Fanatical Footy

I had my first taste of sporting events in Australia at Sunday night's last Roosters game of the season. After reading Bill Bryson's book In a Sunburned Country, (highly recommended), I knew that Aussies were wild about sports. In fact, so wild about rugby that they invented their own type. That would like Americans being so wild about badminton that they created their own spin-off, including a different birdie and rules about how you can hit it, and then follow it religiously. Pascal has been very helpful in teaching all the nuances about Australian sport. It turns out to be quite complicated-- and it's not even cricket season yet (I've already given up on cricket though, I'm hopeless.)
There are three types of rugby: Rugby Union, Rubgy League and Australian Football League, affectionately known as "footy." The first is known as rugby and is played worldwide. The Rugby World Cup (starting next week in NZ) is Union. Rugby League is played more between Oz, NZ and England and is known as NRL (National Rugby League). And Aussie Rules, or footy, which is played on a cricket field. Weird.
The most important thing to note about rugby in Australia is that it depends what city you're talking about . Sydney follows the NRL religiously, Melbourne follows the AFL fanatically. Interesting.
It would be like New York being huge softball followers and Boston being huge baseball followers. Similar sport, different rules. On that note, don't even ask me what the differences are between the three types. It would be like if you put a picture in front of me that says, "Can you spot the 17 differences between these photos?" It's all the same! The scrum between Union and League is slightly nuanced, and AFL is apparently more "graceful" than the former.
That's all I got.
See? Hopeless.
 Sydney's one big AFL team is the Swans, their NRL team is the Roosters. I thought this was fascinating that it depends on what city you're talking about for the sport. Footy has a huge following in Melbourne and other parts of Australia, but not nearly as much in Sydney. I'll continue my research when I'm in Melbourne for work the week after next.
But one thing's for sure: everyone is cheering for the Wallabies in this year's World Cup!