PUFWE 06

I’m trying to start a tradition. A tradition celebrating friendship through football. Since having friends move to Melbourne (the home of the AFL) I thought it would be good to take some friends down to visit and to see the Swans play in Melbourne. This is its second year in existence. After last year’s trip I thought it needed a dodgy acronym, and I found one. PUFWE stands for PenUltimate Footy WeekEnd. It’s called penultimate because the ultimate footy weekend would comprise of 4 matches in 3 days but that was too much for my AFL rookie friends. Fair enough too, I’m unsure whether I could stand that much footy. But I’m willing to give it a crack.

Last year we saw Sydney play St Kilda. As it turned out this match just happened to be their worst for the whole season. Just our luck. We drowned our sorrows at the Retro Café in Brunswick Street on some of the best cake we had ever seen.

This year we watched Sydney play Hawthorn at the MCG. Sydney were on their way up, finally showing their premiership winning form with greater consistency. Hawthorn, on the other hand, were on a downer after a blistering start to their season. Less than 30,000 people attended the match which meant for a lack of atmosphere but we made up for that with our spirit (and sledging). In the end Sydney were just too convincing and skilful, winning by 65 points.

Here’s some more details of the weekend:

• Queen Victoria Markets are huge and are mainly geared towards the females. A lot of repitition with the content of the stores. In the end me and Nathan spent more than Sara and Alison. We each bought a replica Socceroos jersey.
• The Esplanade Markets at St Kilda have completely different shops. Lots of artwork and handcrafts, I was impressed.
• Acland Street in St Kilda has a few shops where you can’t help but drool. So many cakes to choose from. I recommend trying one at a time.
• Melbourne Central is a big shopping centre centrally located in Melbourne (hence the name). However their Myer outlet feels a bit disjointed and all over the place. We were searching for a male toilet for 10 mins.
• Trams are the way to go. At times they may appear slow but they are very reliable and cheap. A daily ticket costs $5.50 ($2.50 on Sundays), which gives you endless trips on the rail, tram or bus services.
• Don’t be shy saying you’re a Sydney supporter in Melbourne as we outnumbered Hawthorn supporters on Saturday night. I don’t think all of them would have flown down like we did.