Crio’s Question: 2010 Highlight Reel

DVD producers are preparing to launch “That was the year that was…AFL 2010”. What should be on it?

Almanac Racing: DatoTanChinNam Day

There can be very few good reasons for any keen racing fan not to be at Money Valley this Saturday. Unfortunately, in their greed and excitement, administrators have scheduled a 9 race programme – too many for bookies, punters, caterers, drinkers, tipsters…- but I’d recommend at the very least getting down there in time to [Read more]

Crio’s Question: Defining Finals Moments

It won’t go away! That free kick paid on Friday joins a legion of defining finals moments. Just to further irk Cats fans, I’ll kick off with Colby’s “mark not paid”.

Almanac Racing: Craiglee Stakes Day

I used to love Craiglee Stakes Day, though that was a double-edged sword. We’d jokingly say that it suited Doggies fans perfectly coming one Saturday after our season finished and allowing us to get to Flemington and see the freshly-weighted Spring stars step out over a mile and, in the Ascot Vale, watch the former [Read more]

Crio’s Question: Finals Performers

Brent “Tiger” Crosswell, finals champion, is alleged once to have said, “Give me 80,000 people at the MCG and I was Hercules. Give me a grey day at the Western Oval and I wasn’t worth a cracker.” Reputations are made and broken over the next month of footy. Davis and Milne are under the microscope.  Stevie [Read more]

Almanac Racing: Memsie Day

Accept my indulgence, those of you who’ve not followed the bland circuit of winter’s racing and can’t countenance the thrill I needed to share when I opened my Winning Post this (Thursday) afternoon. Fortunately Tom was home from school – the FOXtelly suspiciously warm  – and doing a passable impression of trying some Math homework.  [Read more]

Crio’s Question: Memories Requiring Few Words

Roosy, reflecting on his SCG career, nominated “Plugger’s point” and “Nick Davis’ goal” as especially memorable moments. I loved that so few words were enough to trigger memories. What other great games can be summarised so succinctly?

Almanac racing- Crockett and McKenzie meeting at MV 2010

This Saturday’s Moonee Valley card is a bit of a letdown after the excitement of Group One horses last weekend, but we’ll have to wait until The Memsie meeting next week for another juicy offering in Melbourne. Warwick Farm will be the focus of Australian racing with an excellent Quaddy. The major caveat on Sydney [Read more]

Crio’s Q: Best and worst games of 2010

I went to two widely contrasting matches this weekend. Saturday night’s debacle at the Docklands was so disappointing because it provided no contest. It was as though the Dogs already had excuses for losing and, when it got hard, they went home. For all of Geelong’s clinical brilliance, this was a forgettable outing that I [Read more]

Almanac Racing: J. J. Liston meeting

A fascinating day’s racing is in store for those who venture to Caulfield this Saturday with some seriously good horses returning only to be confronted with a heavy track and some strong winter performers. The punt, therefore, looks a tricky prospect but my advice is to study the parade ring, look at the racing pattern [Read more]

Crio’s Question- Team Depth

Depth, and how it is exposed, is looming as a major shaper of this year’s finals. Injuries before and during matches are having enormous implications as coaches seek not only to exert their own strengths, but to expose perceived weaknesses in others’. All fans know the feeling…as Josh Hill was announced as a late replacement [Read more]

Almanac Racing: A new season beckons

A rider must accompany this rant, warning that I have overnight returned from an extended visit to Darwin which encompassed the last three days of their Carnival. My best tip, therefore, is to book early and go next year. Great fun is assured, but it can be tough going and may have taken its toll [Read more]

Crio’s Q: Geelong vs Collingwood

AFL will be abuzz this week with anticipation for the BLOCKBUSTER Cats and Pies match on Saturday night. The game is coined “Match of the Season”. Fair to say that these sides have delivered in the past. Is this the most important Home and Away game in years and will the result really have any [Read more]

Almanac Racing- 31-7-10

Tomorrow’s meetings (Saturday 31/07) are the last of the 09/10 season with the official horses’ birthday following on August 1. From then the slow build-up begins to Spring with the better horses beginning to reappear. To access the fields I went to the “Racing and Sports” site, though I thought that I’d mistakenly found a [Read more]

crio’s Q… “around the grounds”

When I first grabbed a 2010 Fixture back in March it is fair to say that the Freo v Melb Subi twilighter in Round 16 escaped my focus. Yet, as the Demons launched an improbable fightback in the third quarter, I found myself riding their wave of momentum. And not for the romance. NO – [Read more]

racing stuff (or vice versa)

Looking at the Valley fields for tomorrow dejected me. This was – still is – the Hiskins meeting, traditionally the Club’s premier winter finale with the rich A. V Hisken’s Steeple promoted as the “Cox Plate of Jumps Racing”. Alas, we now have the Hiskens Cup, a 1514m modest open flat handicap from which no [Read more]

Crio’s Q: Trigger Moments

Although Historians insist that matters are always more complicated, it is easier for us to declare a certain instance as the trigger for calamitous events – the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand as starting WW1 is a famous example. So, too, in sport. Warwick “The Wizz” Capper’s late goal at Princes Park put the full stop [Read more]

Almanac Racing- Racing Year Drawing to a Close

The Accountants have had their financial year fun, now it’s the RACING YEAR DRAWING TO A CLOSE… There is a fortnight left in this racing season and, though the thoroughbred stars are munching grass, jockeys and trainers are still competing for available honours. Sometimes this can lead to high public interest – witness Douglas Whyte’s [Read more]

CRIO’s Q…whose time is up?

“Footy is a business”  we are regularly reminded, but people are at its core. And their futures – hopes and dreams – are being decided right now, despite this season being months from its completion. Many of us have squirmed through the classic  video “The Year of the Dogs” and will recall Libba’s name placed [Read more]

Racing Almanac- Winter Finals

Easily dismissed as irrelevant to those outside of the Racing Industry, winter racing still offers opportunity and income to thousands and, despite meetings often denounced as “lacklustre” or even dismissed as “poor”, authorities work hard at providing incentives to keep business vibrant. Here in Victoria the VRC co-operates with other Metropolitan Clubs and with Country [Read more]