オージーが熱狂するAFL（Australian Football League）について是非読んでみて下さい！
‘Aussie rules’を知らずしてオーストラリアは語れません！
英語のレベルは易しめですので、リラックスして読んで下さいね。
Hey everyone!
Next week, I will visit my friends and family back in Tasmania. I’m really looking forward to seeing them. I’m also really looking forward to watching the Hawks…
Not the Softbank Hawks – The Hawthorn Hawks. They are an ‘Australian rules football’ team from Melbourne, who play some of their home games in Tasmania. Australian rules football is usually called ‘Aussie rules’, or just ‘footy’, for short. It’s often called “AFL” too, but AFL is actually the name of the league – the Australian Football League.
Aussie rules is a fast, exciting game, especially when a player takes a big catch!
Aussie rules (along with cricket and rugby) is one of the most popular sports in Australia, especially in Victoria. Most people outside of Australia and New Zealand have never even heard of Aussie rules, but it is one of the best-attended sports leagues in the world, so it really is VERY popular in Australia! The AFL Grand Final is always held in the mighty MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), in front of a crowd of up to 100,000 people (last year’s grand final attendance was 98,633).
I’m going to see the Hawks play a regular season game against the Melbourne Demons at the MCG next Saturday. I’m pumped!
Until now, there has only been a men’s league at the national level. But on June 15th this year, the AFL announced that there will be a national women’s league starting next year (2017)! Unfortunately, the Hawks won’t have a women’s team in the first year. But hopefully, they will join soon. You can read an article about it here: http://junkee.com/afl-just-announced-first-ever-national-womens-league/80774
Last, even though Aussie Rules is not very famous in other countries, many countries have their own small league. There’s one here in Japan too (in the Tokyo area). If you would like to know more about the game, they have a video explaining Aussie Rules… The video is a bit long, but it has Japanese subtitles 😉 http://www.jafl.org/whats_afl/
Carn the Hawks!
語彙（スラング）
＊ ‘Pumped’ means I’m really excited.
＊ “Carn the Hawks” is Australian slang for “Come on the Hawks”, a way to cheer them on.
