A phrase that stuck in a schoolboy’s mind for fifty years; a post on the Almanac site five years ago; an email pops up on a screen earlier this month. The dots connect for Almanac rugby league editor Ian Hauser and he’s off for coffee tomorrow.
Almanac Rugby League – Cameron Smith calls it quits
May 16, 2018 by 2 Comments
Rugby league’s 2018 State of Origin series has been blown wide open by Cameron Smith’s retirement from rep footy. What does it mean for this year’s series? Where does Smith fit into the pantheon of rugby league greats? Have a say.
Showdown 44: Fans: are they fierce or fickle?
May 16, 2018 by 5 Comments
Showdown is to South Australian footy as State of Origin is to rugby league. Inter-Stater Ian Hauser goes along to Showdown 44 and comes away bemused by the fickle nature of the supposedly loyal fans of the Power.
Almanac Book Review: Kieran Modra: the way I see it
May 14, 2018 by 14 Comments
We all know the qualities we most admire in our best sportspeople – skill, determination, resilience, commitment, courage, sportsmanship, humility and so on. That’s what you get and a lot more with Kieran Modra, blind Paraplympic cyclist. Now his story had been told for us to appreciate and value. Almanac editor Ian Hauser reviews this grounded and inspirational addition to our national sporting library and comes with a chaser recommendation by the great Anna Meares!
Cricket: You’ve just got to go local
March 11, 2014 by 4 Comments
Ian Hauser wanders north into the foothills of the Great Divide, to watch the local cricket finals in “Dog on the Tuckerbox” country around Gundagai and Tumut.
Almanac Rugby League – NRL Round 4: Brisbane v Melbourne – Honk, Honk, Here Comes Cronk
April 3, 2013 by 2 Comments
Ian Hauser goes downstairs for one last time, and watches his Broncos get beaten by the clinical Storm.
Almanac Rugby League – The fine line: Origin at its best
July 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
After Game I of this year’s State of Origin series, I made the point that Liam’s theory that there’s a fine line between winning and losing in SOO was alive and well. Two games later, it’s reinforced in spades. The margins were 8, 4 and 1 with an overall differential of +5 to Queensland. I [Read more]
Back to basics: Local sport in 3 parts
July 4, 2012 by 5 Comments
BACK TO BASICS Local sport in 3 parts There’s nothing like local sport to help you connect with the community. Corporate demands, overly structured game plans and totally rip-off prices go by the way to be replaced with a cheery welcome, lots of space, family friendly prices and much good humour. It’s good just to [Read more]
Footy date today
May 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It’s a date! Australian Rules aficionados, trivia tragics and numeric numbskulls look forward with great anticipation to the first official day of winter on Friday written as a date, Australian style, namely 1/6/12. Enjoy it while you can because this is the last year until 2107 that the calendar provides us with just the one [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The Fine Line
May 27, 2012 by 2 Comments
Two years ago, Liam Hauser’s history of Origin matches carried the subtitle The fine line between winning and losing.(State of Origin: 30 years, Rockpool Publishing, 2010) He demonstrated that rarely has there been any deviation from this observation of the ebb and flow of matches throughout the history of the concept. I think [Read more]
The Shield Final
March 20, 2012 by 8 Comments
by Ian Hauser Late last year on 9th October, son Liam and I went to the Gabba to watch the Queensland Bulls take on the Victorian Bushrangers in a Ryobi Cup one-dayer. We were treated to a decidedly underwhelming match which the Bulls won without being in the least convincing. We agreed that the [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Artie
December 1, 2011 by 5 Comments
It’s a sad, sad day for lovers of rugby league the world over with the death of Artie Beetson at the all too young age of 66. The achievements, awards, acclamations, will be fully documented in the coming days. Among all the things that will be said and read, perhaps a telling indicator of [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Four Nations Final
November 21, 2011 by 3 Comments
When the final whistle blew for Australia to defeat England 30 – 8 in the Four Nations final this morning, two thoughts occurred to me. Firstly, Will Evans is a prophet – a week ago he said that the Poms would stay with the Australians for an hour before the Australians got away. Score one [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – That’s More Like It
November 7, 2011 by 2 Comments
International rugby league got a shot in the arm when Australia played its way into the Four Nations final with a hard-fought 36 – 20 win over England at Wembley Stadium last night. The very competitive Poms pushed the Australians for all but the last 10 minutes, and so next weekend’s New Zealand v England [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Could the NZ halves please stand up?
November 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment
After watching the opening game of the Four Nations tournament between Australia and New Zealand, I’m left with a puzzle: is Benji Marshall badly out of form, injured or just foxing? I mean, how can someone who is supposed to be one of the two or three best players in the world put in two [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Another Locky Farewell
October 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
If you needed any convincing of the truth of Mallory’s theory that international rugby league is, at best, a third tier competition in the league hierarchy, then Sunday’s Trans Tasman Test between Australia and New Zealand clinched the debate. The lead-up, the match itself and the aftermath received token media coverage. The absence of an [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Another Locky farewell
October 19, 2011 by 1 Comment
If you needed any convincing of the truth of Mallory’s theory that international rugby league is, at best, a third tier competition in the league hierarchy, then Sunday’s Trans Tasman Test between Australia and New Zealand clinched the debate. The lead-up, the match itself and the aftermath received token media coverage. The absence of an [Read more]
STAND UP AND FIGHT LIKE HELL!
October 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Primarily a rugby league follower from Queensland, a stint in Adelaide in the 70s and 80s educated me in the attractions of footy, southern style. I became a Bombers supporter. Today, I watch the GF in my Scarborough lounge, 1600kms from the G. The final scoreboard shows that Geelong defeated Collingwood by 38 points in [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The Old Boys Can Bar corner and the 50 cent doubles
September 19, 2011 by 3 Comments
The Preliminary Finals of the Queensland Cup were both played at Redcliffe’s Dolphin Oval this weekend with two clear-cut results setting up an intriguing Grand Final next Sunday at Lang Park. Full credit to ABC-TV for telecasting both games live throughout the State. Memo to ABC-TV bean counters: In your drive to cut costs in [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The kids are alright
September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
The Warriors have flown under the radar very effectively in the lead-up to this year’s finals series. They managed to get into Brisbane this week with barely a mention. Instead, it was all about the Broncos, the loss of Hoffmann and Thaiday, finding someone to protect Lockyer in the defensive line, and Hodges’ gammy hammy. [Read more]
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