13.09.05
Footy Canadian Style
Saturday was Grand Final Day for the North West Pacific AFL. Three teams lined up for the round robin style tournament with Burnaby, Vancouver and Seattle talking to the field. Victoria had been in the line up but were a last minute withdrawal.
Alice had arrived in the morning straight from the final day of her Contiki tour of South Western USA and was suffering from a lack of sleep and a fair degree of seediness. Her sentence - a full day of boredom sitting in the stands at Thunderbird Stadium and photo duties. Luckily a friend Mel turned up later in the day to give Alice a drinking partner.
The day started with the singing of the three national anthems, and game number one, Vancouver vs Burnaby which was from all reports likely to be a precusor to the final games of the day. However nobody counted on Seattle turning up ready to play and they went through the day undefeated to run out a few goal winners over Burnaby in the final and thus becoming NWPAFL Premiers for the second time. As with any night sporting event when the lights go down and the beer comes out so to do the streakers and what sporting event would be complete without the streakers. From reports i have heard Alice couldn’t get her Camera out quick enough and as you can see from the photos in all her excitement couldn’t hold the camera still. Which is probably a good thing as the men in question can still maintain a slight aura of dignity.
I had the honour of starting the first ever night game played in North America with a perfect bounce, and despite leaving Canberra half way through the season i still got a Grand Final under my belt for the year. I am more than likely to be heading to Milwaukee in a few weeks to umpire at the US AFL Nationals. So that should be sweet as well.
For Mel, who it was the first time she had witnessed Australian Football - well she was too traumatised by the streakers to form an opinion of the day.