Sport Photography - Australian Rules Football - Understanding the game.

For the third week in a row I’ve tried my hand at Sport Photography, this time it’s North Melbourne, in Blue and White stripes (my team) versus Essendon in the black with the red slash. It’s VFL who are the second string players from the National league.

Australian Rules football is the most popular winter sport in Australia, and my team - North Melbourne are one of the oldest in the country formed in 1869 (yes way before most football teams and rugby clubs)

Now I have a sense that most people on Steemit have never seen Australian Rules Football before so lets see if I can attempt to explain roughly how it works:

You stay with the umpire bouncing the ball, and the ruckman, attempting to punch or tap it down to another player.

You then want to keep the play moving. Whether you kick it.

Or handball it, place the ball in one hand and punch it with the other.

If you catch a kicked ball on the full it’s a mark, and you get to kick or handball without any pressure from the opposition.

Hence why everyone want to mark it.

Because in normal play, they can tackle you, to stop you kicking or handballing.

So if you don't get tackled you run and find someone else free, where ever that person is, play happens in 360 degrees, there is no offside rule.

And it’s chaotic so eventually someone gets knocked in the head, does some bleeding a and needs bandage.

Teams score about every 3 or 4 minutes, today North didn’t score often enough.

It's a better game in video form - here are some highlights of the first team of the North Melbourne Kangaroos from last year.