I had corporate tickets to the Fremantle versus Carlton AFL match this evening at the Gold Coast Carrara Stadium via work.

The evening was fully catered and included waiters in each of the boxes, which was a nice touch. The other great aspect of the corporate tickets was VIP parking, situated right behind the Gold Coast football stadium. Getting into the parking was straight forward but getting away from the stadium was even better, straight into the car, onto the road and completely missed the typical traffic chaos.

The first quarter of the match was quite scrappy, with a lot of stray kicks and handling errors. I thought that was going to set the tune for the entire match, which would have been disappointing but I was pleased to see the quality lift by half way through the first quarter.

My one paragraph breakdown of the match is as follows. Fremantle won the match through great defence within their 50m circle and cleared the ball well. While Carlton were able to get the ball into the Fremantle half quite easily, their approach to getting the ball into the 50m circle was very ordinary. I think their approach strategy tonight (if you can call it that) ultimately lost the match for them – which compounded by poor ball control and ball movement choice made disposal a simple task for Fremantle.

I’m not a massive AFL fan, however I do enjoy watching the matches on the TV – however I couldn’t tell you the names of all the teams or who plays for what team and in what position. After seeing a match in person now, I can completely understand why it is such a massively popular sport in the southern states – the aerial acrobatics and sheer fitness of the players is quite astounding.

I could definitely see myself going along to another game at some point – the crowd are vocal and passionate about their teams, which makes the experience that much more memorable I think.