy of a piece I wrote called ‘Playing the Man’ for ABC Radio National some time back that has been one of my most popular ones (surprisingly, or maybe not).

Go the Saints!