Brisbane Lions vs Fremantle Dockers: My First AFL Game

Its 2am on a Saturday night. I came back from the Brisbane Lions vs Fremantle Dockers AFL game at The Gabba around 1. It was a very close game and Brisbane Lions lost be by 2 at 92-94. However, Sri Lanka has just won the match against England in the Cricket World Cup quarter finals.

Today is another wonderful day with the Brisbane International Student Ambassadors, and for many of us this is our first AFL game. They say footy is like carnival in Australia, but it was literally a carnival outside the Gabba. There was lots of interesting stuff going around for us to spend almost an hour outside, before getting into the stadium.

I have known Gabba as a cricket ground, but as AFL games are also played in cricket grounds. It was not a very packed stadium today, with a crowd around 25,000.

When we got into the stadium, we still had some time for the start of the game. So our own Aussie student ambassador Sam offered a quick tutorial on AFL rules for us, dummies.

I was wrong to think AFL and rugby league would have a lot in common. After this game I could see more differences than commonalities. AFL more fast-moving game with less restrictive rules than rugby league.

In a AFL game players are allowed to do all sorts things, pushing/pulling each other to bumping on each other intentionally. It might look like a more rough from of football, may be next to American football, but that is what makes it a more fast phased game.

The end of the game was not in favor of the Brisbane Lions. They were leading until the last 5 minutes before the last two goals by Fremantle Dockers, and losing the game by 2 points.

Another interesting aspect of this game is they let us go into the ground for sometime to kick the balls ourselves.

AFL might not be the great sport in the world, but it is not of the highly intense, fast-moving and active sport I have seen. (Disclaimer: I don’t follow any sports that much to make a proper comparison though.) We had a great time as a group of ambassadors at the games and it’s one another wonderful chapter of my student life in Brisbane.

How students can buy discounted Lions tickets?

Brisbane Lions offer tickets their home games at a discounted rate for student. You can buy tickets from Ticket Master either online, over the phone or in person.

• Online: http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/Brisbane-Lions-tickets/artist/800824?calendar_view=1 (Input code: STUDENT11)
• Phone: 1300 136 122 (Mention code: STUDENT11)
• Ticket Master Outlet: Show student card