Does Leadership Matter – Reprise

Stainless with some timely thoughts on the opportunity the AFL’s vast reach affords it. [Neatly expressed – JTH]

Does Leadership Matter?

Stainless questions the role of Leadership in an AFL team and the language used by the Media in defining a team’s performance.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Stainless poses the philosophical perspective and balance of life and footy. [Welcome back Stainless – ed]

The Not-so-dirty Dozen – ranking the Hawks’ premierships

Sam Steele ranks Hawthorn’s 12 premierships in terms of achievement, the opposition and the broader context of the club’s history. Nothing like a list to spark some debate.

AFL Preliminary Final – Hawthorn v Port Adelaide: “Sometimes you kick. Sometimes you get kicked.”

Stainless Steele is impressed by Port Adelaide’s approach to the game and is convinced they are no one-hit wonder.

The Violence in our Hearts

Sam Steele reflects on violence in sport and asks if it truly appals us or excites us? Your thoughts welcomed.

An Inconvenient Truth?

Tigers fan Stainless Steele wonders whether this is a classic case of premature jubilation.

AFL Round 21 – Adelaide v Richmond: Nice sizzle, Adelaide…

The Adelaide Oval is a magnificent venue, says Stainless Steele, but it may mask some inadequacies in the local teams. Richmond managed to get the points – against the tide of the final quarter.

Thoughts, past and present, on Free Agency

in 2009, Sam Steele was unsure how free agency would play out. Five years on, he looks at some emerging free agency scenarios.

Many a Slip Twixt the Cup and the Lip

Stainless takes the denouement of the EPL season to discuss the League, the season, Liverpool and Steve Gerrard. [Terrific – Ed]

AFL Round 7 – Geelong v Richmond: Nausea at the G

Sam Steele debates whether the Tigers improved showing against Geelong means their glass is half-full or half-empty. Stainless has been conditioned to respond pessimistically.

Carlton’s Right of Reply

Richard Pratt writes from beyond the grave (as channelled by Sam Steele) to tell Carlton fans to stop whingeing and remember their good fortune.

AFL Round 2 – Richmond v Carlton: Delusions of Adequacy

Stainless affirms the right to remain deluded, and considers the scale by which footy is calibrated. (And it ain’t the scale used in a shareholders’ report – Ed)

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it’s off to work we go.

Sam (Stainless) Steele has been wondering about the mundane (banal) nature of sport once it is in the grip of the professionalised industrial process. [Super article; thought-provoking. Ed]

One off the Bucket List

For a long-term Reds fan, this is a pilgrimage to Lourdes – a visit to Liverpool’s home ground. Thinking he would have to settle for just a tour, Sam Steele is delighted to find himself at a match, with the top-liners on show. But this realisation of a dream leaves him wondering – are the glory days gone?

Ceteris paribus (All things being equal…)

On their ‘equalisation investigation’ jaunt, Sam Steele suggests the AFL should have dropped in on the Ford Motor Company for lessons on how to deal with Melbourne. Is there room for sentiment in a competition that now proclaims itself “an industry”?

AFL Round 16 – Brisbane Lions v North Melbourne: W(h)ither North?

North fans, from one who knows all manifestations of false dawns, downhill skiers and the myriad disappointments they bring, and at the risk of being tagged a person in a glass house,Tigers fan Sam Steele is intrigued to know what you make of your team?

AFL Round 7 -Port Adelaide v Richmond: A grand day out

Stainless sees his first-ever Richmond interstate game and it’s worth the trip to Adelaide.

AFL Round 5 – Fremantle v Richmond: Angry

Ira furor brevis est. Or so they say.  I went to bed angry.  But I’ve woken from such fitful sleep as I’ve had still angry.  Not such a brief madness after all. I’m angry thinking about poor Matty White.  For half a dozen seasons, he’s been a fringe player at Richmond, legs moving at twice [Read more]

AFL Round 4 – Richmond v Collingwood: Burst bubbles at the MCG

Stainless is bombarded with commercial propaganda at an MCG where the Tiger bubble burst big-time. Too easily forced into mistakes, he reckons.