Football

I'm going to the footy this weekend.  Not Grid iron football- that game is bit too stop/start.  I'm not talking about the AFL either.  No  one this far north down under plays AFL.  Don't even ask about football/soccer. 

I'm talking about rugby league.  Not rugby union which is the game played in Canada.  I'm talking about six tackles to cross the field and score, without a forward pass.  I'm talking about full contact, heavy tackle, no equipment.  This weekend it's The North Queensland Cowboys vs the Melbourne Storm.

I haven't been to the footy in years.  I used to have season tickets.  Then, one day, I moved 5 hours north and bought a house.  The season tickets became unnecessary and unaffordable.

But this weekend is different.  I've already driven south.  I did that Wednesday.  I was hoping to go to the game, and the friend that we're staying with scores a few tickets.  Free, but not entirely without strings.

You see, I have to say a certain phrase.  This is a requirement by the men who have bought the tickets.  If I didn't agree, I wouldn't get the tickets.  When I was a season ticket holder, I used to yell out and support my team in any way possible.  This included yelling "Cowboys" as loud as I could.  This included making very strange loud noises in time with the conversion or penalty kick attempt by the visiting side (I like to think I may even have been successful in breaking player's concentration and forcing errors more than once, but I think its my ego talking).

It also included this certain phrase.  I can take credit for starting this at the stadium, because no one said it before.   Once it came out, I said it often, and to my surprise I wasn't the only one saying it.  And even though I no longer go, it's said often.  And according to my season ticket holding friend, sometimes talked about with fond memories of that Crazy Canadian who used to come out here and yell and carry on.

Well, like the poltergeist, "I'm Baa-aack."  For one night only.

And Sunday night, by the man who first used it there, Dairy Farmer's Stadium will once again echo with..

"Get off OF him, not get off on him!"

It's going to be fun.