ROUND SIXTEEN Fantasy Footy It’s been one of those weekends when most of my high performers agreed to abandon the cause: Matt Suckling – five kicks, four handballs and two tackles; Matthew Kreuzer – two kicks, four handballs and no marks; Jack Darling – five kicks, no handballs or tackles and no marks; Patrick Dangerfield [Read more]
AFL bites the bullet
July 15, 2012 by 14 Comments
In a bid to finally fix the inequity of the fixture – where 18 teams play 22 rounds – the AFL has bitten the bullet and will embark on the most sensible option. It will introduce five more teams. Commercial realties dictate a 22-round season must be maintained. Except for this year, when a 23-round [Read more]
Alternative Strip – Grow Up
July 15, 2012 by 3 Comments
Sunday Morning Coming Down. Those grey shorts Essendon wore last week reminded me of the ones I used to wear to primary school. Odd looking on an adult. Essendon’s problem is not that it has developed an alternative strip, it is having developed the worst effort at an alternative strip ever seen in any competition [Read more]
Get yer Record!
July 14, 2012 by 4 Comments
I thought Almanackers might be into this little discovery I made. Every page of every VFL/AFL footy record since the day dot is now available online. So if you have a spare 200 hours, have fun going down this wormhole… http://takata.slv.vic.gov.au/R/UM788H91NVIH5YHPK4J9J5LNM7RHX2RABDMLQ8TDVRM14DP5RH-15826?func=collections&collection_id=1081 Jeff DowsingWashed up former Inside Sport and Sunday Age Sport freelancer. Now just giving [Read more]
Life on Red Hill
July 14, 2012 by 5 Comments
Life on Red Hill The Red Hill team song is a variation on the classic, ‘She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain When She Comes.’ In the second verse we sing – We’ll take on all the champions as they come, oh we’ll take on the champions as they come. Then it sounds something like – [Read more]
The Second Law of Thermodynamics applied to Umpiring
July 12, 2012 by 7 Comments
In the last twenty years we have seen the introduction of all sorts of technology in most sports. The collection of statistics, the recording of physiological states of the players, both during a match and at training and the use of what I shall call digital technology to aid (?) umpiring are now far more [Read more]
Gold Coast footy alive and well
July 12, 2012 by 4 Comments
By Cheryl Critchley “Gee-long, Gee-long, Gee-long!” Some things never change, even 1800km from Sleepy Hollow. We’re at Metricon Stadium on the Gold Coast and the Cats’ Cheer Squad sounds as hick as ever. “Gee-long, Gee-long!” The small but dedicated band of “Southerners” is surrounded by Suns supporters decked out in their still [Read more]
Just off the pace
July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I was checking out the results of The Footy Almanac Tipping Competition (for which the prize is half a dozen bottles of red) and I noticed that Neil Kimpton was three clear on a score of 99. To be three clear in a comp of 80+ tippers seemed to me to be statistically significant. “99,” [Read more]
1980 A Personal Footy Almanac – Round 15, Saturday 12 July, v Fitzroy, Junction Oval
July 11, 2012 by 1 Comment
To this point, the 1980 season had unfolded in a wonderfully rhythmic way for me and for Richmond. The humdrum school week improved steadily as each Saturday approached. Another Tiger win was just around the corner. Yes, always a win. Amazing how an 11 game winning sequence can feel like eternity. The week’s break upset [Read more]
I’m cranky – it’s time for the footy mums to step up
July 10, 2012 by 9 Comments
After such a cracking win on Saturday night, I was rudely awaken from the momentary peace in the Saints world with news this morning that Jack Stevens was caught driving with 0.08 alcohol in his system on Sunday morning, he was fined and he will lose his licence for 6 months. The Club and the [Read more]
Letter to Manila
July 10, 2012 by 1 Comment
I thought that this week I would share an edited version of a letter which I sent to a long standing friend who lives in Manila. Last evening a marquee sports event in the Australian calendar took place, that is the third and deciding “State of Origin” Rugby League clash between Queensland and NSW. [Read more]
The 2012 ‘Mopsy’ Fraser Cup – Round Fifteen
July 10, 2012 by 1 Comment
Greetings Tipsters When is a team truly down and out for the season? Sure, the bottom six definitely are and the next five are really only battling for the honour of being the first team to get kicked out of the finals. But above that, where do you draw the line? Folks, you don’t have [Read more]
The Wrap – Round XV
July 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
THE WRAP – ROUND XV WHERE LIFE IMITATES FOOTBALL And what a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. On Friday night it was a famous Victory for truth & justice as Captain Carlton drove the Carringbush Interlopers from the field. By Saturday night The Ladder had undergone a major reshuffle as The Gliders crash landed [Read more]
Fitzroy at Central Reserve against “The Oblates of Mary Immaculate”
July 8, 2012 by 1 Comment
I have been on holidays up in Darwin. It’s the dry season, so the weather up there was perfect. It got down to nineteen at night, and reached thirty every day, with never a cloud in the sky. Today I went out to Central Reserve, to watch the Redders (Fitzroy) take on Mazenod and, while [Read more]
Where do footballers come from
July 8, 2012 by 4 Comments
Sunday Morning Coming Down. Emma Quayle has written an excellent intro to this years draft in The Age on Thursday last. That set me thinking about the provenance of those players. For example, it seems to me the number of Father-Son success stories at the draft seriously outweighs their genetics-based statistical-likelihood. I have as a [Read more]
Misplaced sentimentality?
July 6, 2012 by 10 Comments
It’s a little strange to feel sentimental about a stadium that is barely over a decade old. I tend to get lost within the sameness of Etihad Stadium. Signs aside, I can’t really tell the difference between the Lockett or Coventry end, or whether I’m facing north or south. The food and merchandise concession stands [Read more]
1984
July 6, 2012 by 22 Comments
(or These here are crazy times Pt II) Like most knackers I’m loving Sam Steele’s time warp. It may have been at my mob’s expense, yet I envy Stainless’ uncanny recollections of Richmond’s path to glory, the characters, and the suburban fortresses of the day. All I can remember of 1980 is the shattering Grand Final humiliation [Read more]
I put the sticker on the car
July 5, 2012 by 7 Comments
By Rick Kane Well, we’ve passed the mid-point of the 2012 AFL season. As a Hawks fan I’m feeling pretty good. I would like to have been at least one more win to the good that’s for sure. And I dearly would have loved to have peeled the Cats monkey from our back but you [Read more]
Thirty six umpires, three players and the twin slit experiment
July 5, 2012 by 3 Comments
Mark invited me into the MCC Members to watch Brisbane take on Hawthorn. Mark and I met at University and have been going to the football together for over thirty years. We were originally Fitzroy fans and are now Brisbane Lions members. Like all long term relationships our level of passion has waxed and waned. [Read more]
Round 15 preview
July 5, 2012 by 4 Comments
Harms, coming off a 9 from 9, tries to find a winner for Round 15. http://tatts.com/news/2012/7/3/afl-round-15 Almanac Admin
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