We all remember the old AFL tribunal – well some of us do. It was hopeless. Subjective as all get out. Inconsistent. Biased. Incredibly frustrating. Everybody agreed, even the AFL commissioners. There had to be a better way. So they scoured the globe, looked at other systems, and decided that the solution was to go [Read more]
Sydney’s rich Australian football history
August 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
By Miles Wilks It is a commonly held belief that Sydneysiders have had an almost non-existent role in the game at the top level, yet the fact is that as many as 80 players have been recruited from Sydney to the VFL/AFL. Amongst the “no-name” players recruited from Sydney is a player who kicked the [Read more]
A superior draft system
August 17, 2012 by 13 Comments
By Peter Zitterschlager Recently, under the auspices of a … ahem … sports company I formed, I proposed a draft system to the AFL. The system was developed by my associate (with enhancements by myself), and believing we had a winner, we were confident the AFL would be interested. Unfortunately, after repeated efforts to catch [Read more]
Coaching movements in the NTFL
August 17, 2012 by 2 Comments
By Jackson Clark It is set to be an interesting lead up to the 2012/13 Northern Territory Football League season with a number of coaching movements announced throughout the off season. Heading the list is former St Marys coach Damian Hale’s decision to leave the Saints and take on the top job at Nightcliff. A [Read more]
The Pre-Wrap – Round XXI
August 17, 2012 by 3 Comments
THE PRE WRAP – ROUND XXI FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. Brad Green has followed Brad Miller, Cameron Bruce, Brock Mclean & James McDonald out the door at Melbourne. You’ve been a Loyal Servant of The Club Brad, and you’ve given us some great moments. After the [Read more]
The return of Uncle Gerard
August 17, 2012 by 6 Comments
It was great to see him back again tonight. Uncle Gerard is normally sighted or heard every day of the week. So it felt strange to not hear from him for 3 days. He’s been on a bit of a trip, to London I believe. My two boys, aged 4 and 2, were thrilled to see [Read more]
Seagulls fail to bring home the hot chips!
August 16, 2012 by 2 Comments
Well, the big day had come. Saturday morning arrived with a southerly breeze and the promise of mainly sunny conditions. Drew couldn’t believe how quiet and tranquil it was. I told him that had he been here during the week he would of experienced the roaring forties in all their glory trying to blow anything [Read more]
Who’s Lie’n
August 16, 2012 by 12 Comments
Many moons ago the Phantom cave was hidden away in a quiet little apple and rhododendron growing valley at Lalla – between Karoola and Lilydale (Turbo Zurbo country) in deep dark north eastern Tasmania. All was well at this time of recent peace in the early nineteen fifties and The Phantom who had recently [Read more]
We are not America
August 16, 2012 by 13 Comments
I read with much disinterest over the weekend of the proposed concept of an East vs West representative match in 2014. Come on people, we live in Australia not America. The concept was the ‘brainchild’ of the players I am led to believe so perhaps I’m just out of touch with the modern era. I [Read more]
1980 A Personal Footy Almanac – Round 20, Saturday 16 August, v Melbourne, MCG
August 16, 2012 by 3 Comments
It’s three-quarter time and the seats around us are emptying rapidly. No, the game isn’t all over. Indeed, lowly Melbourne is only 4 goals down in a high-scoring affair and with Steven Smith causing our defence all sorts of problems, it doesn’t look like they’re going to lie down easily in the final stanza. No, this [Read more]
Are Saints fans still happy?
August 15, 2012 by 8 Comments
I’ve been thinking about Scott Rankin of late. Scott penned this classic piece for the site in May after the Saints had posted wins over Carlton and Sydney with some electrifying football. He described the win over Sydney as “exquisite chaos”. “It was EXHILIRATING football. We played with flair, speed, guile and fervour.” You would [Read more]
The 2012 ‘Mopsy’ Fraser Cup – Round Twenty
August 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Greetings Tipsters Hunkered down on the couch to watch the rematch of the Schoolies and the Barbecues, we were informed that it came from some place known as Metricon Stadium and I said “What the hell is a Metricon?” It came to me all at once, with great thuds of earth shaking import, 400 feet [Read more]
Let them tank
August 15, 2012 by 25 Comments
We’ve heard of tanking over recent years and started to hear a lot more of it lately as it’s started to be raised again as a big problem and everyone’s been saying their bit trying to come up with a solution. The AFL has come out trying to be all flair and nostrils by ‘launching [Read more]
View from Shepparton
August 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I don’t know when it happened but during the last fortnight my long standing antipathy to all things English gradually dissipated and as they had success after success in that second week of the Olympic Games I found myself thinking, “Well good luck to you, you deserve all that you have achieved and more”. In [Read more]
Just for kicks
August 14, 2012 by 1 Comment
The weekend before last, in Round 17 of the Northern Tasmanian Football League, a player was reported and red carded for kicking a player to the head while he was on the ground. The two umpires who separately reported the player informally described the incident as a ten out of ten for gravity – the [Read more]
Olympic objectivity, deliberate or otherwise
August 14, 2012 by 7 Comments
The Olympics can draw out many emotions, but to me this year, I actually found them to be… ‘strangely refreshing’. I took a bit longer than normal to get warmed up for the games this time. Perhaps it was because I went to Sydney and to the Vancouver Winter games, whereas this was always just [Read more]
The Wrap Round XX
August 13, 2012 by 7 Comments
THE WRAP – ROUND XX – WHERE LIFE IMITATES FOOTBALL And what a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. On Friday night The Weagles did a Hawthorn on The Cats; the difference being that they regained the lead to beat a Gallant but undermanned Geelong side. The Olympics settled down for you after the swimmers [Read more]
‘People and Memories’ Part 2
August 13, 2012 by 3 Comments
Ian Gust – Carlton FC ‘Football was a means for me to become an assimilated Australian. Coming from a European background with parents speaking with accents, we were considered exotic. Football gave me a common language and links with people who’d usually consider me a foreigner.’ Medical virologist, Professor Ian ‘Gusty’ Gust (AO), sits [Read more]
Victoria uber alles
August 12, 2012 by 21 Comments
With the revenue from the most recent media deal the AFL distributes an equal amount of money to each of the clubs and then beyond that there is a special fund to be distributed over 2012-14 and be invested into ‘specific initiatives’ (read handouts) for a selected number of clubs. Western Bulldogs $7m and North [Read more]
No Swanning around
August 10, 2012 by 6 Comments
If footy players had ‘babysitters’ would they get into any of the trouble they do? I’m not saying that footy players are immature…although some of them…. Coco Chanel once said “As long as you know men are like children, you know everything.” So maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for us supporters to take shifts [Read more]
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