For most Collingwood supporters Round 16 began, not with our match against Geelong, but with North’s shellacking of Carlton the night before. Every member of the Floreat Pica Society who emailed on Friday night, Saturday or Sunday referred to it with joy. Pam referred to it in her Danny Roach votes. Two Pie supporting mates [Read more]
The Baby Blues
Da da da da daa, da da da da daa. They are the Baby Blues, They are the old light baby Blues. People bag Eddie and the Essendon leadership because The Pies and The Bombers won’t wear ridiculous “Away” strips. But they turn up at all their matches looking like Collingwood and Essendon (even when [Read more]
An Evening to Forget
Collingwood vs Carlton. MCG 13: 4:2012 It started as an excellent evening. I drove to Fitzroy and found a legal park close to Victoria St so I could walk through the Gardens to the “G.” I had arranged to meet my daughter in Gertrude St for a meal before the Game and we found a [Read more]
Vale Jimmy Little
I first heard Jimmy Little on the radio in 1963 singing Royal Telephone. I hated the song (which struck me as 3rd rate country gospel) but even then I recognised that Jimmy had a great voice. Royal Telephone wasn’t the first Jimmy Little song to be played on the radio. In NSW he had had [Read more]
Another Go at GWS
A few weeks ago I complained that Greater WesternSydneywas using its privileged “out of contract” picks to poach players from lower clubs. Now that the main draft is completed a second question emerges about GWS. Will they have a viable team for their first season? Phantom pointed out that, unlike Gold Coast, GWS was [Read more]
GWS is a Menace
by Dave Nadel It seems to me that Greater Western Sydney has taken a different approach to its pre-draft recruiting than Gold Coast did last year. The two best players that Gold Coast took, Ablett and Harbrow, were taken from clubs who had played off in the Preliminary Finals last year. Two other players, [Read more]
One sided games
by Dave Nadel There has been much angst this week about one-sided games after the two top teams demolished the two bottom teams (and gee, wasn’t that a surprise). While I agree that a few seasons of one-side games would damage the competition, AFL fans and commentators are once again responding to a short [Read more]
Floreat Pica Society Report – Carlton vs Collingwood, Round 17, Saturday July 16 2.10 p.m. MCG
Saturday afternoon. Traditional time to attend a footy match. Pies versus Blues, traditional clash with traditional rivals. Only the venue is non Traditional. I am going to the footy with my friend Peter, with whom I have been going to Pies games for seventeen years and my friend Michael. The last time I went to [Read more]
A Prescient Heading
I am currently doing some footy research and have just found an article headed “Tarrant Could Go To Full Back” Above the main heading is a sort of subheading that reads Team Placing puzzles Magpies. What is interesting about this article is that is not from the Herald Sun of 2006 as Colliingwood pondered what [Read more]
Dave Nadel’s Dream Response
I prefer the idea of the existing comp divided into two geographical conferences. I have been arguing this for a while although the model I argued was based on sixteen teams which would have allowed for 22 rounds with each team playing members of their own conference twice and the other conference once. Twenty teams [Read more]
FPS Report RD 4: Normal Service has been resumed; thank you for your patience.
I suppose I will reach a point where Magpie domination of one sided games becomes boring but it won’t be for a while. In sixty years of following Collingwood I don’t think we have ever looked this dominant. Both of our two previous premierships, 1958 and 1990, were followed by pretty ordinary seasons. The two [Read more]
A Bad Start and a Good Start
Before the first bounce of the footy at the Collingwood/Port Adelaide game, the teams lined up and loudspeaker played the National Anthem. “WTF “ I thought to myself. If I had looked at the Footy Recod I would have realised that “Gertie by the Sea” was being played at the start of all Round One [Read more]
Cricket Australia gets it wrong….again.
Cricket Australia has announced its chosen eight teams for next year’s Big Bash. Now I don’t really care about the success of the competition anyhow, I agree with John Harms’ comments that T20 is undermining traditional cricket. Nevertheless, if you were going to base a competition on “city” teams rather than the traditional State teams [Read more]
Ugly Ducklings
by Dave Nadel For most of my life, at least until 1995, “Swan” was the name of an iconic bird, a rather ordinary beer, a very unsuccessful VFL/AFL team and a large river in Perth. I had only ever heard of two people named Swan, coincidentally both were first named Billy. The American Billy Swan [Read more]
And now… The Happy Ending!
I guess I must be older than I feel because I have lived through three drawn Grand Finals and their replays. I don’t remember anything about the first. I was less than eighteen months old and besides my team wasn’t playing. I was thirty years old when the next drawn Grand Final occurred and I [Read more]
Twenty-first Century Names
by Dave Nadel There’s no footy and the cricket is one sided and so lying on the beach I wrote the following piece of doggerel. I stress that it is doggerel, it doesn’t even scan. It should not be classed as poetry – there is a Magpie supporter who writes poetry for the almanac but [Read more]
Footy: Ablett oversight heads questions from pre-season and rookie drafts
There were some very strange selections in the pre-season and rookie drafts. Some of the questions that I wondered about are: 1. Why would Gold Coast pick Danny Stanley ahead of Luke Ablett? Danny has played well for Collingwood seconds but has failed to impress every time (five in total) that he was promoted to [Read more]











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