Leaps and bounds and scarves everywhere – Around the grounds at AFL’s Gather Round

A man walks into a bar and is handed a football. There’s no punchline – that’s just one of numerous baffling encounters I’ve had over the past few days in a city that’s gone AFL mad.

Previously known best for its churches, Don Bradman statues, and a Paul Kelly tune lightly deriding the place, Adelaide is now the undisputed capital of the Australian Football League. At least until the weekend’s over, when thousands of tonnes of football paraphernalia will be shredded or stored, local retail workers thankfully lose the custom guernseys forced on them by excitable bosses, and the city can go back to searching for the Beaumont Children or whatever happens here when a red oval ball isn’t central to daily life in and around the city.

It is, of course, Gather Round, where all games in an AFL round are played within busking distance of the Adelaide CBD.