There’s a rare thing happening this year in Australian sports.
Thanks to the Cricket World Cup earlier this year, the AFL season got pushed back a week from its usual calendar dates.
That means that instead of the AFL Grand Final taking place on the “last Saturday in September,” as the proverb goes, it’s going down on the first Saturday in October.
Which means that we’ve got ourselves a Grand Final Weekend, with the AFL’s big dance on Saturday October 3rd, and the NRL Grand Final going down on the very next day, Sunday October 4th.
But along with the grandly held Australian tradition of getting wildly pissed and yelling at hulking professional athletes comes the similarly grand tradition of not having to cook dinner.
So what exactly do Australians chow down on on the most wonderful day(s) of the year?
Life-saving mobile hero EatNow has been paying attention to the eating habits of Australians on Grand Final Day, which unsurprisingly, also happens to coincide with a spike in orders from the web-based deliciousness platform.
And on a state-by-state basis, the results – taken from last year’s Grand Final Days – are quite interesting.
But it’s the wild, blind assumptions to be made from them that things get very interesting.
If we assume that:
- Pizza, in this instance, is more than likely food for sharing, and;
- Butter Chicken and curries are for quieter nights in;
We can therefore assume that:
- Queensland likes it a bit hotter, but really couldn’t give a toss about anything that isn’t State of Origin.
- New South Wales barely lifts its head off the pillow for the NRL Grand Final – mostly only to figure out the source of the flares.
- Victorians are vegetarians, or are at least mindful of vegetarians, on AFL Grand Final Day, ordering crowd-pleasing pizzas. But all that goes out the window on NRL day (meat lovers is a box-on-the-lap kinda situation, let’s be real here).
- South Australia bloody loves a party.
- Western Australians are straight-up throwing that FIFO cash at the most expensive per-person tucker on EatNow.
- Australia, as a general rule, is fanging on SHITLOADS of Butter Chicken.
EatNow spokesman Matt Dyer stated of the data that, “While we don’t know the results of game day, those who choose to watch at home can enjoy more satisfying food offerings – so even if their team isn’t victorious, footy fans can at least win at the food game.”
The study also found that, of those lucky few who actually get to go to the big game, the current offering of in-ground fare is less than palatable, with Mexican, Japanese, and Italian food topping the halftime wish-list.
A stonkin’ great burrito in the stands as Big Mo’ Daniher slots through another sausage? Yes. Bloody. Please.
Photo: Quinn Rooney via Getty Images.
