Stats Entertainment – Round 11 by Andrew Gigacz A SCENARIO THAT COULD LEAVE MANY AT SIXES AND SEVENS The weekend results have thrown up an interesting ladder “midfield”, with five teams bunched together between 8th and 12th with a 5-6 record. If we add the following Round 12 potential results to the mix: North Melbourne [Read more]
Tennis: The more things change…
June 3, 2010 by 11 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz It’s just over four months since Sam Stosur bowed out of the Australian Open. You might remember Stosur’s brave but ultimately unsuccessful effort against Serena Williams. But you could hardly be blamed for not being able to recall it. Why? Because as that exciting match was unfolding, the Seven Network, in their [Read more]
Gigs’ Stats Round 10: Saints in 47th heaven
June 2, 2010 by 9 Comments
Stats Entertainment Round 10 By Andrew Gigacz 47TH HEAVEN FOR THE SAINTS St Kilda cemented their reputation as the 47-point specialists with their win over Adelaide on Saturday night. Since 2004, there have been 11 games that have had a final margin of 47 points. Four of those have involved the Saints and they’ve won [Read more]
Gigs’ Stats Entertainment Round 9
May 25, 2010 by 6 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz TWO-TWO BOO-BOO A tutu on a Sunday might be fine if you have ballet practice, or even if you are South African bishop. But if there’s one thing the weekend taught us it’s that a score of 2.2 is NOT ok on a Sunday, especially in the first quarter. In Round 9’s [Read more]
Gigs Stats Round 7: Introducing the Moronic Mnemonic
May 11, 2010 by 23 Comments
Stats Entertainment Round 7 by Andrew Gigacz SORRY ABOUT THAT, CHIEF Apologies to all for the lack of any stats entertainment in rounds 5 and 6. Apart from assisting a certain Canberra-based Swan with his budget problems, I got caught up working on the script of my new film about a throat and chest surgeon’s [Read more]
AFL Round 4 – Brisbane v Footscray: The Wedding
April 24, 2010 by 7 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz Saturday night footy – Brisbane undefeated up against the pre-season premiers, the Mighty Dogs. This would normally be a pretty exciting prospect for me. Sneak round to a Foxtel friend’s house, share a few beers, and watch the Doggies put the Lions back in their place. But not this week. Footy Almanac [Read more]
Gigs Stats Round 4: Time to play a little “four square”
April 21, 2010 by 3 Comments
Stats Entertainment – Round 4 by Andrew Gigacz MAGPIES AND HAWKS SQUARE UP My mathematical mate, Peter Flynn, pointed out to me this week that Hawthorn’s three losing margins this year have all been square numbers. In round two, the Hawks suffered a 9-point loss to the Cats. Nine, of course, is three squared. Last [Read more]
Gigs Stats Round 3: A season that could come to nothing for all teams – except maybe Melbourne
April 14, 2010 by 6 Comments
Stats Entertainment – Round 3 by Andrew Gigacz WHEN AN ENTIRE SEASON COMES TO NOTHING We all know how it can be for a side that toils for an entire season before a final heartbreaking loss ends it all. Unless the team win the flag, it all comes to an end either in Round 22, [Read more]
Gigs’ Stats Round 2: Dial N for ‘No chance’
April 6, 2010 by 29 Comments
Stats Entertainment – Round 2 by Andrew Gigacz DIAL N FOR ‘NO CHANCE’ Two weeks into the season and a clear trend is already emerging. And that trend revolves around a single letter of the alphabet. That letter is ‘N’. Disparage if you will, but the facts speak for themselves.
Extreme Sports: Common newspaper puzzle injuries
April 5, 2010 by 21 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz In recent weeks there have been some vicious rumours, spread mainly by some of our young whippersnapper Almanackers, that I once broke my nose whilst completing a Sudoku puzzle. I would like to use this forum to set the record straight about such unfounded, malicious allegations. These charges have been extremely hurtful [Read more]
Gigs’ Stats Round 1: It’s a three-horse race
March 29, 2010 by 41 Comments
Stats Entertainment – Round 1 by Andrew Gigacz FROM HOLIDAY SEASON TO SILLY SEASON It was only three months or so ago that the festive season was here and many were singing “Deck the Halls”. And now here we are in footy season and 49,000 people turned up to Doglands to see if anyone [Read more]
The 20th Annual Ladder Competition
March 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
by Andrew Gigacz It’s back and promises to be BIGGER than ever. It’s the internationally acclaimed (well, my brother said it was good, and he lives in Malaysia) LADDER COMPETITION. It’s the comp that requires you to do no more than to write down (or type) the names of the 16 AFL teams ONCE for [Read more]
Obituary: An untimely end to a Sporting Life
March 16, 2010 by 5 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz Visitors to these pages who are regular readers of the Age will be saddened to hear of the passing of the stalwart of that paper’s Sporting Life column, Geoff McClure. Geoff died yesterday, aged just 59, after a long struggle with cancer. For those of you out there looking to find someone [Read more]
Poetry: Black and White
February 27, 2010 by 11 Comments
By Andrew Gigacz – It used to seem very easy To “footy fan” categorise You barracked for us, or barracked for them Or (GASP!) maybe even the Pies! –
Footy: Gigs gives us his well-oiled machine
February 15, 2010 by 25 Comments
By Andrew Gigacz You can have your Dreamteams and your Supercoach comps. Mike Sheahan’s Top 50? Pah! Having completed some exhaustive analysis and listened to the word on the street, I have come up with a team of players that are a huge chance to set the AFL season alight in 2010. Now as [Read more]
Club Cricket: What’s that burning sensation?
February 12, 2010 by 2 Comments
Not over the Hill – Issue 2 By Andrew Gigacz When I made a decision to return to playing cricket after a gap of more than a dozen years (see Not over the Hill, Issue 1 – The Legend of Chicken Man), I was pretty confident that I’d be able to slip back into the [Read more]
Tennis: Seven’s deadly sin
January 26, 2010 by 87 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz The events of Day 8 at the Australian Open cannot be allowed to pass without comment. Not about the departure of Australia’s last two representatives, Stosur and Hewitt; with both coming up against the top seeds, their losses were unsurprising, if not inevitable. Not about Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s five set marathon win, as [Read more]
Bat to the Future (or Here One-Day, Gone the Next)
January 25, 2010 by 14 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz Cricket’s big issue of 2010 is the future of the one-day international. Whatever your preferred medium of cricket coverage, chances are the undercurrent flowing beneath it will be the debate about how the Twenty20 form of the game will shape the landscape of the sport over the next decade or two. And [Read more]
Second Test, Day 4: Australia accomplishes Mission Impossible
January 6, 2010 by 1 Comment
by Andrew Gigacz Day 4 dawns cloudy for Australia, literally and metaphorically. A lead of 80 with two wickets remaining has even the most optimistic of us in doubt. But optimistic I remain and prior to the start of player, I go searching for the silver lining in those clouds. And I find it. Australia’s [Read more]
Second Test, Day 2: Intuition wins out over process
January 4, 2010 by 3 Comments
by John Harms Play School was just finishing as the cricket started at the SCG, and on Channel 9. The Australians had it all before them, having been bowled out cheaply the previous afternoon. The Pakistanis had bowled beautifully, and taken most of their chances, and then their openers Imran Farhat and Salman Butt hung [Read more]
Recent Comments