Sports Groundhog Day

I have left till last the sports theme tour because it is not my cup of tea but it is Melbourne's. Melburnians pride themselves at being the only city in the world that can host an Olympic Games with only one months notice. Now that is impressive. They are also quite chuffed at the fact that their sports parks are close enough to the CBD that business workers still dressed in suits and ties, can catch a game of something on the way home from work.

The two parks, Yarra and Melbourne on opposite sides of the river around the East Melbourne suburb, contain eight venues, the MCG, the Rod Laver Arena, the Olympic Park, The Oval, The Old Scotch Oval, the Vodafone Arena, the Hisense Arena and the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre. In addition to these a new soccer and rugby park is due by opened in 2009. Again I say, impressive in an impassive tone of voice.

I took a walk from Federation Square around this expansive area, choosing not to do any of the stadium tours. I think I've pretty much finished with the guided tour thing. Some of them have been interesting but on the whole it doesn't really float my boat to be taken on a photo highlights tour. I want the juicy stuff. I do however keep meeting what seems like the same bus load of Indian tourists everywhere. I think this nationality has replaced the Japanese as the number one camera carrying day trippers.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is truly hallowed. The first recorded game of Australian Rules was held in Yarra Park just in front of the modern stadium. That was back in August 1858 when Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar Schools played for three days straight before declaring the match a draw. You would also think that they would declare the game unsuccessful and do something to improve the rules but no, the Aussies believe in sticking at these things and – well you can tell by the popularity of the game today that they finally got a hang of the rules, even if the rest of the world remains mystified.

Actually I believe that the Aborigines should be credited with inventing Australian football as they were kicking around stuffed possums well before the white man arrived. They called their game marn-gook though and I guess the name was not as catchy.

Still you have to admit that with AFL, cricket, horse racing and tennis, Melbourne has to be considered to be sports mad. After all they are the only place in the world where a horse race is marked by a public holiday.