Peter Vesty is not sentimental about his home away from home for the past 30 years, the Port Melbourne scoreboard. “I’d like to blow it up or burn it down,” he says, in-between hanging up numbers for a reserves match between Port Melbourne and Werribee. Read more about Peter Vesty and about the 80 year [Read more]
The Discovery of Bob Pratt
June 9, 2011 by 12 Comments
While I never played football at the Highest Level, I think I can legitimately lay claim to being one of the game’s greatest archaeologists. For it was me in 1995 along with my good friend Mike Lefebvre who rediscovered the man, the legend, that was Bob Pratt. During that year, Mike and I were researching [Read more]
Racist takes a bath
June 9, 2011 by 1 Comment
The recent spate of ugly racism from footy supporters brings back a couple of memories from earlier days. As a very young Essendon fan who regularly followed the Dons with his parents , I would hear racist remarks about one of our great footballers Norm McDonald in the late forties and early fifties. We would [Read more]
One Hundred Years Ago: Round 6, 3rd June, 1911
June 9, 2011 by 2 Comments
It will surprise many that Richmond, the club that wears “Captain Blood’ as a badge of honour, initially regarded itself as a bastion of the ‘right and proper’ way to play the game. Furthermore, the colour of their jumper wasn’t originally yellow and black. What will not surprise is that they have long possessed a [Read more]
Nicknames
June 8, 2011 by 39 Comments
Crazyhorse is still the best nickname I’ve ever heard on a footy field. The Galloping Gasometer was a close second. What was it about North Melbourne in the 70s? They were the Kangeroos, and had a gun ruck-rover called Tiger. Richmond had Disco, The Ghost, The General, Whoosha, Hungry, The Flea, who was damn tough. [Read more]
So what’s the score?
June 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment
There’s been a lot in the media recently about the ugly parent syndrome at junior football matches, where feral mums and dads disgrace themselves by behaving badly on the sidelines. But what about the technologically-challenged parent syndrome? The game is definitely changing. I’ve had a go at most things in following the footy career of [Read more]
Leather fish bonding
June 8, 2011 by 5 Comments
by Margaret McCarthy The silence that follows the thud of the ball shouts ‘Run!’ I jog backwards, staring high into the dark tree backdrop, one hand raised to shield the glare from my eyes. The ball is a speck, a bird, a comet hurtling to earth. The mighty football seeks its target: me. I position [Read more]
It may be the punch
June 8, 2011 by 4 Comments
by John Richardson You know it’s going to happen. The ball will come. Maybe direct, maybe from the flank. More than fifty metres away, it is there, in their hands, in space, and the guiding hand does its job. The thud of leather on boot, a powerful strike and a beautifully weighted drop punt makes [Read more]
WAFL Blues
June 8, 2011 by 8 Comments
by Mark Simms Here in WAFL land, WA, we’ve just just enjoyed our Foundation Day round in perfect Perth winter football weather. Brilliant but soft sunshine ensured it was warm on the outer banks underneath the gum trees- though it was still a bit chilly in the shade of the 1950’s stands when the wind [Read more]
Colonial memories
June 8, 2011 by 7 Comments
by Kerrie Soraghan I attended my first Footscray match in utero. My mother, a passionate fan, prided herself on missing only one match for each of her four pregnancies, which, to her annoyance, coincided with the winter months. She would stand for three hours at a time in the outer, rain trickling down her neck, [Read more]
The View From Shepparton: Round 11 (and 10)
June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
by Peter Schumacher Felt good a week ago. The Lions had won two in a row, were on their way to the final eight having given everyone else seven games start and I was un freezing myself in Darwin. Can’t remember much more about round 10 and anyway what else was important enough to remember? [Read more]
Monday morning, June.
June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Something is missing. I can’t pick it. Cold morning. The Big Issue seller at North Melbourne station must be feeling it. Should I shout him a coffee? Nah. I’m sure the blokes who run the caf there look after him. A coffee and a muffin. 3 sugars. They’d charge him two bucks. He’s a teammate, [Read more]
The Thrilling ‘Fields
June 7, 2011 by 1 Comment
by Shane Goss Old Ivanhoe and Caulfield Grammarians played out a thriller in round seven of the VAFA Premier B section last Saturday at Chelsworth Park in Ivanhoe. It was first against third. The Fields had been promoted from Premier C the year before and were going into the game undefeated. Old Ivanhoe had only [Read more]
The Beatification of Saint Sandra: The Father/Son mule.
June 4, 2011 by 1 Comment
The night before the 1990 Grand Final I was a ticketless 14 year-old in an adequate hotel room in Dubbo. This is how near perfect father/son moments happen.
An open letter to Tom Hawkins
June 3, 2011 by 4 Comments
Dear Tom, As a Geelong supporter who hasn’t played a game of football since primary school and thought that Henry Playfair could gave been anything, I think I am highly qualified to give advice to you on how to get the best out of yourself on a football field. When you burst onto the scene [Read more]
NMFC 1871: Just for recreation’s sake
June 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Reverend Shinboner goes back through the annals of North Melbourne Football Club’s history, reliving one season from each decade, starting with 1871. The club was just about to embark on their third winter of football. The suburb: North Melbourne, known as Hotham at the time, was a largely industrial suburb with some 13,500 residents, significantly more than [Read more]
Sunday Sessions
June 3, 2011 by 5 Comments
Sunday Sesh’s are the best. There’s something lazy about them. Sloppy. All the gloss and polish of game day and Sat night has been belted off. We’re in a new player’s shed, in town, eating deer on a spit, either drinking slow, easy and constant, or going the hack. The Swans are playing the Hawks [Read more]
Flamboyance in goal umpiring; efficiency in junior team management.
June 3, 2011 by 10 Comments
by Jill Stoll Kurt has wanted to play in a ‘proper’ AFL team – “not Auskick, Mum!” – for the past year. We signed him on for the Under 9’s at our local club, the Everton Wolves, in Brisabne’s north, in March. Good decision. The first date for the ‘cubs’ was a ‘Meet the Pack’ [Read more]
The Record Records
June 2, 2011 by 5 Comments
Having read this article on the GFC website, I was compelled to delve into the record books. With my trusty deerstalker and magnifying glass, I was pleased to find that not only do Geelong famously hold the record for highest score in a VFL/AFL match, but they hold many other lesser known records. Here are [Read more]
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