So what’s the score?

There’s been a lot in the media recently about the ugly parent syndrome at junior football matches, where feral mums and dads disgrace themselves by behaving badly on the sidelines. But what about the technologically-challenged parent syndrome? The game is definitely changing. I’ve had a go at most things in following the footy career of [Read more]

Leather fish bonding

by Margaret McCarthy The silence that follows the thud of the ball shouts ‘Run!’ I jog backwards, staring high into the dark tree backdrop, one hand raised to shield the glare from my eyes. The ball is a speck, a bird, a comet hurtling to earth. The mighty football seeks its target: me. I position [Read more]

It may be the punch

by John Richardson You know it’s going to happen. The ball will come. Maybe direct, maybe from the flank. More than fifty metres away, it is there, in their hands, in space, and the guiding hand does its job. The thud of leather on boot, a powerful strike and a beautifully weighted drop punt makes [Read more]

WAFL Blues

by Mark Simms Here in WAFL land, WA, we’ve just just enjoyed our Foundation Day round in perfect Perth winter football weather. Brilliant but soft sunshine ensured it was warm on the outer banks underneath the gum trees- though it was still a bit chilly in the shade of the 1950’s stands when the wind [Read more]

Colonial memories

by Kerrie Soraghan I attended my first Footscray match in utero. My mother, a passionate fan, prided herself on missing only one match for each of her four pregnancies, which, to her annoyance, coincided with the winter months. She would stand for three hours at a time in the outer, rain trickling down her neck, [Read more]

The View From Shepparton: Round 11 (and 10)

by Peter Schumacher Felt good a week ago. The Lions had won two in a row, were on their way to the final eight having given everyone else seven games start and I was un freezing myself in Darwin. Can’t remember much more about round 10 and anyway what else was important enough to remember? [Read more]

Monday morning, June.

Something is missing. I can’t pick it. Cold morning. The Big Issue seller at North Melbourne station must be feeling it. Should I shout him a coffee? Nah. I’m sure the blokes who run the caf there look after him. A coffee and a muffin. 3 sugars. They’d charge him two bucks. He’s a teammate, [Read more]

The Thrilling ‘Fields

by Shane Goss Old Ivanhoe and Caulfield Grammarians played out a thriller in round seven of the VAFA Premier B section last Saturday at Chelsworth Park in Ivanhoe. It was first against third. The Fields had been promoted from Premier C the year before and were going into the game undefeated. Old Ivanhoe had only [Read more]

The Beatification of Saint Sandra: The Father/Son mule.

The night before the 1990 Grand Final I was a ticketless 14 year-old in an adequate hotel room in Dubbo. This is how near perfect father/son moments happen.

An open letter to Tom Hawkins

Dear Tom, As a Geelong supporter who hasn’t played a game of football since primary school and thought that Henry Playfair could gave been anything, I think I am highly qualified to give advice to you on how to get the best out of yourself on a football field. When you burst onto the scene [Read more]

NMFC 1871: Just for recreation’s sake

Reverend Shinboner goes back through the annals of North Melbourne Football Club’s history, reliving one season from each decade, starting with 1871. The club was just about to embark on their third winter of football. The suburb: North Melbourne, known as Hotham at the time, was a largely industrial suburb with some 13,500 residents, significantly more than [Read more]

Sunday Sessions

Sunday Sesh’s are the best. There’s something lazy about them. Sloppy. All the gloss and polish of game day and Sat night has been belted off. We’re in a new player’s shed, in town, eating deer on a spit, either drinking slow, easy and constant, or going the hack. The Swans are playing the Hawks [Read more]

Flamboyance in goal umpiring; efficiency in junior team management.

by Jill Stoll Kurt has wanted to play in a ‘proper’ AFL team – “not Auskick, Mum!” – for the past year. We signed him on for the Under 9’s at our local club, the Everton Wolves, in Brisabne’s north, in March. Good decision. The first date for the ‘cubs’ was a ‘Meet the Pack’ [Read more]

The Record Records

Having read this article on the GFC website, I was compelled to delve into the record books. With my trusty deerstalker and magnifying glass, I was pleased to find that not only do Geelong famously hold the record for highest score in a VFL/AFL match, but they hold many other lesser known records. Here are [Read more]

THE THERMOS IS EMPTY

After years of crisis, Saturday after Saturday of hoping, Fitzroy Football club finally died. For our mob it ended at the M.C.G with that game against Richmond. The last game on TV against Freemantle just didn’t seem real somehow. Almost 12 months on I still can’t believe that game couldn’t have been moved to Melbourne. [Read more]

One Hundred Years Ago: Round 5, 27th May, 1911

On the Friday evening prior to Round 5, a joint conference of VFL and VFA representatives had met to discuss the control of football in Victoria. They produced the startling recommendation that the two organisations should amalgamate into one controlling body, appointing a board with equal representation for both parties. This offered the prospect that [Read more]

The Final Game

If you could die peacefullyon a footy ground, where would it be? Centre circle, goal square, back pocket? And wouldn’t it be handy if there was a cemetery, with headstones a bit like goalposts, just behind the scoreboard? While visiting the Oakleigh ground this week Vin Maskell met an old Devils’ supporter. More details at  [Read more]

Round 11 midweek grab

We had dinner with Sara and Sophie last Sunday night; that was pleasant – these are fine women. Baked chicken and olives, lettuce wedges, a dessert of cooked apple, nuts and yoghurt. Red wine, green tea. A lovely night. May comes to a close – above average rain and the coldest sequence of autumn days [Read more]

Dave Nadel’s Dream Response

I prefer the idea of the existing comp divided into two geographical conferences. I have been arguing this for a while although the model I argued was based on sixteen teams which would have allowed for 22 rounds with each team playing members of their own conference twice and the other conference once. Twenty teams [Read more]

NackiLeaks Expose’ – John Harms Dream (Extended and Unauthorised Version)

DRAFT MEDIA RELEASE (Embargoed until after Geelong go through season undefeated) Mr John Harms, the newly appointed Marketing Director of the Competition formerly known as the AFL, took pleasure in announcing today that “a great Australian company in James Hardie Industries will become the League’s major corporate sponsor from 2012 onwards.”  Mr Harms said that [Read more]