Winging It Travel Podcast · Wednesday, September 9, 2026
The speaker details their introduction to the Australian Football League (AFL) while in Melbourne, highlighting the sport's unique nature and the electric atmosphere at games, particularly at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). They describe supporting the Richmond team despite their poor performance at the time.
“I did manage to recover my budget from starting work to about the seven-month mark where I left. And that was absolutely crucial for me carrying on travelling for the rest of my visa in Australia. So from nought, and probably a bit of minus in there, I managed to get back up to 12 to 14,000 Australian dollars in six to seven months. Not bad going.”
“It's the closest game in Australia in terms of an atmosphere to UK football, so like the Premier League. So that kind of atmosphere was very similar. And the AFL league is quite popular in Melbourne because it's a Victorian game. So Melbourne is in Victoria. There are eight to 10 teams, probably more now.”
“And my team was called Richmond, who were at absolutely toilet at the time. But I picked them because I was going to move to Richmond initially. But I changed my mind. So I committed. You pick your team, you stay loyal, even though I had no loyalty to this team whatsoever.”