The bizarre sausage burying ritual behind Carlton’s AFLW finals success
Sport is full of weird and wonderful traditions, but Carlton may well have stumbled on the strangest. Mimi Hill explains why she buried a sausage before the Blues’ last final — and why she’ll do it again.
The curious case of the buried sausage could be the Blues’ secret weapon.
Carlton is on the trajectory of a lifetime this AFL Women’s finals series, riding a king tide of momentum into Saturday night’s preliminary final against Brisbane.
Vice-captain Mimi Hill – who laughs she is “into woo woo stuff” – buried a sausage outside Ikon Park at the encouragement of the club’s social media team ahead of the team’s elimination final against West Coast, in honour of a British wedding superstition to ensure good weather come the big day.
And the good vibes have continued, with the team having demolished Hawthorn in their semi-final on Saturday night to book a preliminary final berth.
“It’s working, so we’re not going to dig it up,” Hill said.
“It was a weather sausage for that game, but it did not work. So now we’re just leaning into it being a winning sausage.
“I honestly have no idea (what flavour it is).”
But don’t expect Hill to be recreating her green thumb with any more small goods.
“I did bury one of my bobble heads the other day, so maybe I do need to bury something (else) – let me know,” she said.
The Blues are considered by many to be the excitement machine of the competition, and are undaunted by the prospect of travelling north to take on last year’s grand finalists Brisbane at home on Saturday night.
Young stars in the likes of Poppy Scholz and forward Sophie McKay – who declared “we’re coming for you” in the wake of the weekend’s win.
Hill isn’t concerned that comment will have fired up the Lions, saying there will be “a bit of chat” in what she anticipates will be “a pretty heated game”, with her team feeling like they had “exceeded expectation” to bring a sense of freedom.
“I’ve never had this much fun playing footy,” she said.
“I did not know where we were going to go (this season). I had a really good feeling about this season. In previous seasons you maybe had to manufacture that hope.
“This year, there was a moment in pre-season where Jess Dal Pos and I kind of stood back and she was like ‘we’re really good at footy’, and I was like ‘yeah, we actually are’.
“It’s so nice that come Round 1, we performed, and have followed through. There is a bit of ‘oh, you’re young and inexperienced’. But it’s not really fazing us, I guess, on the finals field.”
Originally published as The bizarre sausage burying ritual behind Carlton’s AFLW finals success
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