It’s that time of the year in bush footy. No matter what the code, presidents and committees, sponsors and hangers-on, club men who have worked hard all summer are trying to put the finishing touches on their team lists. They’re selling hope.
Off Season?? Game On!!
April 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Damn the torpedos and hoist the mainsail, I’ve got an idea. I know we should be gearing up for season proper, honing our Richmond jokes, Arelditing one eye shut and devising an app to decode Razor Ray Chamberlin, but think on this. I have enjoyed the off-season more than any self respecting football purist has [Read more]
Don’t worry Chappy, there’s no chance of that!
April 19, 2011 by 40 Comments
By Sasha Lennon I read this morning that Geelong star Paul Chapman says he’s still hurting from the 2008 Grand Final loss to Hawthorn, so much so that he has vowed “never again” will the Cats lose to the Hawks on that biggest of days. Well let me be the first one to offer you [Read more]
Fitzy and the kid
April 19, 2011 by 5 Comments
What the hell was Mike Fitzpatrick thinking? He was a mountain. Tough, no thug, just honest tough. A damn good sort of strong to be. Carl Dietrich would make the headlines, Don Scott punch out his own teammates at training. Neil Balme was crazier than any of them. He’d do more damage than the lot [Read more]
Scoreboard Pressure, the website
April 19, 2011 by 2 Comments
Almanackers Les Everett and Vin Maskell have never met but they share an affinity for photographing and philosophising about scoreboards. scoreboardpressure.com is a fledgling website inspired by Australian Rules football scoreboards. The blog celebrates the fact that while all footy scoreboards have the same basic function, they can differ from ground to ground, and from [Read more]
THE WRAP – ROUND IV
April 18, 2011 by 4 Comments
WHERE LIFE IMITATES FOOTBALL What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. It was yet another Cakewalk for The Good Old Collingwoods on Friday night as TRP delivered the coup de grâce to The Gallant Tigers. The Bombers & The Blues gave us, arguably, the best draw of the season so far, in match chock-a-block [Read more]
The View From Shepparton- Rd 4
April 18, 2011 by 3 Comments
Friday night. In the unreal world of our household decide that a combination of the delayed telecast plus the certainty of a one sided match means that I spend the evening with my daughter and her triplet girls aged 12 watching the first half of a new Blu-ray recording of Les Miserable’s. Son in law [Read more]
The Return of Football
April 17, 2011 by 6 Comments
My niece wants me to take her to the football. I’m not so sure. We’re Bulldogs supporters. The whole family is Bulldogs, apart from a couple of irritating Tigers fans who are always trying to rub something in. She comes over in a red-white-and-blue scarf even though it’s twenty-five degrees outside. It’s the first [Read more]
A Sherrin among the pucks
April 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment
By Sallese Gibson Scores are tied. Less than two minutes of play remain. You can feel the tension in the air as the players jostle for best position. Play resumes and two opponents sprint towards each other. You can hear the thud, like a thunder clap, as their bodies collide and they fall to the [Read more]
Where old footballers go to die
April 17, 2011 by 2 Comments
The ball comes in on the bounce. I’ve been killing it in the air for ours. The bald No. 13 has been killing it on the ground for his. When I squint I can imagine Martin Pike. We reach for it at the same time, knocking it on, then, in heat of moment and snap [Read more]
My favourite drop kick, part 6
April 15, 2011 by 7 Comments
Vin Maskell continues his whimsical series. Moggs Creek, on the Great Ocean Road near Lorne, doesn’t have a footy oval. The creek doesn’t even have much water. But I’ve got an old football down there, in the three-generation family beach-house. Its scratches are not from backyard trees or goal posts or the streets of the [Read more]
THE PRE WRAP – ROUND IV
April 15, 2011 by 9 Comments
FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. Campbell Brown proves he’s a chip off the old block. I’ll do what I wanna do, when I wanna do it, any place, anywhere, any time. So stick that in your pipe and smoke Guy McKenna. But that’s the Metermaids’ problem. The [Read more]
Tiger Trouble
April 15, 2011 by 6 Comments
For Christmas of 2010 my younger sister Mia, who is 13, requested a Tiger suit to wear to footy games. She specified it was to be an American mascot type costume, not a skimpy Halloween tiger-striped miniskirt with midriff-baring top and tail ensemble so popular among teenage girls. This was a little surprising as Mia’s [Read more]
Christensendom
April 15, 2011 by 3 Comments
Christensendom noun – the worldwide body or society of Christensens. – the Christensen world : the greatest church in Christensendom. Damien was born, Marty rose, Allen has been dropped – but will come again! Ahhh, we all love a father-son combo, no less an uncle-nephew trinity. And what better way to celebrate the return of [Read more]
The Poet Laureate of Old Fitzroy
April 14, 2011 by 16 Comments
Old Fitzroy, club and suburb, are long gone, except in the memories of those who played there or grew up amongst its pokey houses and grimy streets. One person who pops up in reminisces about those days and times is Norm Byron, who played a couple of games for the Maroons back in 1918. But [Read more]
Time for a change, Andrew
April 13, 2011 by 1 Comment
by Bob Utber After spending an enthralling 10 hours (yes, I watched the replay just in case!) watching the final round of The Masters at Augusta I believe that Andrew Demetriou must make some urgent changes to this year’s Grand Final. We already have one momentous change playing the big game in October but I [Read more]
A rivalry for the ages
April 13, 2011 by 4 Comments
by Jake Stevens With so much talk about the Collingwood & Carlton rivalry this week, Richmond & Collingwood and Carlton & Essendon next week, it reminds me of, in my opinion, the most thrilling and closely contested match-ups of recent times. Ah the memories! It was the 2nd September 2005 and West Coast was playing [Read more]
Enough is enough! Boycott the AFL website!
April 12, 2011 by 16 Comments
by Rick Newbery I know cyberspace is supposed to be infinite but that doesn’t excuse the wanton waste of it. And that is precisely what the AFL continues to do. I am sick and tired of losing use of my net connection for five or ten minutes while the bloated AFL site loads. It [Read more]
Rain in Tasmania, but training might still be on
April 12, 2011 by 23 Comments
I’d spent two days in Hobart drinking with a mate who has nothing to do with football or the bush, which was great. By the second day, though, I was champing to get back to the mountains and hard work. To the rhythm of small waves from every ute I pass and the chubby clucks [Read more]
Jermaine’s story
April 12, 2011 by 4 Comments
by Tavis Perry Last Friday was a really proud day for myself and the people of Galiwinku. Jermaine Wunungmurra, who had literally just celebrated his 18th birthday, had made the plunge and moved from one of the remotest communities in Australia, to Melbourne. Old Carey, who have been one of the shining lights in the [Read more]
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