Lions take on 'The G' in Australia's footy heartland

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 half way 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 6pm, but 1,400km 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 a far more scattered in Melbourne.

Sure, you can find them in pockets around the big squares and some of 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 by night, as seen from the Evan Walker Bridge

Melbourne is an AFL town, known to the locals as "footy", which I believe is a catch-all term in Australia for "sport", and possibly even cricket, although that’s not an issue in deep winter.

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 games 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.

The lack of a Super Rugby presence aside, Melbourne is one of the truly great sports cities.

From my hotel room right now, if you crane your neck enough you can spot the roof of the iconic MCG, which the Australians call 'The G', because no word is too small to be abbreviated in this country.

Driving out to the Lions’ press conference at the incredible Xavier College on Monday, we caught sight of the magnificent Melbourne Park.

On the left side of our road we were looking at the Rod Laver Arena and the many other courts of the Australian Open tennis, while just a few yards beyond that was the MCG itself.

On the right of our road, AAMI Park, the city’s third major sports stadium, a 30,000 capacity ground that houses their two A-League soccer sides, as well as the Melbourne Storm from rugby league’s NRL.

Just as we were driving by, the Storm were in the middle of training out in the adjacent pitch, free for anyone walking by to stop and watch.

All of this is within walking distance of the city.

Marvel Stadium hosted the Lions' meeting with the First Nations and Pasifika XV

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 3km away at Marvel Stadium.

Tickets are still available at the time of writing, and some can be bought through official platforms for as low as $60 (€33.50) up in the top deck.

While it’s nice to see that dynamic pricing works both ways, the price slash hasn't gone down well with supporters who anticipated a rush last year.

One friend paid $359AUS (€200) per ticket when they went on sale last year.

A ticket in that same block of the stadium could be bought this morning for $91AUD (€50).

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.

The traveling British and Irish media took a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground

Given the heaving Irish population of this country, there’s a wonderful bonus to this trip in knowing someone wherever we go, and I’m not talking about former FAI chief executive John Delaney, who we spotted outside Suncorp Stadium before the first Test.

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'.

On top it all, a family cousin who has been here for 14 years just happens to work in the building across the road from my hotel.

Melbourne is a big place but the world is small.

Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow a live blog of Australia v British and Irish Lions on Saturday from 11am on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app

Click here to read article