Almanac Rugby League

For general use

 

If you’d like to join the Almanac’s rugby league email list to receive regular
updates during the season and occasional updates in the off-season, contact John Harms in the first instance at: [email protected]

 

 

Our collection of articles appears below. The first article was published in 2010.

Almanac Rugby League – Granny’s five cents goes a long way (a late sixties boyhood in Sydney)

Sausage roll five cents, (sauce one cent extra); musk sticks, cobbers, freckles, milk bottles, musk sticks, bananas – cent each; bertie beetle, choo-choo-bar, both five cents. Shiny packet on top of the glass-topped bench: same as a snag roll (minus sauce); forget bertie, forget the black mouthed bar; bargain! Give over the echidna; Mrs Mineo [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – A personal journey through rugby league in Brisbane from the 1950s to the 1990s

by Greg Mallory   ‘’Doubles on the main game! One of the most enduring memories of going to rugby league in Brisbane was the sight of the double sellers assembled at the gates. At Lang Park they were the most vocal and theatrical — as you passed through the turnstiles you were confronted with about [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The Goodna Footy Floods of 2011

THE GOODNA FOOTY FLOODS of 2011 by Tony Caswell (or TC, The Goodna Gunna) The river came up, and the rain came down A playing field of green, became a slush of brown The footballs are gone, along with tackling bags All the teams jerseys, are now muddied rags Gary, the President, he carried the [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The making of a Swannies fan

by David Butler I am the Sydney equivalent of a “Broadie Boy”, brought up amongst the factories and workshops of western Sydney. I spent the seventies negotiating the bland tarmac between  brutal suburban Rugby League grounds. Belmore Oval, Leichhardt Oval, Redfern Oval and Cumberland Oval. I watched as the first scrum erupted, as always, with [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Tough times in Goodna

John Harms wrote this piece about Goodna at the time of the major floods in 2011.

Almanac Rugby League – Book Review: Voices from Brisbane Rugby League

This review was previously published in Queensland Labour History http://www.boolarongpress.com.au/photos/Voices%20from%20Brisbane%20Rugby%20League%20Large%20%281%29.jpg Review of Greg Mallory, Voices from Brisbane Rugby League: Oral Histories from the 50s to the 70s, Boolarong Press 2009 Greg Mallory, and his editor, Gail Cartwright, are to be congratulated for adding to our archive of oral history collections. Like all such works, this [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Anzac Day: From Reservoir to the ‘G’, to the eye of the Storm

The national anthem brings the dawn service at the Reservoir cenotaph to a close and a greying man wrapped in black and white trumpets, Carna Pies! Some giggle into their winter coats while a few women puff on heartstarters.  Children hang from parents’ arms.  A craggy digger approaches another standing at the rear of the [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Real Storm surprise is that people are surprised

It has been a most tumultuous week in Australian sport. Well, in Australian professional sport. You have to be specific because I reckon professional sport and normal, everyday, garden-variety sport are actually quite different. One is about commerce, the other is about the game. The tumult comes from the exposure of the flagrant salary cap [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Storm fans need another Lazarus moment

Rugby league isn’t my game of choice. In fact, I can honestly say I’ve never been to one solitary game in any of my 33 years. My first real sense of association with it was at an unlikely event on a glorious spring day in 1999. North Melbourne had won the flag the day before, [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Question: The Storm over The Storm

What does the Almanac community think of the Melbourne Storm drama? Just deserts or overly harsh? Is this the end of NRL in Melbourne? If so, do we care? Are there any AFL implications? Fire away folks.