Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi International Game Croke Park (WARNING MAY CONTAIN LANGUAGE OFFENSIVE TO IRISH)

Well what a brilliant day out! Thanks to my wonderful family I was well prepared to cheer on the Aussies in their grudge match againsed the Irish.

Kelly (in the pic with me) and I prepared for the day with just a touch of aussie style, thongs, tattoos, boxers, flags, we were ready to relish in Australian glory. We had to walk from one end of the city centre to the other, a number of toots, waves, and even rude fingers saluted our way through Dublin.

We met up with the rest of the group at a bar in the city, most of them Irish and quite embarrased to be seen hanging out with such proud Aussies. Loaded with tattoos, stickers and mini flags we got as many people as we could to proudly wear the flag, unfortunately this only lead to three other irish, a couple of polish, a large number of Aussies and an uncertain South African.

Making our way to Croke Park stopping at many bars along the way we had our first serious republic of ireland debate. An older man said aloud to his friend "what is de union jack doin in dis pub". I'd never thought that it may have been a lack of resepect before, but there was our first reminder of the rage between the republic and the north.

We arrived a little late to the match and watched the kick off in the first tier, great seats really and was a gem because the crowd were too busy watching the before game tussle to be worried about a ball game anyway. Ran into some jolly irish boys who were more interested in Guiness than the match, tagging them with flags we were on our way again...

Rushing to our seats way right up in the nose bleed section we could hear the croud cheering, based on the noise level we knew it had to be aussies not irish, the excitement was building. We found our seats, only to discover we were totally surrounded by Irish, not that that mattered the score board was much in our favour.

NB very interesting feeling sitting in a square stadium instead of an oval, never before and quite bizzare, there is a totally different feel.

After a good half hour of jumping up and down in my seat hailing things like 'Bullshit, dickhead, and wicked' an irish man told me he would have to gag me if I did not shut up! (all in good fun, he was the one who took the photo).

By the end of the match, very much aware the Aussies had won a whole buch of Irish left, leaving me to run up and down the Isle waving my flag and dancing around like a mad crazed fan.

After the match we walked to an Autralian bar, where all the Aussies could relish in the success together. It was a brilliant day, a fantastic match and a once in a lifetime experience. Australians really banded together as a minority and came out trumps!!!

I met an Aussie guy in The Woolshead (Aus bar) who went to uni in Ballarat and played footy for lexton, it was grand to talk to someone who knew about home and many people I knew. His name was Ollie for any of the Franc girls.... Quite a good looking guy too with possible gay traits, hmmm.

Copped a lot of flack at work on Monday, but they were just sour loosers who did not want their boys to be hurt. 'Fair play to them'