Everyone is being nice

That’s what I’ve come away with from yesterday’s Grand Final draw.  Both St.Kilda and Collingwood players and fans were so stunned at the result, that it was quiet, reserved, polite.  Collingwood fans and St.Kilda fans TALKED to each other, shared their shock and disbelief, shook their heads at each other, laughed.  Said “See you next [Read more]

Extra time is the way to go

Imagine epic music, TV preview style, in the background as you read this paragraph. The anticipation builds in the moments leading up to the first bounce in the last match of 2010. In just under 3 hours, we will know who will hold aloft the premiership cup at the end of this long, grueling 2010 [Read more]

Football the winner

This was it. After 25 long weeks of pain, sweat and tears, the Grand Final was today. The premiership cup was going to either Collingwood or St Kilda, and it was being decided today. It felt like yesterday that I was telling my teachers to hurry up and finish with parent/teacher interviews so I could [Read more]

The Draw

Seeing as the grand final did not have a traditional ending, a rather awkward one infact. I have decided not to bore you with the details but provide you with what I saw as the good parts. First off, I woke up feeling rather ill, not sure if it was from nerves of the three [Read more]

2010 Grand Final- Part 1

Cooligwood 9.14.68 St Kilda 10.8.68 The Grand Final has been drawn for the 3rd time in history. In a truly epic encounter, Collingwood led for the majority of the game, only to see St Kilda snatch the lead late. The Magpies then regained the lead, only for a St Kilda point to tie the scores. [Read more]

A change can be good for you

By Rina Reiss “I am very new to being a footy fan. I came from actively hating football altogether, to taking my Swedish lover to a footy match for him to experience an Australian sporting pleasure. I actually became entranced with the atmosphere and the theatre off the field as well as the sporting prowess [Read more]

Nervous Anticipation: Friday 24th September 2010

Nervous anticipation.  From going to bed until waking up and in between.  I’ve living, breathing, eating, football.  Today is the Almanac lunch and I will meet and put faces to all the welcoming group of other footy tragics.  When did I get this bad?  When did I turn from enthusiastic to obsessive?

THE PRE WRAP – TLSIS

FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie.  If you think the Logies are brain numbing, you should try Football’s Night of Nights.  And would someone please explain to the Ayatollah that with the new predictive board installed by the broadcaster partner, the voting trend was known to everyone at [Read more]

My night waiting in line for Grand Final tickets – The sequel

It’s that time of year again; the hunt for Grand Final tickets is on. And this year will be harder than ever, with Collingwood making it to the final Saturday in September tickets will be like gold and when your buying tickets for thirteen people, it’s going to be a difficult task. This has lead [Read more]

Don’t Believe The Hype!*

It’s Black and White Groundhog Day once again. The Magpies are on a roll and the hype surrounding them is on an even bigger one. Both media and Magpie faithful seem joined in a common belief that if they say the word Collingwood a million times between now and Saturday they will create their own [Read more]

The fine line between hating ‘the filth’ and ‘religious vilification’.

Homophobes and Racists rejoice! God botherers, zealots and barrow pushers unite! If you’ve got an opposing belief or a bubbling hatred and you want to pick on a minority group, it’s open season. So bleach the bedsheets and hastily assemble a cross or appropriate effigy. Call a spade a spade. Get on Twitter and do [Read more]

The Saintly Insanity of Grand Final Week

Mike Brady anthems are a permanent fixture in Grand Final week. Or at least, they still should be. One of his lesser known jingles – not SPC Baked Beans and Spaghetti, is There’s A Little Bit of Cazaly In Us All.  A song you’d only now find in obscure You Tube clips, or even more [Read more]

The Title Fight

In 1962, the boxing heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, finally met with one of the toughest heavyweight contenders on the circuit, Sonny Liston. Liston was one of the most disparaged and reviled figures, not only in the fight game, but in American popular culture. His criminal rap sheet and background as an impoverished, sullen brawler was [Read more]

Grand Final Week

by Yvette Wroby Grand Final Week:  Day 2 Monday 20th September 2010 It’s 5.30 am and sleep now evades me.  I’m too nervous and excited.  St.Kilda are in the Grand Final and my credit card is debited with our footy tickets so we are going to the Grand Final to watch the  gladiatorial battle of [Read more]

The Twilight Zone

by Bill Walker Strange things happen in the twilight zone and there are some signs that cosmic energy is again volatile, stars are aligning and the beneficiaries will be St Kilda, Richmond and the rest of the other half of the footy world in the near future. But what are the signs and how can [Read more]

The darkness commeth

It would now seem that the planets are aligning and the universe as we have known for the past twenty years may soon plummet into a dark and otherworldly abyss. We have become accustomed to the rogue asteroid that travels the skies occasionally presenting danger but never actually impacting. Similarly, we have feared magpies in [Read more]

Who’s watching the Grand Final? Home teams and foul-weather friends

Who’s watching the Grand Final? Home teams and foul-weather friends Tony Ward Who’d have thought the TV ratings sensation for 2010 would be a cooking show?  Junior Masterchef attracted 2.2 million viewers on Sunday 12 September.  Overshadowed by its big brother in July – the final of Masterchef attracted 4 million viewers, making it the [Read more]

The (possible/probable) last 30 seconds of the Grand Final

It’s on. Swan’s been held to 15 touches by Clint Jones. Meanwhile Saint Nick has 6.1. The ball is held in at centre wing. The scores: Saints 17.11 (113) to Collingwood 15.22 (112). Ball up. Gardiner taps it to Montagna. He runs. One bounce. Two. He has a shot from the Forward Flank. It’s going, [Read more]