Legends, which is a book of profiles of the Indigenous Team of the Century is a very important book. It is written by Sean Gorman who interviewed the players and has written these biographical essays on their terms. The book celebrates the game and the Indigenous players but it does not ignore the political realities [Read more]
Radio Dimwit
August 16, 2011 by 19 Comments
It’s 8:40am. I’m like a zombie walking through the Agora, back to the West Lecture Theatre. Still feeling half asleep dodging on coming uni students with a large coffee, 3 sugars in hand I have the look of a killer on my face. I’m not a morning person, I can’t handle 9:00am lectures- my brain [Read more]
The Grass Is Always Greener
August 15, 2011 by 7 Comments
Embarrassing Football Moments No. 3,204 The Grass Is Always Greener. I played a lot of footy with Brendo, many years ago. Better than that, we were mates. It was good to come home for a few days. To catch up. He’d done well in the years I’d been away. Worked hard and used [Read more]
THE WRAP – ROUND XXI
August 15, 2011 by 2 Comments
WHERE LIFE IMITATES SPORT What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. The Sainters tested themselves against the Mighty Magpie Machine and came up a bit short. (Maybe even a long way bit short – Ed) The Tullamarine Jetstars served up the Biff to The Dishlickers, and in the process, well and truly greased the [Read more]
Team Balance
August 15, 2011 by 3 Comments
Watching the antithesis of a spectacle at aami stadium on the old CRT tv, I was placed into a deep contemplative state by a comment made by Tim Lane of the Ten network team. Apparently, Port’s David Rodan was omitted for team balance.
Umpiring: A Matter of Perspective
August 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Ideas can come at any time, like during a discussion about umpiring 16 years ago with a couple of mates in the cafeteria on the 16th floor of330 Collins Street, then the head office of Colonial Mutual. Ideas can be plausible, even if others (eg said mates, Darren & Pete) think them laughable. When people [Read more]
Where Buddy and I part ways
August 13, 2011 by 9 Comments
I would love to have a cool one word nickname that everybody knew me by. Hi, I’m Tiger, g’day, I’m Chappy. Immediately identified. Not merely in name but in character. I love how one word can so simply capture the essence of the individual. That’s neat. So descriptive, familiar, as if we’ve known each other [Read more]
Characters II. The Local Variety.
August 13, 2011 by 9 Comments
The first character I ever saw in footy was at my first club. Andy had long, thin hair, a mo, three stops on each boot, as many teeth and played on the wing. If the niggle was up, and he gave away a free, he’d stand the mark, the ball between his legs. [Read more]
Sydney Musings
August 12, 2011 by 6 Comments
I was beginning to think I’d lost almost all enthusiasm for Australian Football. Barely skimming the news, catching a few minutes of a game here and there, a near-unbridgeable four points off the leader in the tipping comp. It doesn’t help being a Swans fan. Early this season, they cost me a mobile phone; hurled [Read more]
A Fixturing Fix
August 12, 2011 by 2 Comments
It seems that lately the AFL draw has become public enemy number one. Apparently, a system that consistently delivers the best 8 teams of the season to the finals is deeply flawed because each side doesn’t play each other an equal number of times. On the face of it this is a logical argument. If [Read more]
Kapunda to GWS
August 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment
This week’s Football People piece by Rob McLean takes a look at how Kapunda boy Johnathan Giles is going in Greater Western Sydney. He also shares some of his memories of being a kid at Kapunda’s Dutton Park. http://www.countryfooty.com.au/FootballPeople.htm
From Windy Hill to the Western Oval, Maribyrnong & Moonee Valley
August 12, 2011 by 13 Comments
Saturday nights “derby” at Docklands Stadium will see the Dons path to September action hitting a bump in the road or the Dogs being mathematically eliminated from this seasons finals equation. Perusing the playing lists of the past 40 years I noticed a little traffic alongMt Alexander Road, past the Racecourse and ontoGeelong Roadresulting from [Read more]
The footy gods: Tyche
August 12, 2011 by 1 Comment
Tyche was the daughter of Zeus. She would spin a ball in her fingers to explain luck. The ball might bounce one way and you could win the game. Bounce the other way and you were gone. And all that planning and all that effort comes to nothing.
A Tale Of Two Presses
August 12, 2011 by 27 Comments
Allan Jeans believed football was a simple game – “We have the ball, they have the ball or the ball is in dispute.” Not so simple are the plans devised to meet that axiom. The biggest developments in on-field strategies in recent times have revolved around what to do when “they” have the ball.
Footy grounds of yore
August 11, 2011 by 5 Comments
The older you get the more your mind drifts back to earlier times, not that they were all good, as some would have you make out, but when it comes to sport and football in particular, all the memories are good. Footy grounds, especially the eleven suburban grounds of the old VFL, bring back happy [Read more]
Fantasy and reality
August 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment
It’s easy to confuse fantasy with reality in sports. Three months ago even the thought that the Saints would be contenders for the finals – let alone a home final – was pure fantasy. Or that Justin Koschitzke would be a difference-maker. Now? Sometimes the line is clear. Dream Team is pure fantasy – pick [Read more]
Old School Sports Medicine
August 11, 2011 by 2 Comments
John Mosig noted the delicate way the injured player (on left) was carted off. Much less ceremony than today.
One Hundred Years Ago: Round 15, 29th July, 1911
August 11, 2011 by 10 Comments
Any hope that St Kilda might resolve the internal conflict of the previous weekend soon dissipated as the following week unfolded. The committee stuck fast to their position in relation to withdrawing dressing room passes. At Tuesday training the players voted unanimously that ‘the indignity to which Messrs Eicke and Hogan had been subjected [Read more]
One Point
August 10, 2011 by 3 Comments
The Ressies had it in the bag. The mob we were playing had to beat us to take our spot in the finals, but didn’t. On a day forecast for rain, the clouds danced over the mountain without stopping to even look. Hell, it wasn’t weather, it was scenery. Under that, on the [Read more]
Geelong: the family club
August 10, 2011 by 9 Comments
by Glen Davis I barracked for Geelong from 1969 until 1999. In these 30 years i saw some marvellous players. I no longer follow Geelong, or any AFL club for that matter, but with the proliferation of footy on TV i am still fairly up to date with what is happening in the AFL.
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