Following the Footy From Far Away
Long time readers of this blog would know that I am am a passionate Australian Football (AFL) fan, and one-eyed St Kilda Supporter!!
This past weekend saw the start of the 2008 season, so I feel it's appropriate to share my learnings of how to follow the game from the other side of the world.
First off, television coverage.
I have DirecTV and on channel 615 ( for an extra $15 a month), there is Setanta Sports
Formerly known as the Victorian Football League, and commonly known as the AFL, it is the Australian national competition in the sport of Australian Rules Football. The AFL is the most popular professional sporting league in Australia. These matches are followed by a series of final matches that culminate in the two best teams playing for the premiership in the AFL Grand Final , the best attended domestic club championship event in the world .
Setanta Sports will be broadcasting at least two LIVE events each week, along with at least one highlight show.
So, I got to watch my game this weekend. w00t
Next, is online coverage. I split this into two buckets : Web & Mobile Web.
Web
All the usual suspects - a mixture of traditional media and fans
- AFL
- Sportal
- Final Siren
- Real Footy
- Sports Australia
- ABC Grandstand
- Herald Sun Footy
- https://fig.aflcasts.com/
- AFL Football Blog (Unofficial)
- The Podcast Network's AFL Show
- Australian Football Association of North America
Mobile Web
It's a rather sad tale to tell
I open up https://wap.afl.com.au and get
Now, I find it an amusing error result. At the top I see "Free to Browse" and in the middle I'm told to call Telstra. When I do contact Telstra, I am told that this is only available to customers of their network. I try to explain that I am no longer based in Australia.
Anyways, at the bottom of the page is a link to BigPond Sport.
Which leads me to a mobile portal page for BIgpond, *not* Bigpond Sport
And the Sport's section has an AFL link
Which gives is this handy dandy little site
With News, Fixtures, Results, Ladders etc
For news, I also have Foxsports
and ABC Mobile
And to be honest, that's about it. Haven't found any other good mobile sites. (IMHO the state of Australian mobile friendly sites is pretty poor.)
I would love to know of others. Leave me a link in the comments.
Oh and Carn the Saints!