Off Season Odyssey Pt11. New Year’s Without Resolutions. Princetown has a beaut oval. Round. Hard. There’s no team any more, no town. Just the reedy wetlands that is the last gasp of the Gellibrand River, where farmers, back in the day, paddled their milk downstream, on longboats, to the Saturday market. Just coastal [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 10: Pre-season is Serious Business
September 9, 2012 by 2 Comments
“Come have a kick!” I say to Louie. We were teammates at Otway for three years. I have no idea how, yet here he is, on the coast, working in Kenty’s Surf Shop. “Up yours, Zurbo! It’s summer. You haven’t changed.”
AFL Finals Week 1 – Hawthorn v Collingwood: Buddy v Taz
September 8, 2012 by 8 Comments
The modern game spins and whirls. There is a game, there are games within games. And, occasionally, these days, there is still a cracking one-on-one. The game was Collingwood v The Hawks. The game within a game was how well Sewell and Mitchell combined to be more than two individuals. There are so many factors [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 9: The Bandidos
September 7, 2012 by 3 Comments
After a few big days in the bush, spraying in the gullies, and clearing fireweed, I come down from the hills to have a surf not far off sunset – the good, stupid, lazy kind that hurts no-one. Not the kids on boogie boards I can’t dodge, not me or the water. Jumping in [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey Part 8: A well-shared silence
September 6, 2012 by 15 Comments
Off Season Odyssey Pt.8. Concreting has been hard. Jack and I kick the ball. His real name is Steven, but his last name is Daniels. He is a stocky Otway Ressies Premiership player, by way of Geelong. Nowhere Geelong. From one of those non-descript houses, in one of those rolling suburbs in a sea [Read more]
Off-Season Odyssey Part 7: Alcohol und Footyball
September 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
This Odyssey is turning me into an alcoholic. Each stop, old teammates badger me: “We haven’t seen you in years! And you don’t want to have a drink with us?!” So we kick, then drink, as if a little run around has earned it. Each stop I pick up a few more good memories [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey Part 6: Excaliball
September 2, 2012 by 7 Comments
Footyhead of the Cove… Devil’s Kitchen, Moonlight Head, Victoria. I hope all the Knackers have a corker of a season on and off the oval next year. Matt Zurbo.
Brett’s Last Hurrah
September 1, 2012 by 2 Comments
Hello? Yes, Brett. What? You don’t want me to call you Brett today? Oh. Mr. Ratten? No? Um… Rats? Yes, yes, I can hear you… Oh, I thought you were cursing. Serious? Jesus on a cross? What, as if it’s a name? I know, yes I know you still have three hours to go [Read more]
Discussion: Today’s Champions
August 29, 2012 by 8 Comments
Right now I’m wondering if Martin Pike was a Champion. Four Premierships, All-Australians. A B&F. He did it in winning sides, he did it with no support at Fitzroy. What about John Blakey? Rohan Smith? Both played over 300 games of elite level football. Many say you can’t reach that number without being [Read more]
Footy Poetry: Josh
August 27, 2012 by 2 Comments
Matt Zurbo is at a footy-watching, beer-drinking, rock’n’roll, Saturday night thirtieth.
Best On Ground…Or Not
August 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
Best On Ground… Or Not. I watched the Doggies vs Tigers last week. In a small butchering shed on a hill, just down my track. It was a good enough game for two teams not quite anywhere, yet again. Boyd played well for the Dogs, with pride. He reminded me of a pro. Half [Read more]
Friday footy is a beautiful thing
August 4, 2012 by 7 Comments
Friday Footy is a Beautiful Thing. I finished work not long after sunset, watching the moon wobble up from, then across, the mountains. It was almost full, but not, as if someone had dropped it on its head. As I came down the logging tracks into the valley, towards the nearest farms, that lead [Read more]
A Good Way To Watch Footy
July 25, 2012 by 5 Comments
A Good Way to Watch Footy. Nutsy and I pull up barstools at the tavern. He’s played well, but his groin is sore. His wife is well-pregnant. “Groin?” I had said, while we watched the seniors belt out an easy win in constant drizzle, then gave him every “too much pulling” joke ever [Read more]
The Race
July 8, 2012 by 3 Comments
The Race. Black Caviar’s got me thinking. When I was younger I rode a racehorse bareback in the Snowy Mountains, racing cattle horses through the bush. It felt likes something mighty, graceful. It didn’t gallop, it flew, then landed to fly again. Of course I fell, at speed. Twice. Landed in snow and [Read more]
Footy DNA
July 4, 2012 by 4 Comments
Gibson and Lake. DNA is a brilliant thing. Look at how many SODs, Sons of Dads are playing the game these days. Heaps! Only half of them from Footscray! How good is it to see a Liberatore running around? Keeping the mighty flame of his father’s name burning! A Raines! Even runs like Dad. [Read more]
Waving Money
June 28, 2012 by 14 Comments
Waving Money. Hold on to your storm in a teacups! Word is, some fans took the piss out of a young bloke who chased the money last weekend! Flashed fake dollars at him! Gasp! Booed, even. Strewth! What’s more, a few of them made a banner or two that were taken down. [Read more]
Three Premierships
June 23, 2012 by 7 Comments
“Why is this place underground?” the new bloke asked. “Are you serious? All places like this are underground,” the long time bloke said. “Interrogation rooms, chemical weapon facilities, covert government departments.” “Yeah, but-“ “This is big business. Millions of dollars are spent here, which leads to billions in the broader economy. Our results [Read more]
Stroppy Jack
June 14, 2012 by 5 Comments
Stroppy Jack. Hark, they call, Stroppy Jack! His body language is no good. He’s surly. He’s arrogant. He has a cocky way. Damn straight. Why can’t he be like Lenny Hayes? Why can’t he be like Dunstall? Why can’t he be like Nick? Why [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey Pt.5: Dreams, and One in 5,000,000.
December 18, 2011 by 6 Comments
The trouble with an Off Season Odyssey is you don’t get a real break from footy. A day in Melbourne and I’m over it. My old mate, Gianpi, lines me up a week on a demolition crew, which is good, then we have a kick, because we’ve had a kick for 30 years, no [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey Part 4 – The “G”
December 14, 2011 by 9 Comments
by Matt Zurbo Jack’s in a band. He plays social footy, and fills in with a suburban team now and them. They call him The Butcher. More for the way he kicks than anything. “How was the Tassie west coast?” he asks. “Brilliant,” I say. “Lonely. There just aren’t any people down there. [Read more]
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