Englishman Rob Page survived his first AFL game in February, now he blogs about his first Crows home match. He even uses the word “hooter” for siren which makes him sound more British than Hugh Grant!

Following on from my first experience of Aussie Rules at the recent NAB Cup Challenge I found myself lucky enough to receive two tickets to the first home game of the season. It transpired that this happened to be a game that’s commonly referred to as ‘The Showdown’ or Adelaide Crows versus Port Adelaide, a local rivalry akin to a Newcastle v Sunderland Premier League game. With that analogy in mind I headed for the tram and a slight fear that I may get caught in the middle of battling fans vying for superiority with drunken chants, muscle flexing and a strong baton wielding police presence.

I couldn’t have been more wrong as I nestled myself between both sets of supporters, mostly of the older generation, bedecked in multiple lanyards and ‘merched’ up to the eyeballs with caps, polo shirts, jackets, scarves and other club paraphernalia. Following a rather pleasant ride in to the city without a sign of any riot police I joined the hordes of fans as they crossed over the riverbank footbridge. Avoiding the temptation to take a photo of myself standing alongside a cardboard cut-out of a Crows player that lined the bridge, I had a rendezvous with a fellow Pom who we shall call Andy, mainly because that’s his name. After I had stopped laughing at the fact that he had attired himself head to toe in denim resembling a cross between Status Quo and Right Said Fred (he’s bald) we made our way into the Southern Stand.

Quickly arming ourselves with an amber nectar beverage (which was impressively cold and pre-poured for a swift no-nonsense pick up) we sauntered around the ground marvelling at the stadium as well as the way home and away supporters (not the TV show) mingled with each other in a jovial fashion. Certainly light years away from the police escort away fans would expect at the aforementioned Newcastle derby.

By now the activity on the pitch included players warming up, Claude the Crow busting some impressive dance moves and several thousand, so it seemed, backroom staff rubbing stiff legs, going through drills, talking tactics and probably secretly enjoying the fact they were on the hallowed turf. As we took up our seats directly behind the goals we settled down to enjoy the game. And what a game it was, for a Crows supporter of course. To a man they dominated possession, kicked with skill, threw themselves at everything and didn’t seem to give the poor Port players time to come up for air. With fellow Crows supporters taking great delight in each goal that was kicked, with one even displaying an impressive actual Crows noise from the back of his throat, the mood going in to halftime was upbeat to say the least.

As we re-took our seats once more with beer in hand and chewy sweets (aka lollies) for sustenance, we enjoyed a further two quarters of the same. A particular highlight being when the ball was kicked through the posts towards us - I launched myself out of my seat and prepared to catch the ball screaming for Andy to lift me up in a Dirty Dancing style overhead lift to gain additional height. Unfortunately the ball took a last minute swing over us, off the back hoardings and off the head of a lady who had been flapping her arms around in an attempt to take the catch. Francis Rossi and I sat back down slightly deflated but chuckling to ourselves at the expense of the poor woman, rather thankful that we hadn’t had to perform any feat of lift/catch.

The full-time hooter sounded with the Crows having won 144 to 86, apparently a particularly high score especially for a local derby. I don’t believe that games are always that easy or one-sided and I’m sure the return game against Port Adelaide with their home support in place will prove to be a different test, but as a first experience it was a thrilling one to have. Richard Fairbrass and I left the ground feeling deeply dippy with our Oval experience, and I declared it was high time I had a go at kicking one of these odd shaped balls to see if I could recreate some of the spectacular goals that were scored that day. Watch this space…