footy - geoff's take on the day

it was a fantastic day as the collingwood magpies had a convincing win over those brutal thugs from the carlton football club. i have dearly missed seeing my team play...it is almost 9 years since i left these shores for my new home in kentucky and missing out on AFL is one of the things this foreigner misses. to be here for a footy season is such a treat.

saturday's game had all the best parts of our national game...high-flying marks, long goal kicking, bone-crunching clashes between players, and two clubs who have been bitter rivals for over a century playing on australia's most famous sporting arena. and then there was the 'biffo', the 'barney', the 'argy-bargy', the 'foot-brawl', the sometimes unpleasant but always entertaining intensity when passion spills over into wresting and the occasional 'cut-lunch' (punch) being thrown and landed. Sherry was disgusted (she is afterall a southern belle) while the other 76,999 of us pagan-convict-stock-antipodeans were thrilled at the spectacle. it must be said here that, although quite a few punches thrown, and while some blood was spilt on the playing surface, the players finished the game shaking hands with one another and grinning with tired gladness. this is a nice part of aussie culture - sporting foes tearing one another's heads off during the game but enjoying a beer and a chat afterwards.

it was a memorable day for us and we are most grateful to our hosts, phil and dan mccredden (check out their blog here). apart from being wonderful married couple, kingdom servants, serious thinkers and leaders in the church, they are true family in the collingwood sense. go pies!