Aussie rules over hockey players!

The 2011 Australian Football League Grand Final this Saturday will have not just most Australians on the edge of their seats, but an unexpectedly tense audience in India as well — the national hockey team probables.

While most of Aussies will enjoy watching Collingwood Football Club battle it out with Geelong Cats in their annual sporting extravaganza, the Indians will be hoping the match turns out to be a drab affair.

The reason — more the goals, more the punishment for them! In an unique, light-hearted but meaningful experiment, the hockey team’s exercise physiologist David John will make every player at the camp draft-pick an Australian footballer playing the final.

The catch, though, is that if an Aussie player scores a point, a goal or makes a pass, then the Indian who chose him has to make 30-metre sprints on Sunday. “Normally in Australia, we have great fun during the AFL,” said John on Monday.

“Just before the match, we draft-pick a player, and for every statistic the player accounts for, we would gulp down a glass of beer. And if your player scores a goal, then you will have to drink an entire bottle of beer in one go. The only change here is that while the Australians will be drinking beer, the hockey players will be sweating it out on the pitch!.

“If the chosen footballer makes a pass or gains possession, then the corresponding Indian player will have to do a 30-metre sprint. A goal means six sprints. At the end of the final, we will have statistics for each Indian player ready and they would be told how many 30-metre sprints they have to do,” added taskmaster John, who has come in for special praise from every member of the camp.

Asked how the players would watch the match since there is no live telecast of the Grand Final, John said they would try live streaming. “If streaming doesn’t work, we can collect statistics from the website. There is no escape for anyone, unless lady luck shines on them.”