Coloring Newcastle: Green

This is an excerpt from my creative writing portfolio Coloring Necastle. The premise behind my piece is that an instance at Newcastle reminds me of an adventure I've had studying abroad in Australia. Through the primary colors of green, red and blue, I aim to give Newcastle a little more color. Enjoy.

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I spread my fleece blanket on the grass next to the field. The sun begins its descent in the west and the last rays filter through the trees, casting shadows over the rugby players as they stretch. The biggest college game of the series is between my beloved Evatt House and our archrivals at Ted’s. When I first moved on campus at the University of Newcastle, I wasn’t aware of the fierce rivalry between these two dorms. I was told that speaking to a Ted’s resident was an offense. Back in the States, there’s nothing that compares to this on-campus competition. 

 

The players line up for the opening play, a line of red versus a line of blue. I fidget on the hard ground, attempting to find a comfortable position to watch the game from. The boys battle on in front of me, unaware of my plight. 

The Melbourne Cricket Ground was grand. The rows and rows of seating stretched around the oval field and up to the high rafters. With the capacity to house about 100,000 cheering fans, the MCG is in the top ten largest sport stadiums in the world. My home college stadium in South Carolina, Williams-Brice is only ranked 46^th. The attendance for the game I attended (Richmond Tigers v. Essendon Bombers) was around 83,500 people, more occupants than a sold out game in Columbia could hold.

Since this was my first footy game, the rules were unclear. I quickly caught on to the scoring process: six points for getting the ball through the middle posts and one point for each side post. As AFL is such a physical game, the penalties were the most confusing part of the game. What I would have considered a blatant foul was loudly cheered for by the fans. 

The sweet elderly couple who sat next to me proved helpful for clarification. They had met at a local university in Melbourne and had been married for over 40 years. The couple was cheering against each other; the husband was a Bombers fan and the wife was a Tiger fan. The cute back and forth bickering reminded me of my parents and their sports loyalties. 

The wind blew through the stadium and I attempted to stifle a shiver. I would have loved to be wearing one of the team scarves that I saw frequently dotted across the rippling sea of fans. 

 The AFL teams seemed equally matched as the score seemed to rise proportionally for the first three quarters. It was only in the last minutes of the fourth quarter that the Essendon Bombers seemed to lose focus on the match. Taking full advantage of that, the Tigers swept through on to victory after scoring 16 unanswered points. 

I shifted in my seat and felt the tingle of numbness in my legs. A strange roar had come over the entire MCG. I strained to make out the words of the team cheer:

”Like the tigers of old
we’re strong and we’re bold.
Oh we’re from Tiger
-YELLOW AND BLACK-
oh we’re from Tigerland.”

I spotted the couple that I had sat next to walking out of the stadium, hand in hand. I smiled to myself. With the final echo of Tigerland, the match was over.

The footy game against is 1-1. Evatt has the ball and is making headway toward the goal line. A brutal tackle leaves the balance of momentum in grave danger of going against us. The time is under a minute now. With one final push, the players in red crash into the blue line. Victory! I find myself up on my feet, cheering with my comrades about the last minute goal. My spirits high, I push with the crowd back to college, knowing the celebration will go late into the night.  

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Cheers for now,

Kim