Round 11, 2011 – Geelong v Western Bulldogs: A Beautiful Day for Cats

To complement Peter Clark’s coverage of Geelong’s golden run in 1952, let’s go back a decade to revisit their clash with the Western Bulldogs at Kardinia Park.

Almanac Flashback: Round 11 2011 – WCE v GCS: Loud and Proud and Out of Tune

Round 11 ten years ago saw West Coast take on Gold Coast at Subiaco with the Eagles winning by 18 points. Peter Baulderstone’s account of the the match in 2011 has been retrieved from the Footy Almanac archives.

Like a favourite toy

Noel McPhee’s observations of Cyril were first published in 2011

JB and Dad do it again

North Melbourne v Adelaide by Josh Barnstable I hate being sick. Dad and I both do. We’ve both got a cold (although he says its the flu). I’d much rather have the flu than a cold. But, Dad and I, braving the icy weather, made the trip down to Melbourne for our first match of [Read more]

Roller-coaster? Not in the lexicon of this disciplined writer.

by Jonathan Rivett I won’t use “roller coaster”. I refuse to flog that dead-horse metaphor. It’s not that it’s a fatally flawed analogy – if you think of the roller coaster car as your emotions and then make the track the experience in question, it works reasonably well. It’s also not that it’s been monumentally [Read more]

Oh Cyril

As a Hawthorn supporter who owns and still listens to every Australian Crawl album, I love it every time Cyril Rioli kicks a goal and the Hawks supporters break into song with “Oh Cyril, I would do anything just to be like him”.  It’s a tongue-in-cheek take on the classic song Errol from 1981’s Sirocco, [Read more]

The Replay Replay

Rematch – noun a second match between teams, challengers, etc.; return match. or Replay –  noun a repetition, recurrence, or re-enactment. Saturday June 4th, the 2010 Grand Final Replay Replay. No, it’s not an Albert E. Arkwright stutter from Open All Hours, this “Replay Replay” business is serious!  For years the media have pumped up the first [Read more]

Blues Overcome Sunday Twilight Zone

I’ve always struggled to get into the Sunday evening twilight fixture. It feels too much like that final slot on a music festival bill, after the headliners have played. Most people have already moved on. The main action is past. It’s just a consolation for those who don’t want to go home yet. I attended [Read more]

Preparing (again) for the Big Blow

by Joseph Walker I’m walking through the gates at school anxious and ready for the Big Blow. It’s two days after the Grand Final Replay, and I’m a Saints supporter. First comes Callum. He’s one of my best mates and a die-hard Magpie. Behind him are Stefan and Liam. They’re also really good friends of mine [Read more]

Other than football…

Yesterday, on Saturday 4th June, I joined a friend from the budding Glen Eira Artists Society at a stall in Carnegie.  It was part of the support provided by friends and colleagues and community to the artist Anthony Breslin.  Several years ago, Anthony used his life savings and substantial borrowings to buy an old church.  [Read more]

Big Numbers Favour the Dees

So it’s The Dons v The Dees at the G. It’s got a good ring about it, and I’m looking forward to a great game of footy. A couple of things have me slightly disturbed, it’s a night game which I’m not overly excited about and Essendon are coming off a rest weekend. Luckily it’s [Read more]

Cats play in the winter sun

The phone rings on Saturday morning. J. Dunne is in good spirits, enjoying the Barwon Heads sunshine, on a perfect winter’s day. He’s thinking footy (which usually means he’s considering backing the opponent) and wondering what my footy-plan is. I am slogging away at the desk, resisting the temptation to be reading the form guide. [Read more]

Confident Pies cause bootyshake syndrome

For those of you who were looking forward to a match report by yours truly on the Pies vs Saints game i do sincerely apologise. As the season flowed it was said the threat to Collingwood would be the Eagles- well, we beat them. Then people said no, the Saints are still the worst threat to [Read more]

Hot Chocolate and Cold Bombers

Recently, three year 11’s and myself started a business. It was called Choc&Chops, we sold hot chocolate and hot chips to the rest of the school at lunchtime (the ‘chops’ is a dig at the New Zealand accent). This was THE assessment task for Business Management unit 1. The four of us had to venture [Read more]

Round 11 Blog

Another big week in football knackers! (oops, that’s probably already copyrighted). Melbourne get the opportunity to wear a few bruises against Essendon tonight. A real test of Tony Robb’s bye theory. The Bulldogs travel down to Catland with their expectations lower than at any time in recent years. Is this the opportunity for a surprise? [Read more]

Round 11 midweek grab

We had dinner with Sara and Sophie last Sunday night; that was pleasant – these are fine women. Baked chicken and olives, lettuce wedges, a dessert of cooked apple, nuts and yoghurt. Red wine, green tea. A lovely night. May comes to a close – above average rain and the coldest sequence of autumn days [Read more]