Have I got a tip for you...

One of the favorite sports here is Australian Rules Football or "footy". There are 16 teams in a an organization called the Australian Football League or AFL. Patterned after the NFL, each team is a franchise and is associated with an Australian city. In the case of where I am, there are two footy teams.

And like in US football, fans are rabid over AFL and their local teams. Not being a big NFL fan and on top of that being American, I can't say I get all the AFL excitement. Especially since some of their uniforms are pretty dumb looking.

But I have been to a footy match and participate in an activity here called "footy tipping." Footy tipping is essentially and organized selection of the winning teams each week for fun. I do it just to be sociable, truth-to-tell.

Like I said, not being from here I have absolutely no affiliation with any team or strong feelings at all about any particular one for that matter. So when I tip, it's pretty logical and unsentimental. I look at the favorites, remember any team news I'd heard, figure there'll be a few upsets and then make my selections for the 8 matches played per weekend.

I was 8/8 last week, 7/8 the past two weeks and am #2 out of 55 on the rankings ladder in my competition.

Let me just say this has not endeared me to the Australians on the ladder, who find it unthinkable a "yank" could out-guess them at their own game; meaning they hardly stop by to say "congratulations", that's for sure.

Oh well, bitterness never is pretty.

- Farmer Ted