by Dips O’Donnell I bet every Primary School has at least one kid who was much bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else. At my Primary School his name was McInerney. He could run, jump, throw, fight, and play football like a man, at the age of nine. There was no [Read more]
AFL Round 11 (and gymnastics): Perfection 1 Gymnasts 0
June 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Dips O’Donnell I’m at the Sate Netball and Hockey Centre to watch the Victorian Gymnastics championships. It’s an impressive centre. Lots of steel girders, vast glass windows, and official looking desks with official looking people manning them. I have a nervous daughter competing today. There are a few Olympians [Read more]
General footy writing: Cats need Moons to cut funny business
May 20, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Damian O’Donnell Has the first crack appeared in the Geelong armour? For the last three seasons the Cats have been an organised, well-drilled organism. They have honoured “the process” and broken the game down to a few basic key-performance indicators. The group has overwhelmed the individual, and, to quote Pink Floyd, all the players [Read more]
AFL Round 7: Dons’ win a victory for instinct over process
May 11, 2009 by 6 Comments
By Damian O’Donnell Zone, schmone. Flood, schmud. Reputation, schmeputation. The Bombers blew all these to the scheisenhaus on Friday night with joyful, fast, youthful, exuberant, unpredictable football. I watched the game like a kid watching Shrek for the fifteenth time. It was good old-fashioned fun. From the very start the Bombers played like young blokes [Read more]
Warm feeling on a cold day
May 4, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Damian O’Donnell It was mid-winter, the mud was cold and deep, and the rain had a sting to it. It came down on that awkward winter angle where no part of the body is shielded. My footy boots were full of water and my long-sleeve jumper hung shapeless, like a clock face in a [Read more]
An Anzac Day reflection
April 25, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Damian O’Donnell A whole generation of blokes goes off to war in 1914. They go to a foreign land to kill and be killed. Today we might struggle to understand that. We, the inhabitants of this global village where the other side of the world is a click of a mouse away, cannot begin [Read more]
Recent Comments