Off Season Odyssey – Part 9: The Bandidos

  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]

Northern Lights: A season with NT Thunder

The Almanac is hosting a screening of the documentary, Northern Lights: A season with NT Thunder, produced and directed by Alastair McGibbon at the All Nations Hotel on Thursday, September 20. Join us for a meal from 7 for 7.30, followed by the screening at 8.30ish.

Four legs good, Stevie J bad

A joyious September to all, Finally the AFL have got one right with the people’s bard Paul Kelly taking the stage as part of Grand Final Day.  To me no one is more deserving of the honour of performing before the Grand Final, he immortalised our sporting cathedral in his 1987 single “Leaps and Bounds” [Read more]

Saints Go Marching Home.

St.Kilda are not going to make the finals. That is  now official. After a season where we, the huddled masses, watched with a head filled with rationale- We monster the sides below us but we just can’t step up for the big guns. And a heart filled with hope- Geez, Carlton lost to Gold Coast…..and [Read more]

When the Richmond champions came to lunch

Photos from the August Almanac lunch where the Richmond ladies entertained all. Photos: Yvette Wroby

The positive take on the Saints of 2012

Despite missing finals, St. Kilda’s last game of the season provided many highlights, which makes Saints supporters excited for the season of 2013.

Riverland FL – First Semi-final: Berri v Loxton North

Loxton North kept its back-to-back premiership chances alive with a sensational 16-point upset win against Berri in RFL 1st Semi Final at Barmera Oval on Sunday. North face Waikerie in next Saturday’s preliminary final.

Some thoughts on issues surrounding Indigenous players in the AFL

The news came to me at 4.00 on Monday afternoon that Liam Jurrah had left the Melbourne Demons. It seemed to be an inevitability since the beginning of the season when it was announced that he was “being held in police custody in an Alice Springs jail following his alleged involvement in a machete attack.” [Read more]

1980 A Personal Footy Almanac – Qualifying Final, Saturday 6 September, v Carlton, VFL Park

“…and may the best teams win tomorrow, as long as they’re Collingwood and Richmond…”.

I do a sharp double-take as I hear the throwaway line from Geoff Raymond, the principal newsreader on ABC TV at the time. From a man with an inscrutable “ABC” persona and no apparent interest in football whatever, Raymond’s sign-off remark from his evening bulletin on Friday 5 September is unexpected.

Off Season Odyssey Part 8: A well-shared silence

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]

AFL USA Combine – no thanks

Last week the AFL boarded the A380 and headed to Los Angeles for the AFL USA Combine, I’m pretty sure they could have got a better result if they jumped on a Crop Duster and flew to Horsham.

Playing NAB AFL U18 Championships

Jackson Clark represented the Northern Territory at last year’s AFL U18 Championships and provides a player’s insight into their win over the NSW/ACT.

Off-Season Odyssey Part 7: Alcohol und Footyball

  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]

The View from Shepparton: Revisiting early predictions

Peter Schumacher revisits his ladder predictions from the start of the year – Hawthorn on top, but the Bulldogs and St Kilda in the eight?

Look what they’ve done to my club, ma!

Open letter to the Western Bulldogs hierarchy…if there’s anyone still running the asylum. Bulldogs you’ve finally broken me. After 60years as a supporter and twenty years as a member, I saw the Bulldogs play one of the worst games ever at the Gabba on the weekend. No wonder David Smorgon has gone missing. About the [Read more]

Tanking is no way to the top

Tanking – the term given to suspected ‘game throwing’ by teams looking to improve their position in end of season drafts – has been a staple topic of conversation towards the end of recent home and away seasons. The general consensus is that tanking does happen, and the premise as to why it happens is [Read more]

Carlton, you bastard

I don’t know how I feel, heading off soon to the last game of Carlton’s season, and the last game with Brett Ratten as coach. A lot of people have condemned the club for their treatment of him, and I think the media needs to take a fair bit of blame for his demise. It [Read more]

Off Season Odyssey Part 6: Excaliball

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.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

2012 was total football The modern coach doesn’t flirt with form, they answer journalists’ questions truthfully or not at all, they control what can be controlled, they enact a strategy. The media don’t like this. They can’t acknowledge that for players, the contest is just a relentlessly, moment by moment battle. A zazen state where [Read more]

VFL: Willy nearly did a Bully

Got very excited to see my seconds team were on the telly this afternoon. No I don’t mean Richmond or Fremantle (after a recent trip to WA and looking at their ground in Freo and noticing it was the home of The Bulldogs [South Fremantle]) . Yes I was desperate to see a link to [Read more]