Well, I had a good time at the game even with the bad result and the ending was certainly exciting.

Dressed in an array of red and green, I took the train from Central station and on the way, the Murray family ‘adopted’ me. It was a father with his four children of various ages. One of the girls heard me talking on my phone and asked me where I was from. When I told them that I had come all this way to see the Bunnies, they all looked at me like I had just arrived from Mars. We chatted and they told me what they knew about the stadium and who they thought would have a good game today

The stadium was small, but even though I was in almost the last row, just in front of the boxes, the view was really good. I was in a sea of blue and yellow supporters with hardly any red and green in the vicinity. In my area there were mostly men and I would say the crowd skewed older rather than younger. I left to try to get to ‘The Borrow’ but the stands were set up in such a way that you had to go out of the stadium to go to another section. I was told my ticket wouldn’t get me in that area so I had to sit among all the Eels supporters.

In many ways seeing a game in person is quite different than say, watching American Football. The teams walked on the field and with out any hoopla, the game began immediately. With no time outs, it moves continually. It seemed that the only breather the players get is when they have to pause for a verdict from the Video Referee. There is also no call of the game in the stadium which proved problematic for a greenhorn like me. With no stoppage of play and limited replays on the big screen, you not only need to pay constant attention but it really helps if you have much more than a passing familiarity with the rules, penalties and such. I was fortunate to have a nice older gentleman, Fred, sitting next to me and he tried his best to answer my questions.

I’ve been to games in ‘enemy’ territory many times in my life and I get a kick out of cheering ‘against’ the home team in their stadium. I didn’t know what to expect over here. I was the only one in my immediate section standing up and yelling for the Bunnies, so I stood out a bit. I was at a distinctive disadvantage that I’m not used to in sporting situations because I can’t talk with enough knowledge to give as good as I get in that adversarial environment. Because sometime a play on the field looked to me as a ‘good thing’ for the Rabbitohs when in fact it was a bad thing, I did embarrass myself a couple of times. It’s hard to gracefully try to take a cheer back once it’s left your lungs. Lucky for me this just seemed to puzzle the guys around me and they didn't call me on it. All in all, the Eels fans were enthusiastic, but not nearly as interactive either among themselves or with the opposing team’s fans like I have experienced.  

Fred took pity on me at the half and said some encouraging words that it wasn’t over and all Souths had to do was get a little more time with the ball. The first half was marred by a few missed passes and lost balls for the Rabbitohs. The defense was holding as long as the Eels played predictably but the Parramatta capitalized on some broken plays that they turned into a try and some advantageous field position. Souths came out in the second half pumped up and aggressive. When Nathan Merritt made his brilliant try and conversion around 75 minutes in to make the score 18-12, it got to be a really exciting and seemed like a winnable game. There was real hope for a Bunny comeback until a Rabbitoh bomb was caught by the Eels with only seconds left in the game.

I thanked Fred for all his kind help when the penalties or the plays confused me. He said that next year might be the Rabbitohs year with JT as a great coach they were only a couple of players away from a really fine season. Parramatta put together a few break away plays and with the almost tie in the end it was a fun game to see. They also have a bear of a player with the best name – Fui Fui Moi Moi! Hopefully next week things will go better for Souths.

(Images below)