British and Irish Lions face AFL stronghold in Melbourne

And so the British and Irish Lions move on to Melbourne. After Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, and Adelaide had their time with the tourists, this will be the final new city on their trip, before packing the bags and returning to Sydney for the final Test next week.

As a first-timer in this country, I don't think I ever fully grasped the sheer size of it until the second leg of last week’s flight to Brisbane when, upon clocking the flight map as we neared the west coast of the country, I realised we were only around halfway through our 14-hour journey from Dubai.

The Australian winter wasn't noticed in Queensland where the average day was still as warm and sunny as you’d be expecting in Irish summer, save for darkness falling by 6 pm, but 1,400 km away in Melbourne it’s a different story. Crisp in the afternoon, cold by night, and biting wind. Rugby follows winter around the world.

It’s been noticeable this week that the red jerseys and hats and t-shirts and hoodies that took over Brisbane last week are far more scattered in Melbourne. Sure, you can find them in pockets around the big squares and some of the bar and restaurants on the Southbank, but the sprawl of the city compared to Brisbane has meant they’ve been spread a lot thinner, at least in the first half of the week.

Melbourne is an AFL town, known to the locals as 'footy', which is a catch-all term in Australia for 'sport'. Ten of the 18 teams in the AFL are from this city, or within an hour’s drive of the central business district, and using this week’s slate of matches as an example, there will be an Aussie Rules game at either one of the city’s two biggest stadiums – the MCG or Marvel Stadium – on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

This is the behemoth that the Lions, and rugby union in general, are going up against. As it stands, there is currently no Super Rugby team in the state of Victoria, after the Melbourne Rebels went bust in 2024.

Given the comfortable nature of last week’s Lions win, it's unlikely that the 100,000 capacity of the MCG will be reached, although speaking to locals, the reality is that only an AFL Grand Final ever hits that threshold. The more likely estimation is that Saturday will see 85-95,000 people move through the gates, an attendance which can’t be sniffed at, particularly with an all-Victoria AFL game between North Melbourne and Geelong taking place at the same time, just 3 km away at Marvel Stadium.

On Tuesday afternoon before the Lions faced the First Nations and Pasifika XV at Marvel Stadium, we popped out to the MCG where the traveling media were treated to a tour of Australia’s most famous sporting venue, aided by volunteer guides Liz and Dave, as well as former Australia cricketer Damien Fleming, who supplemented the tour with stories about his Test memories at the ground, and some gentle pre-Ashes sledging to the English press-pack in particular.

Given the heaving Irish population of this country, there’s a wonderful bonus to this trip in knowing someone wherever we go. On Saturday afternoon I had the chance to catch up with a good friend of my brother who has been living in Brisbane, and now Gold Coast, for the last six years. Sunday night in Melbourne gave me the opportunity to head up to the city-suburb of Fitzroy to meet one of my closest school friends who has been here since 2021, a journey that took a bit longer than expected as we hit the stream of Collingwood fans leaving 'The G' after 'Sunday Arvo Footy'.

Melbourne is a big place but the world is small.

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