Casey and Lexi could be the GIANTS’ biggest fans outside Australia. The sisters joined their football-fanatic father on a trip to GIANTS Stadium last weekend for their first taste of Australian Rules Football.

By Casey and Lexi 

For the past two years, all our dad has talked about is the GIANTS. He spends early weekend mornings sitting in his office, iPad on the table in front of him, live streaming the games so that he does not miss a moment.

We constantly wonder why we own so many “Orange Army” t-shirts when we have never seen a game ourselves. This was until we decided to visit Australia over our spring break, and we were finally going to get to experience the sport that our dad loves so much. 

Given that we have never seen a game, nor knew the rules and how it was played, we had no idea what to expect. The only piece of advice our dad gave us was “cheer when the orange team kicks the ball through the two middle posts.” Thanks, dad, that explained the whole game for us.

The next helpful hint we received was “AFL is a mix of basketball, American football, and soccer.” Immediately we thought, okay, we’re familiar with those sports, maybe we can figure out how this sport is played.

Our final piece of knowledge, and probably the most helpful, was the explanation of marking. With these three pieces of advice, we were prepared to view our first Australian Football game. But first, we needed to try playing ourselves. 

The day before the game, we took a trip to the practice facility. While the players were practicing, we were off the side talking to General Manager of Football Wayne Campbell who gave us a quick lesson in how to properly throw the ball to another player and how to kick the ball to have the proper amount of backspin to make it go far.

Then, it was our turn to take the field. Phil Davis helped our parents, while Stephen Coniglio helped us as we tried to perfect our skills. We were pretty impressed with ourselves. The handballing was not for us, and we now have bruises. The kicking, however, was much more our forte, and we did well, in our own opinions, for first-timers.

We could, in no way, have expected how kind and welcoming all of the players and coaches were. Walking in, we expected to meet skilled athletes, not a family who welcomed ours in with open arms. This made us most excited for the game the following day. 

Walking into the stadium, we were immediately taken aback by the sheer size of the field. We had heard how big it was but compared to our past experience with American sporting facilities, this was much greater.

Then, we got to the change rooms, and you could feel it in the air, the boys were ready to get onto the field and give every fan (well, every GIANTS fan) in the stands an amazing opening game. They definitely delivered on that.

Australian Football itself is the fastest, toughest, most fun to watch game we have ever experienced, and we have the utmost respect for the players dedication to this taxing sport. 

So now, walking down the school hallway with our GIANTS backpacks on tight, getting ready to watch those early morning games, we can definitely say the game left a lasting impact on us, and we cannot wait to get down to Australia to see the GIANTS take on another team.