Managed to score a ticket to last Wednesday night's State of Origin[1]
opening match at Suncorp Stadium, so took the trusty MZ60 and Tamron
70-300/4-5.6 along with some Fuji 800 film.
The results weren't fantastic, but were better than what a friend of mine
came up with, with a couple of digi P&S's (and her batteries ran out half
way through too). This was my first time to a night time footy match - I
didn't know what to expect as far as lighting, and didn't know where I was
going to be sitting. As it turned out, the seats were pretty good - 6th row
and in line with the dead ball line.  I'm glad I got some 800 film, and
didn't just rely on the 400 that I already had in the fridge, and glad I
didn't trust it to my S2IS (which can only go to 400ISO and is pretty bad at
that).  Things to learn for next time... 800 film isn't quite fast enough
for sports action with a 300/5.6 lens - I need to either get a faster lens
(can't see me getting ministerial approval for that in a hurry though), get
faster film, or both. A monopod would have come in handy, but not sure about
whether I'd be able to get one in the grounds - they seemed pretty strict
about things like flagpoles etc.
Anyway, some of my pic's from the night are here:
http://tinyurl.com/2mll8o
or for the full link:
http://www.users.myall.net/grahamf72/g2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId
=5011&g2_navId=x95c07a94
My favourites are the ones where they are kicking goals, and you can see the
ball has just left the foot.

[1] For the non-Australians (or maybe the non-QLD/NSW), State of Origin is
one of the most fiercely contested games of Rugby League football, played
annually between Queensland and New South Wales. Interstate rivalry is
fierce, and many matches have almost legendary status. This match was the
first of the best-of-3 series for this year, and was played at Brisbane's
Suncorp Stadium. The buzz in the crowd of over 55k people was just
incredible. QLD got off to a good start with the first points only a few
minutes into the match which excited the home crowd no-end. The atmosphere
was less thrilling though when NSW ran away with 3 tries to lead at half
time by 18-6. QLD had a resounding 2nd half comeback though to finally win
by 25-18. When QLD scored the try to take the lead, almost the entire
stadium was at it's feet cheering - the noise was deafening. Kinda hard to
take photos when you have people all on their feet waving their arms around
in front of you.