There’s something strange in the footy air at the moment, and it’s not wet woollen jumpers left for too long in the sports bag. Like all Magpie fans I’m often accused of being one-eyed. Fair enough … I am. For the most part. I have to admit that over the years I’ve had a grudging [Read more]
The Bye
June 1, 2011 by 4 Comments
by Tony Robb As we approach to middle of the year I think it’s prudent to assess the success and failure of the league newcomer. The Bye. Coached by Adrian Anderson the new kids on the block have flown under the radar avoiding much of the scrutiny that is been applied to several coaches [Read more]
The Harms Dream
May 31, 2011 by 24 Comments
Gigs piece on the fixture, and its idiosyncrasies, injustices, inconsistencies, and conceptual weirdness, and his suggestion of a draw based on a Declaration of What is Good and Fair, and Inalienable in Football, is noble to say the least. Which, as commenters have noted almost universally in the words that follow, means that it is [Read more]
My best ever Geelong team – part 2
May 29, 2011 by 6 Comments
THE FORWARD LINE I have chosen Paul Couch for the half-forward flank. Couch played in the high-scoring Geelong teams of the Blight era, mainly in the centre, but at times as a creative half-forward. Couch had great vision, wonderful evasive skills and a deadly accurate left foot kick. He played 259 games for Geelong and [Read more]
Rotunda In The West- ‘Talking Footy’
May 29, 2011 by 6 Comments
‘Talking Footy’ down at the Whitten Oval Foyer was a wonderful event and one in which I encourage fellow Almanackers to attend to next time. Guests included the Footy Almanac’s own John Harms, Western Bulldogs star Daniel Giansiracusa and respected footy poet Tom Petsinis, in which all three provided a enthralling conservation about footy. And [Read more]
A religious experience amongst the football faithful
May 29, 2011 by 4 Comments
by David Brewster I was never much of a churchgoer, but I can pretty much pin the last vestige of my belief in prayer down to 1981. After my ‘Pies had lost their fourth grand final in five years, it was quite clear that the bloke upstairs either didn’t exist or wasn’t a Collingwood supporter. [Read more]
‘Comment Wally May’
May 29, 2011 by 6 Comments
by Bernard Whimpress Wally May has died, aged 84. The man with the concise comment became an Adelaide television hero on a Sunday sports show of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and inspired a phrase which passed into popular idiom whenever authoritative comment was sought. I interviewed May when I was editor of the [Read more]
Losing Away
May 29, 2011 by 4 Comments
After being in front heading into the last, both seniors and reserves got rolled by good, tough rural teams. We’ll be pushing to make the five, damn it. If we were over-achieving, it would be fine, but it’s just not fun when we’re better than this. Or maybe we’re not. I’ve never met a scoreboard [Read more]
I trained them hard
May 27, 2011 by 2 Comments
Jesus, I trained those Juniors hard. They were a dead-set chance. At something that would affect them and their community and stay with them forever, like a tattoo for your heart. Sometimes, while training them hard, I’d tell them. I had never won a flag. Not in all those years. Then, my team made the [Read more]
My Best Ever Geelong team – part 1
May 27, 2011 by 17 Comments
Something I do in my head from time to time is pick my best ever Geelong team, that is, the best team I can put together from all the players I’ve seen play during my life time, both live and on television. I did this again quite recently; last week in fact while I was [Read more]
One Phrase At A Time
May 26, 2011 by 24 Comments
Football players and coaches are being coached on and off the field to within an inch of their lives. Their language used to be colourful, but the only colour in football these days is in the jumpers. Media training off the field is killing spontaneity and the thrill of seeing a footballer mangle players on [Read more]
The Symbolic Dissemination of a High Mark
May 25, 2011 by 7 Comments
by Phil Dimitriadis Symbolism and rhetoric find their place in football discourse through the power of language and the images it projects. For example, the sometimes gravity defying elements of a ‘high mark’ have been theatrically rhetoricised over the years from ‘great mark’ to ‘a screamer’ to ‘a ripper’ to ‘a hanger’ to ‘mark [Read more]
Go Hard
May 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment
We played at home this week, against the bottom side. Everybody says to everybody, always, “Don’t take them for granted!” and “It’s not just gunna happen,” and “Go hard!” but they say it without the fire in their eyes, then Saturday comes and they play without fire. Then, at half time, when the bottom side [Read more]
The View From Shepparton Round 9
May 24, 2011 by 3 Comments
by Peter Schumacher Have to hand it to the Pies. Getting themselves out of gaol was a brilliant achievement, a side doesn’t often give itself a 23 points handicap in a last quarter and then run all over the opposition with 11 goals in 20 minutes. How often have the Crows let Collingwood escape [Read more]
My favourite drop-kick: part 8
May 24, 2011 by 1 Comment
by Vin Maskell The Australian Rules Drop-Kick Appreciation Society is delighted to announce that poet, mathematician and Fitzroy fan Tom Petsinis has been inducted into the society’s Hall of Fame (Literature). Petsinis’ 2006 book Four Quarters includes the 12 verse, 48 line poem Drop Kick. It is a lovely ode to the lost art, [Read more]
Bateman’s chance
May 23, 2011 by 1 Comment
I really liked the Richmond Indigenous Round specially-themed footy jumper. The design on the yellow sash was by local Indigenous artist Jirra Lulla Harvey, a Yorta Yorta/Wiradjuri woman. In an interview on Richmond’s website, Harvey said her design encapsulates iconic Victorian landmarks, mixed with Indigenous football themes. “The river is representative of the Murray, which [Read more]
Round nine wrap
May 23, 2011 by 4 Comments
In the end, Jonathan Brown was enough for Brisbane to regroup and craft its first victory for the year against North Melbourne. Matty Primus should take note and think again about old men. Port didn’t name Chad Cornes and dropped Brett Ebert on match day “for tactical reasons”. The team had too many forwards, he [Read more]
A history of football
May 22, 2011 by 1 Comment
A football career is a life. It is it’s own world, it has its own language, which you learn. It tests every emotion, builds character and breaks the weak. It has a birth, adolesence, maturity and, if done right, if seen through, a decline. In this decline you desperately try to pass your strength and [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Granny’s five cents goes a long way (a late sixties boyhood in Sydney)
May 22, 2011 by 12 Comments
Sausage roll five cents, (sauce one cent extra); musk sticks, cobbers, freckles, milk bottles, musk sticks, bananas – cent each; bertie beetle, choo-choo-bar, both five cents. Shiny packet on top of the glass-topped bench: same as a snag roll (minus sauce); forget bertie, forget the black mouthed bar; bargain! Give over the echidna; Mrs Mineo [Read more]
Is North Relevant?
May 20, 2011 by 24 Comments
It’s the theme of the season. Of the last few seasons. The theme throughout North Melbourne’s history: is North Melbourne relevant? Will North Melbourne survive?
Recent Comments