Canberra’s Own

By Carl Murphy Canberra is a crossroads of the football civilisations. It has its own Rugby League and Rugby Union teams, and even had its own soccer team in the national competition for many years until continued failure meant everyone gave up and went home. But despite a flourishing local competition, it had never really [Read more]

Sanderson cries carpe diem

 By Julian Morison I got to cats v crows last Saturday and was asked today (UNE footy tipping site) was I in ceteris paribus mindset at the game to which I replied: I certainly was. Because that fine equum, Black Caviar, was galloping nearby we had to arrive in the ante meridiem, for the early [Read more]

The Giants’ barnstorming finish swells the heart of a footy novice

Sometimes the football gods are with you. Sometimes a chance, a whim, an accident turns into a day you’ll remember to the end of your days. Even when the omens, frankly, aren’t all that auspicious. I didn’t expect much from my first AFL game: years of arguing with Mr Harms and his friend, Radio National’s [Read more]

Scrimmage and scrap until the Giants break clear at Manuka

Greater Western Sydney v Gold Coast Manuka Oval,  Saturday May 12th   Official Crowd  8,603 GWS Giants           4.2     5.8    8.13      13.16       94pts Gold Coast Suns     1.3     7.9    9.11        9.13       67pts Manuka Oval was in perfect condition for the clash of the novices. The game was probably the worst League game seen by me in 64 years and would [Read more]

Richard Naco, The Chad! and Pamela Sherpa after the win over the Suns.

My Life as a Crepe Artist

Caption: Richard Naco, The Chad!, and Pamela Sherpa. Caption: The GWS banner.   It all started last Thursday night, when … No.  Actually, that’s wrong.  It really began last year.  I was busy being a long distance lover of another club when the much-anticipated second Sydney club started playing.  OK, so they played NEAFL instead [Read more]

Sweet Saintly unshackling

Me ole’ mate Randy, a blue-bagger, is carving out solid “livin’ the dream” sectionals in Los Angeles. Mixing with “entertainment types”. Promoting cheeseburgers to their own food group. Happy snaps with Earvin Magic Johnson. Trips to Vegas. Waffles for breakfast. A pornstar resides in his apartment block. Heady days indeed. The good wife and I [Read more]

Dare to dream…..again

Prelude: This mad Monday for night footy saw Rina and I picking up Amanda from her place.  Someone had run into her car a while ago, and by next week she will have a new set of wheels.  At Amanda’s front door, we met a “fairy” in the form of her very little sister.  Once [Read more]

The Yorkshiremen

Collingwood fans in Queensland often end up like Monty Python’s Yorkshiremen; standing around with tans and expensive shoes talking about how tough Reservoir was in the seventies. The collection of aging tradies and engineers in black and white standing in front of us at the Gabba on Saturday were the classic bunch. They were keen [Read more]

Perplexed, Warburton.

  Never has a club been so blessed in being sacked by its coach as St Kilda in losing Ross Lyon. Two years ago I wrote up a Carlton-St Kilda game for the Almanac.  In 45 years of watching the game I’ve seen some monumental thrashings, but always there’s been a Bobby Skilton, or even [Read more]

Round 7 Winners and Losers

Round 7 was a round unlike many others. The competition’s newest members got their inaugural win, and the smallest winning margin was 3 goals. This week’s list features plenty of unexpected winners as underdogs not only came away with victories, but significant margins to boot. Winners The Greater Western Sydney Giants This match was the [Read more]

The 2012 ‘Mopsy’ Fraser Cup – Round Seven

Greetings Tipsters Instinct is important in itself, but more important is knowing when to go with it. Works in all sorts of situations, whether a mate introduces you to his new girlfriend and the sirens blare and emergency lights flash “Noooo, don’t do it!” or your sister introduces you to her new boyfriend and he’s [Read more]

The View from Shepparton

Well, I might as well been on Mars trying to follow the footy this weekend, but instead, extremely happily it must be said, I and the Minister For Home Affairs were wending our way to the Sunshine Coast to get away from the cold and gloom of Victoria. The only thing was for whatever reason it was [Read more]

Toasting Crows victory with Black Caviar

Sport can do funny things to people. If you’re anything like me you’ve most likely just nodded in agreement. For fanatics like you and I it makes us go to extraordinary lengths to be a part of great sporting moments. I did something that normal people would probably think was a little crazy on the [Read more]

Nail biter

Ive bitten my fingers right down. I can barely type this because of the pain. It starts when the game starts. I’m a Carlton supporter. My Dad who I no longer have any contact with was and still is a Hawthorn supporter. I grew up going to watch Hawthorn games right throughout the 80s and [Read more]

How Good Was That?

I wasn’t there damn it. We were out, following the fortunes via a little app on constant ‘refresh’; Another good start another first quarter won, after Carlton I knew we’d be in it; we sighed when they kicked six in the second quarter not knowing that we weren’t actually out of the game for very [Read more]

A day of surprises

Saturday was going to be a long day. For two reasons, the first reason is that I was playing tennis and the footy was that night. My second reason is that my plans to watch the footy were smashed when I realised I was going to my sister’s dance concert! After the biggest upset of [Read more]

Pies good enough

Round 7 Collingwood v Brisbane Lions.   by Tim O’Leary   Enough – [ih-nuhf] adjective adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire: enough water; noise enough to wake the dead. In the off-season I managed to get a Telstra phone/internet/tbox thingy bundle with what I thought was going [Read more]

It isn’t rocket science

Round 7 North Melbourne versus Western Bulldogs   Footy.   It’s not rocket science, mate. It’s not bloody rocket science.   It’s pretty bloody simple.   It’s like life: do the right things, you win. If you don’t, you won’t.   If you get numbers at the contest; win the ball; pick the correct option; [Read more]

A GWS win to stir the soul

Round 7 GWS Giants versus GC  Suns Manuka Oval, Saturday, May 12. What better place for the two newest teams in the national competition to play each other than in Canberra, the nation’s capital. Neither team has won a game this season so today’s game will be keenly contested. The season may be just cranking into [Read more]