Too much Licca spoils Port

Collingwood’s 50 Most Sensational Games 2002 Qualifying final Collingwood     5.3.33   9.6.60   13.9.87    16.12.108 Port Adelaide   3.1.19   8.3.51    12.6.78    14.11.95 VENUE: AAMI Stadium DATE: Friday 3 September CROWD: 33,131 UMPIRES: Allen, Avon, Goldspink COLLINGWOOD B Johnson Wakelin Burns HB Clement Prestigiacomo Cloke C Lockyer O’Bree L Davis HF Didak A Rocca Fraser F Molloy Tarrant Betheras [Read more]

Seasons pass

  I hope technology never catches up with the trusty old season’s ticket. You know, some kind of fingerprint or retina detection device at the turnstiles, hooked up to a central database. It’s not out of the question.  After all, stadium security would love to better identify miscreants whom CCTV might’ve previously pinged for stacking their empty [Read more]

Rout of the Blues

Collingwood’s 50 Most Sensational Games Round 4 1969 Collingwood   5.3.33     9.8.62   21.13.139   23.15.153 Carlton            6.5.41   10.7.67       10.9.69     13.11.89 VENUE: Princes Park DATE: Saturday 26 April CROWD: 39,120 UMPIRE: Sleeth

A push and a rush and the game is ours

Collingwood’s 50 Most Sensational Games Round 4, 1987 Collingwood   2.4.16   4.10.34   7.11.53   16.14.110 Richmond       3.5.23    7.7.49   14.8.92   15.10.100 VENUE: VFL Park DATE: Saturday 20 April CROWD: 36,749 UMPIRES: Robinson, Forster COLLINGWOOD B         Christian       Gayfer       Kerrison HB      Brown         Manson           Keays C          Millane        Turner        Bradbury HF       Fielke         Starcevich    Rizonico F          Banks           Taylor             Croall FOLL  Cloke, Atkins, Ryan [Read more]

McIntyre’s Olympic Legacy

Fifty-six years on, there’s not so many Melbournians who can claim to have seen their city’s momentous Olympic Games. Consider then Peter McIntyre, whose entry won the competition for the Olympic Pool design. Not only did Peter’s successful tender earn him the right to oversee the 2002 renovation and extension 50 years after his original blueprint, he’s still [Read more]

Lethal or Mick? A hypothetical

  by Jeff Dowsing If you flat out refuse to deal in hypotheticals, then by all means click the ‘back’ button now. Fair enough too, I’m not usually one for hypotheticals either, it’s a bit too Bruce McAvaney for my liking. Actually Bruce, or more so his employer, lead me to my subject. Seven has certainly [Read more]

Footy’s home away from ‘drome

  by Jeff Dowsing Since Roy Cazaly was a boy, a perennial issue facing football has been access to suitable venues to play and train. If it’s not a war between football and the local council, it’s a barney amongst the club’s pigskin punters and their ship of flannelled fools.  The latest is the Kangaroos jettisoning the cricket club [Read more]

AFL Media; footy’s vanilla slice

I always looked forward to coming home from school on Tuesday afternoons. It was the day Mum’s best friend would visit and invariably she’d leave behind a scrumptious little selection of cakes, or parts thereof. Ah, the cream bun was my favourite.  The soft donut encasing cream and jam was the triple threat of bakery [Read more]

Death Tracks; Beyond Motordrome

The spectre of danger, even death, has done little harm to motorsport’s mass appeal. But the attrition rates of the ‘motordromes’, which predated the Great Depression, were something else. As a world champion racer of penny farthings, it’s quaintly absurd that engineer Jack Prince’s second stab at fame would be to kick start the most [Read more]

Allez Oppy, le phénomène

The first week of April will see the World Track Cycling Championships commence at Hisense Arena in Melbourne.  It may not get the coverage of yore – road cycling is riding the crest of a popular wave – but Australia once boasted a hero of the boards every bit as extraordinary as Cadel.  By common consensus, in the [Read more]

Harry O, who do you think you are?

  by Jeff Dowsing It’s come to my attention there’s a growing band of footy fans out there hating on Collingwood’s Harry O’Brien.  And perhaps surprisingly, based on various fan forums, blogs and social media platforms, Magpie supporters count among the premiership player’s harshest critics.  I’d repeat the meatier nuggets of intelligentsia here but for [Read more]

The tides of March

  by Jeff Dowsing After a glorious last hurrah, the summer of 2012 evaporated quicker than Sean Marsh’s batting average. Hard to believe it’s already March. It must be a loathsome month for emo-goths, artistes and like minded hipsters with serious sport allergies. NRL, Super Rugby, A-League, AFL in-embryo, and cricket’s tail end all scramble [Read more]

In search of a winning score

By Jeff Dowsing It’s fair to say the rocky relationship between sport and music is an obvious yet strangely elusive one.  Venture into any changeroom and protagonists will be plugged in, psyching themselves for battle.  What are they listening to?  I dare say nothing that relevant to sport.    Sure, rousing abstract tunes made for [Read more]