New Season, New Drama, New Opportunity

So I've been trying to get the Internationals at work onto the local game, this was a post I sprayed around the place

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I write this with some trepidation, being an Australian recently introduced to some of the intricacies of American football. I'm a member of the Australian Army and I've worked in a number of Allied agencies in the past couple of years. At the moment I'm posted to Canberra, SE Australia and a few friends of mine are in Afghanistan. There is some great cultural exchange going on in these spots between allied nations, especially in regards to sports. My boss at the moment returned from the Ghan with some NY Giants gear that he traded for some Rugby League (Broncos) kit he had from home. Good stuff.

We have a few US and Canadian integrees just get posted in, about 3 months ago one of them sat me down and watched through a game of NFL with me as payback for sitting him down through a 5-day [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OYVk4ryR5M"]Cricket[/URL] test match at work. :lol:

So, in the months since then, with a solid foundation of understanding, I've become conversant in the rules, terms and general 'culture' of American football. Where shotgun and play action meant diddly squat to me before, I now at least have a clue what is going on and no longer ask dumb questions like "Why not run it on the 4th?". Sure I've got a heap more to learn, but the bridge is being crossed and I'm happy to feed off anything anyone wants to throw my way.

The missus is heading to Canada for an exchange position at University this year (Brock University if anyone cares) and I'll be heading over as well for a few weeks. I'm especially keen to go see a Bills game (even though any Yank I talk to routinely laughs at me at their mention) and get immersed into the NFL culture as much as possible.

I know how interminable offseason can be for any sport anywhere, so I'm here to be a total whore for my culture, like I have been to my American mates at work, in order to help make offseason pass that little bit quicker. Now is the perfect chance to be immersed in the sporting culture of Australia, a pretty intense and rich one that goes all year. The cricket season has ended in Australia (with the World Cup in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka being played as we speak) and is shifting into the biggest part of the sporting year, Football Season. No I don't mean soccer and no I don't mean Rugby (League or Union). I mean [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_rules_football"]Australian Rules Football.[/URL]

I know it's [URL="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AustralianRulesFootball"]probably an oddity[/URL] to the great number of people who have seen it casually, as NFL was to me when I'd wake up Saturday morning, hungover as fuck and sick of the game stopping every 4 seconds for another play to line up, but it's worth watching, like I've learnt the NFL is.

So why should you watch Australian Rules during the offseason? Well, it's a high tempo, [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PotXGpd_owg"]free flowing[/URL] game. No offsides, no scrimmage and minimal stoppages. It's pretty [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFXaRh_4fM"]full on[/URL] with no padding, full body contact and the guys [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUcnjGKOw80"]run all day[/URL], around 10-20 miles a game. It's full of [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyOD3XJny6w"]big kicks[/URL] and [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF-_HszEC9s"]big catches[/URL] (called marks) and is pretty [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRZGdzxBsw"]exciting[/URL] to watch. I guess all you need to know is [URL="http://www.usafl.com/intro"]what the shit[/URL] is going on?

So sorry for the long rant and for being a bit off-track but I'm happy to answer any questions, or be kicked out and return only to ask NFL noob questions. Cheers.