Old (woollen) footy jumpers – Stephen Alomes, Rainbow warrior

Football chronicler Stephen Alomes recalls a rare high mark and his old TUFC jumper.

Last with Sport? – Give us footy…in print

Steve Alomes has read newspapers all of his life. When he buys the Melbourne Age he expects the Melbourne Age, not the Bendigo Age. What is going on?

The Fifth International Cup of Australian Football – at a footy ground near you this August….and you don’t need a barcode to go…

Stephen Alomes with the lowdown on this year’s International Cup

AFL Round 14 – Richmond v Sydney: Friday Night Maulball v Old School v MTV

Steve Alomes on Sydney’s ugly win over Richmond.

AFL Round 5 – Melbourne v Gold Coast: Sunday Footy at the G – Bridesmaids, Faded Demons and Rising Sun Gods

Geelong-fan Steve Alomes has seen a lot of Melbourne FC games over the years, because he loves the MCG. Here’s an autumn example.

AFL Round 2 – Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne: A ‘Z’ Minus Match Classification if not the “Worst First Half Ever Played”

Worst ever? But what was it pre-rated? And what is the impact?

What the AFL Needs – A CEO for the ‘Brave New World’ of 21C Sport

Stephen Alomes with some wise words for the AFL Commission

The Last Word on Andrew Demetriou

Steve Alomes has sent us an extract, analysing the approach of Andrew Demetriou, from his recent book.

March 3 Seminar (Melbourne): The Footy Wars – the Beginnings of the Game

The ASSH group (Sports History crew) seminars are always interesting, and this one is on one of the key questions in Australian sports history.

When Footy Meets Art Meets Peptides Meets Celebrity Meets Society: The Story of an Art Exhibition

Steve Alomes exhibition opened at RMIT yesterday. He describes (and explains) the works, some of which can be seen here. [Get along. Ed]

AFL Grand Final: The Devil is on the Scoreboard

Steve Alomes tipped this in his Friday article in The Age. Here is how it turned out.

AFL Grand Final: Bad kicking is bad football

It is the oldest saying in the game, says Stephen Alomes, bad kicking is bad football. It was true long before they invented ‘scoreboard pressure’, players became ‘delicious’ and the Hawks won the stat sheet.

A picture says more than a thousand words

Once upon a time after a great victory kings and emperors called on the poets, composers and painters to celebrate the moment. In our a little more democratic times we artistically celebrate those who only came and cheered (as well as booed in a timely fashion)… as well as those on the field. When the [Read more]

The Chorus and the Agon: The Blue and White Chorus Played a Role

  by Stephen Alomes   At most footy matches, cries of “Ball!”, exclamations about free kicks rightly or wrongly awarded and even Bronx cheers for ‘richly deserved’ points (rather than goals) don’t add up to very much.   They allow us to get things off our chests and to play to the peanut gallery, usually [Read more]

Stresstember Reflections…Bad Currency Drives Out Good

  by Stephen Alomes   It is the time of the year…when a footy follower’s thoughts turn not to flowers or fillies or fun but to the last steps to the top of the hill or perhaps in the DeMillean AFLspeak ‘the mountain’ or even ‘the summit’.   It is the time of Sturm und [Read more]

Australian Football Versus Tackleball and Stoppageball

THE ‘GREAT GAME’ OF 2009–10 This is a story of the state of Australian Football — with implications for the character of other invasion/?eld games in the commercial, professional, corporate era of sport — in three parts. This more speci?c study is set in an era of the corruption of contemporary sports (from corporate club [Read more]