WHERE LIFE IMITATES FOOTBALL What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. The Woodsmen gate crashed Chokko’s farewell party, but not before The Tealers had drunk their fair share of the booze. The Tiges, Never Minding If They Were Behind, Risked Head & Shin, And Fought & Fought And Won to open the door to [Read more]
Billy Miller visits Punt Road
July 11, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Billy’s spiritual sojourn of the old suburban grounds reaches Punt Road, home of Jack Dyer, the Tigers’ Disco and a monumental clash between Mushroom Records and 3XY, amongst other notable events. http://www.bellestorie.com/aroundthegrounds/punt/video/puntroad_0.html
THE PRE WRAP – ROUND XV
July 9, 2010 by 8 Comments
FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. The revelations emanating from Ben Cousins’ muddled pharmaceutical intake is sure to have the Mothers of Melbourne on the soapbox. Caffeine pills to get started. Stilnox to unwind. With a few celebratory post match beers in between, that doesn’t sound like a [Read more]
Top 10: Notable Comebacks From Injury
July 8, 2010 by 7 Comments
Well it is fair to declare that the hot topics in the football world at the present time relates to long-term injuries. The loss of star Fremantle mature-age recruit Michael Barlow to a broken leg is a blow not only for the Dockers but also to the competition in general as many would agree his [Read more]
WALKER NOT A GRADE, NEVER WILL BE
July 8, 2010 by 3 Comments
Enigmatic Adelaide forward Taylor Walker will never be an A-grader. A big statement, but it is true. The boy from Broken Hill does not fit into the A-grade category, according to the locals at the Barrier town (Broken Hill is on the Barrier Range). To be an A-grader one has to be born in Broken [Read more]
Victoria v The All-Stars: Newman for mid-season draft?
July 7, 2010 by 8 Comments
by Josh Barnstable Sitting in the black chairs in the Numurkah doctors, I looked down at the ground, not trying to attract the attention of anyone. Wearing my ugg boots and trackies and with unbrushed hair, I was quite a sight. It was only old people in the waiting room though. If they are going [Read more]
Franksy’s 200th game
July 7, 2010 by 10 Comments
Daniel Franks player his 200th game for the Wynyard Cats last Saturday. Who? What? Where? Who cares? We all do. The long suffering supporters who have shared all his pain from the bone crunching hits he has received in his protracted career of unflinching attack on the ball; the emotional pain of another belting to [Read more]
Crio’s Q: The All Australian Argument
July 6, 2010 by 39 Comments
by Chris Riordan Quite rightly it is oft repeated that footy is not an individual game, yet it is also true that great players are what we go to watch. Although from year to year I could not recite the All-Australian team, it can be an interesting source of discussion at around this stage of [Read more]
The View From Shepparton Round 14
July 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
First up, I scored 8 out of 8 in one tipping comp. Pretty good eh? Pretty Unique? I thought so until it emerged on ABC radio’s (Jon Faine 10-10:30 or thereabouts ) that half of the existing footy firmament had attained this score by virtue of picking all of the home sides. Bad luck for [Read more]
Essendon past and present
July 5, 2010 by Leave a Comment
On the day that Kevin Sheedy was sacked as Essendon’s coach in 2007, I was in Paris. It was four o’clock in the morning when I was awoken to the piercing sound of my phone ringing on my bedside table. Looking at the screen, I was immediately startled. It was my father. Why would he [Read more]
THE WRAP – ROUND XIV
July 5, 2010 by 2 Comments
WHERE LIFE IMITATES FOOTBALL What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. Les Miserables opened proceedings with a win on Thursday night in a match that had some viewers taking 40 winks so they would be fresh from the midnight soccer. On Friday Night The Hawks topped the Doggies in one for the archives. Saturday’s [Read more]
The aesthetics of football
July 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The hair-cut is an often unappreciated barometer of social development. Whereas only 20 years ago, before the wholesale professionalisation of football, footballers sported the most unfashionable hair-cuts in our society, today they are at the absolute cutting edge of fashion. No successful footballer today can claim to have reached the upper reaches of excellence unless [Read more]
THE PRE WRAP – ROUND XIV
July 2, 2010 by 2 Comments
FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. Maggot Central unleashes The Geesch. In what would have to have been the most Kafkaesque performance ever seen on an oval field with an oval ball, the reaction to the opprobrium of their previous efforts beggared description. Admittedly, the reaction should have [Read more]
Can we really manage our way to footy justice?
July 1, 2010 by 26 Comments
I’ve been intrigued by the breadth of emotion following the clash of the Steves, Johnson and Baker, in last Friday night’s match at the MCG, and by subsequent events. Most particularly, I’ve been considering the effect of AFL football management style on the conduct of the game. Debate has raged over issues such as the [Read more]
THE PRE WRAP – ROUND XIV lite
July 1, 2010 by Leave a Comment
FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. Just to prove that a week’s a long time in Footy, Footscray have a new full forward and Jana Drama, in a publicity coup reportedly underwritten by the Appalling Football League to the tune of $1.8m over two years, has been signed [Read more]
Umpire, please!
June 30, 2010 by 2 Comments
In the American summer of 1989 an unknown policy wonk from the US State Department, Francis Fukuyama, foretold of the ‘End of History’; an era which would follow the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union and therewith the last ideological challenger to liberal-democracy. The end of history, opined Fukuyama ruefully, would displace the ‘daring, courage, imagination and idealism’ which attended [Read more]
The AFL Wants YOU!
June 28, 2010 by 14 Comments
With the AFL conquering new territories like the Romans of yore, changes are afoot to the shape of our season. However in an outstanding example of stakeholder management, we the fans are being given the chance to put forward our opinions as to how we would like to see the season shaped. http://www.afl.com.au/AFLHQ/MyAFLSeason/tabid/16355/Default.aspx lists the [Read more]
The View From Shepparton- Round 13
June 28, 2010 by 3 Comments
How I hate split rounds, there is no cadence, no rhythm to life. 8 matches, a million days between the first and last game of the round. I can’t even remember half the time what happened 5 minutes ago let alone what may have transpired over the last fortnight or so. Besides, my game preparation [Read more]
For Fremantle, it never rains, but it pours.
June 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment
By Josh Barnstable There’s never a dull moment when these two sides play. 2005, we saw the ‘Whispers In The Sky’ incident, where an umpire was allegedly heard saying “Now I know what it feels like to have a win” on the way back to Melbourne from Perth after Fremantle’s five point win after Justin [Read more]
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