Ingrained Madness

A smaller piece from the Old Dog

Cricket Froth: Knowing When to Declare

Ahead of the start of today’s fourth Test in Sydney, the team at Cricket Froth put Steve Smith’s Melbourne declaration in context. While the Aussies secured the Border-Gavankar trophy, there’s still plenty to play for at the SCG.

Crio’s Q? Loved and Unloved?

Some possum stirring from Crio as he asks for the Appreciated XI v Despised XI.

Coaching a Young Club from the Bench

While coaching from the sidelines is de-riguer in the NFL, suburban footy and world soccer, opinions in the AFL world are still divided on the effectiveness of coaches calling the shots from the boundary line versus coaching from an elevated vantage point in the stands. Yoshi weighs in with some thoughts on where best to coach elite players from.

Independent Schools v Combined High Schools: a curtain-raiser played at Footy Park in 1991. But what happened to these blokes and where are they now?

Great list of footballers. Who are they? And where are they now? Classic from Swish Schwerdt as he challenges us to fill in any detail we might know. If you know who they are, and where they ended up playing their footy, and what they’re doing now, add a comment. (Now with a photo of one of the teams)

The heart of the Tiger

“In 1992, I had my right knee reconstructed twice in 12 months. I spent more than a year alternating between crutches, knee braces, a walking stick and never-ending expensive physio. These were medieval times before LARS and before Richo.” Thus starts a supporters’ tale of the fraternity of footy fans. [Simple. Delightful. Ed]

Darts: World Championship Final

Phil Taylor v Gary Anderson.

Add your comment as the match unfolds.

Aussie Rules

Bill Simmons “the Sports Guy” and Editor-in-Chief of Grantland (the world’s biggest sporting website) has come up with a system for deciding the MVP in the NBA. A Chicago reader pointed out that it is the same system used for the Brownlow Medal in “the best sport on earth”. Bill thinks Australia is pretty cool.

School Footy – The Aussie Rules Nursery

Wesley Hull on the importance of school footy in developing future players and a footy culture. Too much falls to too few when it comes to supporting school footy, particularly away from the southern states.

SCG Test, Australia v India – Call for writers

The Sydney Test begins on Tuesday. The is the last Test match until June in the West Indies. Prospective story-tellers, get on board. All welcome.

Celebrating Richard Flanagan’s Man Booker Prize 2014: footy

Richard Flanagan’s magnificent work: “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” was awarded the Man Booker Prize 2014 for fiction in London. This novel, of and by a Tasmanian, includes footy. To celebrate, here is a wonderful school yard scene; “and then began the magic of kick to kick…” [Great to read Paul Daffey’s reference to this Almanac thread in his Sunday Age column today (4-Jan-15)]

Almanac Music: Paul Kelly’s Winter Coat

Kath Presdee remembers the Sunday night return-drive to Canberra, and her Paul Kelly cassette.

American Football, NFL Week 17 – Dallas @ Washington:

Stone Cold Steve Baker is sick of hearing the words “program” and “team culture” in post-game sport-speak (across a raft of codes). But when it comes to the impact of Rolando McClain on the Dallas Cowboys defense, there are no two words that sum up the difference between playing football in January or thinking about the draft and pre-season training between Christmas and New Year’s.

A Royboy’s Lament

Fitzroy Pete Carter tells the story of a lifetime spent following the tragedies and occasional triumphs of the Royboys.

Lou: The Talent Pool

Lou with some thoughts on the depth of the Australian talent pool. [Includes a rare admission from Lou that he got something wrong – Ed]

Definition of Football

Yoshi Imagawa spends Christmas Dinner watching the EPL and ponders which code lays the best claim to being called “football”.

2014 Year in Review

Vaughan Menlove reviews the year in Football in Australia, and crosses his fingers for success at the Asian Cup and continued growth of the world game locally.

African dreams of AFL glory

Wesley Hull reports from Far North Queensland on the growing interest in Australian footy from the younger generation of African migrants.

Corowa heats up (and blows away)

Glen Davis took off to Corowa for his final racing odyssey of 2014.

MCG Test, Australia v India – Day 5: Geoff Marsh – A Father’s Pain

At the MCG on Day 5, Andrew Starkie sympathises with another father’s pain