by Rod Gillet The Narrandera Sportsground will light up on Friday night for the Sydney Swans v North Melbourne AFL Challenge match. A crowd of about 10,000 spectators is expected to attend the third game the Swans have played in the heart of the Riverina in four years. Previous games have drawn crowds of between [Read more]
World Footy: Desert derby is a pointer to Middle East Grand Final
March 2, 2010 by 6 Comments
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi now virtually owns Dubai Inc. The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, is now named after the ruler of Abu Dhabi. However, the one piece of reality that Abu Dhabi does not own is the Middle East AFL crown. Competition leaders Dubai Heat are still unbeaten after two seasons of [Read more]
World Footy: Falcons and Dragons to battle for Middle East grand final berth
February 10, 2010 by 7 Comments
A berth in the Middle East AFL grand final is at stake when the Abu Dhabi Falcons take on the Dubai Dragons at the American International School in the UAE capital on Friday evening at 5 pm. The Falcons are undefeated after wins on the road in Oman and Qatar but they face the all-conquering [Read more]
Eulogy: University don inspired footy history study
December 18, 2009 by 4 Comments
By Rod Gillett The ability to inspire performance is a quality that is most often attributed to sports coaches. It is also attributed to teachers of art, music and literature, even mathematics. Many of us have had a teacher profoundly influence our scholastic life and engender in us an enduring enthusiasm for a particular subject. [Read more]
Local Footy: Desert dash fails to deter Falcons
December 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Sheikh Mohammed bin Rocket The Abu Dhabi Falcons footy team made sure they did not stray into the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia when they crossed the border on their road trip to Muscat in Oman for last weekend’s fourth-round clash in the Middle East AFL. Despite getting to the ground only 15 minutes [Read more]
Schauble likely to miss grand final re-match
November 19, 2009 by 6 Comments
by Rod Gillett Former Sydney Swans best & fairest Andrew Schauble is likely to miss the Middle East AFL grand final re-match when the Dubai Heat travel to the Sultanate of Oman to play the Muscat Magpies in their round 3 at the Muscat Rugby Club on Friday. Schauble is suffering from a flu virus [Read more]
His Excellency, Terry Daniher, Ambassador for Football in the Middle East
October 29, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Sheikh Mohammed bin Rocket Bounding up the steps of the Le Meridien Hotel in Dubai last week to attend the Middle East AFL Sportsman’s Night the bloke in front of me kindly held the door open for me, “Thanks T.D.”, I said. ” Rocket, old son, what you are doing here?” exclaimed Terry Daniher. [Read more]
Local Footy: Sydney footy makes up for unfortunate events of a century ago to claim new home at Blacktown
October 10, 2009 by 5 Comments
By Rod Gillett The recent Sydney AFL Grand Final was played at the new stadium at the Blacktown Olympic Park, which has become the new “home” for local footy in Sydney. It is significant location given that the GWS AFL team is to be based at this facility. GWS is of course, the acronym being [Read more]
World Footy: Dubai Heat the hot tip in Middle East AFL
October 7, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Sheikh Mohammed bin Rocket Reigning Middle East AFL premier the Dubai Heat, fresh from their triumph at the Asian Club Championship in Kuala Lumpur in early September, again look the team to beat when the competition gets underway this weekend. The Heat will be at home to the Doha Kangaroos, who have had forty [Read more]
Local Footy: Serong’s two seasons in Bendigo league rank him among the best
September 16, 2009 by 21 Comments
My fellow Almanacker Richard Jones is a keen observer and promoter of the Bendigo Football League. He has compiled two separate lists of the 10 greatest players from different eras. I saw several of the players he had on his list from the 70s play and that’ll brook no argument with me, all great players. [Read more]
General Footy Writing: The Sydney footy club has a much longer history than you might think
September 7, 2009 by 4 Comments
When did the Sydney Football Club play its first game? a) 1877 b) 1881 c) 1903 d) 1983 If you answered b) you were correct. The first recorded game of Australian football was played in Sydney in 1877 when Carlton visited to play the Waratahs Rugby Club in both rugby and “Victorian Rules”. The Sydney [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Ungarie junior premiership ushers in next generation of Danihers
August 27, 2009 by Leave a Comment
On the eve of the Footy Almanac lunch on Friday 28 August, at which Anthony Daniher and Adam McNicol will talk about Adam’s recently released biography of The Danihers, comes the news out of the Riverina that there are some more Danihers on the way to the AFL! What would you expect when the Daniher [Read more]
Local Footy: Australian footy looking very healthy on NSW north coast
August 24, 2009 by 1 Comment
Australian football is now firmly established on the north coast of NSW. The game, which had humble beginnings but grand ambitions when it was started just over 30 years ago, continues to make headway and has now cemented its place on the sporting landscape.
General Footy Writing: It would gladden my heart to see an AFL club in western Sydney
August 16, 2009 by 6 Comments
I am a major advocate for an AFL team in western Sydney. I believe that it will ultimately be very successful – but it will take a long time and a concerted effort by the AFL and its fellow travellers to make it work. I’ve been involved in the promotion and development of football in [Read more]
Local Footy: The day that Welcome Advice saved Bushpig coach’s honeymoon
August 6, 2009 by 27 Comments
The Rivcoll Bushpigs, the club from the old Riverina College of Advanced Education (now Charles Sturt Uni) in Wagga, enjoy such a reputation as a social club that their opposition in this Saturday’s Farrer League fixture, the Northern Jets, is holding a get-together at the Bushpigs’ annual Old Bores Day.
Local Footy: The Maffra story – it’s all about beating Sale
July 21, 2009 by 3 Comments
by Rocket Gillett In preparing my recent posting on the Rochester/Echuca rivalry I had planned to compare it to a very similar rivalry – and the most comparable is the Sale/Maffra rivalry – the parallels are striking similarly in terms of longevity, small town v big town, changing competitions, etc However, I got carried [Read more]
Local Footy: Rochester should be the Demons for a day
July 14, 2009 by 9 Comments
By Rod Gillett The local derby is in my view the essence of Australian football. This is much more pronounced at the grassroots level than at the AFL level, whether it be in the country, the amateurs, the suburbs, and even between schools. It’s particularly poignant in the bush. Training intensifies, supporters start talking about [Read more]
Middle East Correspondent: The Bahrain Blues are coming
July 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Rocket Gillett The Australian football frontier has just been extended to Bahrain. The Bahrain Blues Australian Football Club has been formed and will enter the Middle East AFL competition next season when it starts in October – after Ramadan. This will bring the number of teams in the Middle East AFL to 7 [Read more]
Middle East Correspondent: Huey’s cherry-ripe for the Swans job
July 1, 2009 by 5 Comments
By Rod Gillett The news that Sydney Swans chief executive officer Myles Baron-Hay is stepping down at the end of the season will spark speculation in the Melbourne media about a replacement from the football managerial stocks, with all the usual suspects being given a run. The best man to run the club in my [Read more]
Middle East Correspondent: What’s in a name for footy clubs? Plenty
June 25, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Rod Gillett When the Ardlethan and Ariah Park-Mirrool football clubs in southern NSW agreed to amalgamate for the 2004 season they could have combined their names in the fashion of another (quite famous) Riverina club, Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong. Instead they came up with the moniker Northern Power, as they had decided to adopt a Port [Read more]
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