Weeks 497 & 499 · Women's World Cup · Yarra Valley · Royal Botanic Garden
Sport & Hanging Out
Sharon has arrived — so less time to write blogs (which is a good thing). We have been spending time walking around town and getting her acclimated with the Women's World Cup. Even without the WWC, this is a very busy time of the year in Australia for sport.
The night of the first Australian WWC game (the "Matildas" is the team name), the viewership was probably about 4th in pecking order. AFL rules football and is clearly the king in Melbourne — few bars playing the Matildas, and multiple TVs on different AFL games. There are 8 teams in Melbourne that play at 2 stadiums a couple of miles apart, usually multiple times a weekend. Rugby — both league games and international matches are very popular. Cricket — Australia was playing England in the Ashes. I don't get cricket. Both English and Australians get pretty salty on cricket.
Women's World Cup — it's getting bigger as it progresses. We have been lucky to go to a couple of games and we are 5 minutes from the Fan Fest in the CBD. The stadium is about a mile away. In Melbourne, they used the 4th largest stadium — should have used a larger one but the AFL teams didn't wish to share. The two games we went to were sold out with a great atmosphere — Australia–Canada was the first game and the infamous USA–Sweden was the other one — each could have had doubled the crowd.
The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand — the first edition in the Southern Hemisphere and the first co-hosted women's tournament. Australia's national team, the Matildas, reached the semi-finals for the first time in their history, losing to England. The match against Denmark in the Round of 16 drew 7.13 million viewers on Australian free-to-air TV — the most-watched TV event in Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening ceremony. The Matildas' run generated what was described as an unprecedented wave of public interest in women's football in Australia. The USA, defending champions, were knocked out in the Round of 16 by Sweden on penalties — having been placed in a group where they finished second, meaning they faced a tougher draw.
If you have been watching the games, you may have noticed a statement at the start of the games — called "Acknowledgement of Country" — pretty common occurrence here, including in large meetings at work. It is printed on most government documents.
Similar to other countries, Australia is working to reconcile with the past — the problem for Australia is the past isn't that long ago in some cases. More on a referendum that is up for vote in the fall in a later blog that takes further steps.
We found a "hop on – hop off" wine bus tour to one of the wine regions outside Melbourne — the Yarra Valley, about an hour outside the CBD. Not a true "hop on – hop off" but it worked great to get us to four wineries. Note in the picture at Boat O'Craigo — the brown spots in the vineyard are Kangaroos — locals view them like we do deer — big pests. Not pictured is Dominique Portet which was the best one.
"AFL is clearly the king in Melbourne — few bars playing the Matildas, multiple TVs on different AFL games. There are 8 Melbourne teams playing most weekends."