Almanac Writing: 500 pieces for the Footy Almanac
Matt Zurbo with team mates of his beloved Otway District FC
500
It’s true, I’ve written as few pieces for the Almanac under fakies. Hell, I’ve written entire books under fakies. Atom Burzt is one of them. Given to me by a dominatrix – off duty! A magnificent woman of insight and passion. The name was perfect. An anagram of Matt Zurbo. An atomic explosion.
But I digress. Before I’ve started.
Somewhere along the line this year, I clocked up 500 pieces for the Footy Almanac. Some on footy, even.
Why?
Writing is meant to be my profession. Or one of them. 500 pieces for free, the time spent honing each one? Each piece takes about a full work day. With so much else to do and achieve? That’s over a year of setback! Madness. Or, maybe a balm, a happy place, pure sanity.
When I think about it, my personal Almanac experience started a decade before it existed.
The Age read some of my short footy stories and offered for me to be one of their sports writers. I said; “You beaut!” and “Sorry, but I’m still playing, I can’t do Saturday arvos.” There was still Friday nights, Saturday nights, Sundays.
They were insulted, and dropped it. But missed what I was throwing down. I was thirty. The reason they liked my stories above others, was I still loved playing footy, being involved at grassroots. I was a a footy lover who could write, not a writer trying to make a career out of football. A tactile man, who used words to express himself.
Express his passion for footy. The people, the communities, all of it.
And life in general.
Over the years since I have had the sheer privilege of writing about Jaqui Langley from the Otway canteen, Andy Goodwin’s tough-as-nails son Tom Goodwin, an under 15s kid I had a kick with and never knew the name of, Bec Lang playing her first season of woman’s footy at 40, Zabreena Manjerovic, who should have made AFLW, my teammate in NE Tassie, the GREAT Greg Nutting, my great friend, the bush legend, Pete Featherston, the 10km run out from work to train with Doges Ferry, the LA Dragons! All these humans, these clubs and communities, who have no greater avenue to get their voices out there. To have their stories told. With the Almanac you can touch people, reach them. Give them photos in words, for the heart, to carry. Keepsakes.
They get acknowledged.
I was incredibly humbled by a kid I used to coach once, who’s long since grown up and moved to another state. He read a piece I wrote about his dad and cried and rang him for the first time in years. They talked for hours. When he told me, my heart surged.
Playing AFL, I’m sure you touch people. But playing at grassroots, you know them. Their your workmates, publicans, local spud farmers, kids kicking on empty streets, mums and uncles, and school bus drivers. It’s the same with writing for the Almanac, really.
With the Almanac you’re free! Free to write about what you want, when you want, who you want, music, poetry, footy, life, death and farts in bottles, and spell things terribly.
Which is fine. The gist is there. The Knackers know.
They’re a family.
You can even write about the AFL, when it interests you. In your voice, with your framing. Add that tin shed you’re watching from. Mention the drongo you’re watching it with. Give it some colour and humanity. Something people like you, you hope, can relate to.
A lot of the regulars come and go, Phantom, A Love Supreme, I haven’t heard from Yvett for a while. Some blow through for the length of a piece. Others have gone the distance. Everything is ebb and flow in the Almanac train station, as it should be. Familiar blood, fresh blood, this living thing…
Thank you, John Harms, thank you, Knackers. Hooray for everybody!
More from Matt Zurbo HERE.
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You’re no Tommy Mallet but you go alright Old Dog, thanks to the Almanac.
I remember that Coodabeens interview you did, your smile was beaming out of my speakers.
Let’s hope we are all around for your 1000th
Im a bit late to the table but have thoroughly enjoyed reading your stuff Matt. Congratulations mate
You’re embarrassing me Matt. How you maintain the energy, the love, the commitment – not just to the game – but to expressing it eloquently and passionately on the page.
Those GF reviews that always appear within 24 hours – on a self imposed deadline with little sleep. Wandering Australia in your old ute to interview and document faded heroes. Producing a door stop of a book that could have been a best seller if an editor had been able to persuade you to discard half your children. Loyalty over self interest. And the recent pix of blokes and mud and the whole mad, glorious folly of chasing pigskin around a bush paddock.
AFL largely bores me, these days. The glorious contest submerged under deals; exploitation; prognostication and puffery.
I prefer the WAFL – the players know my name when I buy them a beer post-match.
Some see footy as it is and say why; others see what it has always been and say why not still?
I remember your take on my Eagles 2018 flag and how you found the words and sentiment I struggled for. The intensity and nobility of the contest, when I was drunk on the result.
Thanks for maintaining and sharing the rage.
That’s a great effort plus two great books which are very good.
Thanks gents!
Peter, was dead set corker words mate. Cheers heaps! Screen shot and straight to the pool room!
Your footy pieces are compulsory reading Matt for they combine deep insight into the game which brought us all here, a generosity of heart, and an instructive enthusiasm for the moment.
No pressure but I look forward to your grand final story!
Thanks.
Long may you run
Long may you write
Well done, Motza Brut!
Wow well done Matt! Always a pleasure to read your Almanac work, let alone all of your other terrific writing.