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A cultural note for International (and interstate) postgrads – a survival guide to the ‘footy’ season

Melbourne is renowned as the cultural capital of Australia.  While they don’t have an Opera House like Sydney, the Arts scene is thriving, they have a world class orchestra, fabulous restaurants – and they have the “footy”!

Melburnians are obsessed with footy (Australian Rules Football). If there are Melburnians who don’t become footy mad once the season begins (late March) then I am yet to meet them (yes, I’m not from around these parts either). Only in Melbourne can a story about a football game, or a football player, or even a football player’s wife, be deemed front page news. So here are a few tips for surviving the footy season.

1) Choose a team to “barrack” for (i.e. support). There doesn’t have to be any particular reason for your choice, perhaps you like the Club colours, or the mascot. But choose a team and stick by them for the whole season. It is absolutely essential you choose a team. However, there are two proviso’s in your choice:-

• It is only OK to choose an interstate team if you are from interstate. International students should choose a local Melbourne team – to choose any other would be considered disloyal to Melbourne.

• Seriously consider the consequences of choosing Collingwood. Collingwood is the team the supporters of all the other teams love to hate. Choose Collingwood and you risk being teased about your choice. Your colleagues will be blissfully happy everytime Collingwood loses. However the plus side to choosing Collingwood is if you meet another supporter they will instantly bond with you, offer you the shirt off their back and become your life-long best friend.

2) Don’t be concerned that choosing a team means you have to learn anything about the game or follow the sports news. For Melburnians it is simply enough that you’ve embraced their beloved footy and they’ll happily keep you informed of your team’s progress. On a Monday morning the supporter of a rival team may come in with a smile on their face and say “Shame about the weekend!” This means your team lost. Conversely, a colleague who barracks for the same team may come in with a smile on their face and say “Wow! What a weekend!” This means your team won.

3) While Monday morning conversations are always about the weekend games, Friday afternoon conversations are always about the “tipping”. Footy tipping is such a widespread practice in Melbourne it is even taught in primary schools. While it is not essential to join a tipping competition to survive the footy season, joining one can make life easier and give you handy conversation starters like “I’ve moved up two places in the tipping ladder.”

So what is footy tipping? Basically, you need to guess which team will win for each game played. Each week there is a draw for the games which shows which teams are playing each other and whether it is a home or away game. Tipping involves making informed decisions (a guess) as to which team will win. Points are awarded for correctly predicting (guessing right) the winning teams. The person with the most points at the end of the season gets a prize. Traditionally tipping stops at the end of the regular draw, before the quarter finals start in September.

And don’t think local Melbourne colleagues will have an advantage in a tipping comp – keep in mind that out of loyalty they will blindly continue to tip “their” team even when they’ve been on a losing streak for six weeks! They will also refuse to tip a team they don’t like (like Collingwood). So sheer blind chance may see you a winner!

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