Australia Blog

Touch Footy Grand Final

After two solid days of rain, the powers that be decided that our touch footy grand final would go ahead as planned. Driving out there I was alternately struggling to see out the windscreen of the car and being blinded by massive lightning strikes, one of which blew out about 100 metres worth of street lights on the freeway. Exciting stuff.

Figuring we'd get there only to have to turn around and come home, it was with a mixture of relief and disappointment that we were told that the game would go ahead. Relief that we hadn't gone out there for nothing, disappointment that we were playing in pissing down rain and gale-force winds.

Back when I was a kid in primary school we used to love heading down the oval for some "slushy football". Half the fun was diving for the tryline 5 metres out and sliding the rest of the way over. Last night the conditions were ideal, but the competition a little more serious. Despite the puddles on the pitch, the quality of the game was pretty good - not a lot of dropped ball and not too much slipping and sliding.

In the end we got spanked by the better team (6-1) and harshly done by some poor refereeing decisions (what's new, right?). But at the end of the day, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how many trophies you can keep!

It's bigger than a silver medal!

On the way home, traffic on the riverside freeway slowed right down to get a look at the fireworks that were going on as part of the RiverFeast celebrations. It went ahead despite the rain, although I think most people were moved indoors.