Each Sunday the Age newspaper runs a very small column entitled, ‘You know you’re a Melbournian when…’ in which they ask people to identify the moment when they first felt they were truly a part of this city. For me, this moment occurred sometime last year. It was a beautifully mild sunny day of the type that only seem to occur in Melbourne and then only for such short periods each year, those last days of spring and the dawn and dusk of summer. I was walking along the banks of the Yarra River, meandering across the sandy patch of Birrarung Marr and headed slowly towards the MCG. Photo by Flying Cloud appears courtesy of a creative commons attribution 2.0 generic license   It was 2008 and I was slowly falling in love with AFL football. Having grown up in north Queensland where Australian Football makes little impact, I had never really paid much attention to Australia’s indigenous code. I grew up playing rugby league and following the fate of the Brisbane Broncos and even though my interest in AFL was piqued by the success of the Brisbane Lions during the first half of this decade, I never really became a true convert to the game. However, on that early Autumn day as I took my seat in the MCG to watch my team, the gentle afternoon sun illuminating the green grass of the field, the sights and sounds of the thousands gathered rising and falling to the gentle rhythms of the game, I smiled as the realization dawned upon me that, I had for all intents and purposes, become a Melbournian.   And with sixteen clubs to choose from, nine of whom call Melbourne home, whom did I choose as my team? None other than the Melbourne Demons who in 2008 played a spectacularly uninspiring season, finishing with only three wins and attracting several newspaper articles speculating as to whether they were indeed the worst team of all time. But there was just something about them, The colours, blood red and royal blue. The name, the song, the history and the fact they played their home games at the MCG. It was love. The club is the oldest in the game and that year was celebrating 150 years of competition. I even found myself working for the Demons in a volunteer capacity that year as the club attempted to attract an international student membership. The campaign was not successful but as part of my role, I often took groups of international students to games at the G, sitting with them as one or another team gave them a good walloping. On the day that realized I had become a Melbournian it was Carlton who were beating us. Carlton with its two superstars in Judd and Fevola were just two good for this Melbourne team. But Melbourne tried their best until that final siren. And the sun shone down on us all. And sitting next to a student newly arrived in Australia from China, I felt proud to be able to talk with him about this sport and that club, and their long and winding history, to share something of Australian culture with him and in doing so play an active part in the process of intercultural exchange.   And so, as AFL finals season begins and the weather begins to warm again, I find myself recalling the day I felt myself become a Melbournian. I see in the game day culture of Australian Rules football, a great way for people from all over the world to experience an important element of what it means to be a lover of this great city.