GO YOU MIGHTY ROOSTERS

Now the other thing which has been on our minds and on our social calendar lately are
THE MIGHTY ROOSTERS!!! Have a quick look at their site because it is designed and managed by none other than Himself and his band of merry multimedia men. Run your cursor over the rooster emblem on the banner.......cool eh? (and mildly irritating)

Before the National League (AFL), each state had their own Football League with local clubs, traditions, awards etc. In the mid 90s the AFL was created and South Australia put up two teams, The Adelaide Crows and the Port Adelaide Power. Although this stripped a number of the local clubs of their best players, the local SA League continues to provide a good standard of football, a great deal of club loyalty and is still reasonably well followed.
The North Adelaide Football Club is one of those teams.

Himself's company sponsors the club as well as running the website and producing other marketing and motivational items. As a result we get to go and see them in the Member's Stand at the Adelaide Oval from time to time. Additionally, we know one of the players, Nick Gill, as his girlfriend used to work for us so that gives us a personal interest in the team and the game. Well, it gives me a personal interest; Himself just loves football!
Me in the Member's Stand two weeks ago.

Nick is quite a character. Known as The Emu for his height and gangly legs, he is a superb mark (that means catching the ball on the full) and covers a huge amount of ground throughout the game. He really is an exceptional player...except for one thing, he can't kick straight. This of course can be an advantage when you are facing away from the goals on an impossible angle, a position from which Gilly has been known to score on a number of occasions. It is a disadvantage however when you are 10metres out from an open goal, dead in front. From this normally certain position, Nick has been known to kick the ball and not only miss the goals to only score a point...but to kick it out of bounds altogether!!! So it is with mixed feelings that we observe him take a spectacular mark knowing that the next move, the free kick, could be a disaster. Despite this he was selected for The Adelaide Crows and has played most of the season with them this year, only returning to Norths when the Crows were eliminated in the final rounds of the national competition.
I think they were trying to teach him to kick. (Himself says he kicks like a girl)

But I digress. You see, Norths have made it to the Grand Finals this year! First time since 1991!
We were there in the Member's Stand two weeks ago when they lost the Preliminary Final so we took Small Boy down this weekend just gone, to see them claw their way back into the Finals by knocking out Woodville/West Torrens. A Boy and his Dad at the ticket booth.

It was a very fraught game. At one point we were 20 points behind. (One goal=6 points) See scoreboard below. The scoreboard itself is an item of interest because as you can see it has not been updated to include electronic nonsense. I actually think it is Heritage Listed...do you know Dad?
If you look at the points total you can see we were behind. (A Behind on the board by the way is another name for a point, scored when the ball passes between the two outer posts rather than the inner ones...confusing but you'll get it) Check the time on the clock too. Of the 7 'Behinds' or 'Points' scored by North Adelaide, Nick Gill was responsible for at least 3!

But the MIGHTY ROOSTERS were not plucked yet! Check out the final scoreboard (new time on the clock).Yes!!! A resounding victory and Nick Gill had a key part to play, snapping in 3 goals from ludicrous angles and generally making himself useful all over the ground! I was extremely excited by the whole thing. Small Boy and Dad took it much more in their stride.

When we got home we got a call from the CEO of the Club asking Himself to get straight on to designing the Grand Final Merchandise. Himself mentioned that we'd been at the game.
"Ah yes," he quipped,"I thought I heard your wife barracking."
(Himself laughs),"Ha ha...no we were on the Hill today, not in the Stands."
"Yes....." says the CEO.

Cheeky bugger!

Oh now, I've just found this on Youtube so if you want to see what a 'mark' looks like and get an idea of why the Aussies are so passionate about their football.....get a load of this.



You don't have to watch it all the way through, although girls...there is some very nice eye candy here...and there is a really cute bit right at the end!

So, Grand Finals here we come. We have been invited to the Magary Box at the AAMI Stadium next Sunday. GO YOU MIGHTY ROOSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!