Just booked flights home from UK for April and have worked out between spending time in Syndey and Melbourne I manage to get to the Round 5 and Round 6 games for season 2008. Having managed to see 3 live games in the last 3 seasons getting to two will be a real bonus! This unfortunately the reality of those of us who live abroad. We subsist on a colection of news websites, forum's, bit torrents and radio streaming! I have to say though its a lot better now than it was when I first left Melbourne.
My first move was to brisbane in 2002........that was a shock to the system! Subscribed to Optus Pay TV b/c they had the broadcast rights and low and behold seeing a regular AFL game was a rareity and seeing the Bulldogs even rarer....BF existed then I think, but I didn't know about it so it was reliant on The Age website......
If I thought that was hard, following the bulldogs from my first year in London was even tougher......broadband internet was a luxury that most share houses couldn't afford and dial up was just as rare......heading to internet cafe's was impractical! I had no idea BF existed so again I was reliant on The Age and Herald Sun websites and amid the drama of Grant doing his knee, Wallace resiging and the mastermind beating Collingwood and getting the senior coaching position I received mosty of this all a couple of days late.......
Then I discovered BF in 2004!!!! Whilst frantically trying to get the 2004 draft coverage I stumbled onto the BF website and all my dreams were answered!!!! Somehwre I could converse with like (and often not so like) minded foortball fans.....Melbourne didn't seem so far away, though with telstra Bigpond's apalling video streaming which would buffer for 30 seconds after every 10 seconds of footage (and this on an 8 meg Broadband line) it seemed as though I'd have to resign myself to the radio......best games....friday nights (as listening to music became more acceptable at the office it wasn't unusual for the Aussies (Melbournites in particular) to have their headphones on and be apparently hard at work and Saturday night games.....which conveniently started at around 10am on a Sat morning UK time!
Last year I discovered Bit Torrents and Woof and they have been a saviour......yes the game is beamed to you delayed, but combined with Woof and BF discussion you have the opportunity a) knowing the result b) almost reviewing games with the comments of Sockeye, DR, TCD, Acker (apologies to everyone not mentioned) in the back of your mind!
So for me 2008 promises to be a bonus year.....2 games live against Richmond and WCE.....almost as good as a Spurs v Arsenal derby. Provided the Bit Torrents arestill being uploaded I'll get to see my beloved Doggies and who knows, given that Setanta have started showing games I may just have to lash out the £9.99 a month