Sports play a major role in the life of most Australians. There are the more universal sports such as tennis, golf, sailing, track and field, swimming, horse racing, Formula 1 Grand Prix and soccer. Then there's cricket and Australian Rules Football. People in many countries, such as the United States, really don't understand these sports and are quite shocked when you let them know that more people watch and play cricket throughout the world than American NFL football. Cricket is played in Australia, New Zealand, England, India, Pakistan, Africa plus many more countries. The audience in India alone probably dwarfs the NFL audience in the United States. This is not to say that we don't like American Football or baseball. We do! I can the sing the Washington Redskins "Hail to the Redskins" song and I visit Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs every summer on several occasions. There is normally a lot of fun and beer involved in watching American sports as there is Australia. We have this love in common and a few companies in Australia can help you enjoy sports Down Under.

There are many companies that will set you up for golf vacations from the Gold Coast in the East to Western Australia in the west. Golf Tours of Western Australia offers a selection of tours. They take care of accommodation (5 Star to 3 Star) and the golf is always on resort courses.  Another company, Australian Sports Tours offers a nice selection of tours from the Gold Coast in Queensland to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.

Australian Football League :Just in case you are curious, here are some of the rules. There are 18 men on the field that is about 200 yards long. No one wears padding and it is a full contact sport. There are opportunities to score at both ends of the field. The ball is moved mainly by kicking it to another player on the same team. If the player catches the ball, then they have the option of taking a free kick (they can't be tackled) or immediately moving with the ball, in which case they can be tackled. Tackling should only occur below the neck and above the knees but that is not always the case. The whole object of the game is to kick the ball between the 2 large posts at the end on the field. This is called a Goal and is worth 6 points. To the outside of these 2 large posts, there are smaller posts. If the ball is kicked between a large post and a small post, it is called a Behind and is worth 1 point. Thus a team that kicks 10 goals and 5 behinds scores a total of 65 points. The team with the most points after 4 quarters wins. There are more rules but that is enough to get you started.

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