The Melbourne launch for the Almanac was like a celebrity event, like the Brownlow minus the huge amount of AFL stars, but still it turned out to be a great night. The hectic run home after a day of 3 exams had me running around the house, half dressed, hair straightener in hand while everyone [Read more]
What were your favourite Almanac pieces of 2009?
November 24, 2009 by 42 Comments
This is not a forum for ranking. However, one of the pitfalls of this fantastic site is that so many articles can appear and then be smothered soon after. In the spirit of end of year lists, I wish to highlight some of my memorable reads from footyalmanac.com.au in 2009.
A great night. (At least that’s the Waaia remember it.)
November 23, 2009 by 68 Comments
by Josh Barnstable It’s Wednesday. I wait for Thursday to come. I have been waiting since Daff told me that the launch would be on the 19th of November. It’s the 18th. I’m at tennis training, wearing my Waaia guernsey, I’m in full concentration with my coach, we are doing some work at the net [Read more]
Fab 5 together for the first time!
November 23, 2009 by 51 Comments
By Steve Healy What a great night this was. As I stepped into the Clyde Hotel on Thursday, I was excited about meeting a group of people I knew so well but I had never met before, a group of people with one common link: footy. I walk inside, a pool table or two, a [Read more]
A launch to remember
November 22, 2009 by 2 Comments
by Chris Riordan Dennis Denuto, in The Castle, immortalized “the vibe of the thing” in his stirring support of “everyman”. Anson Cameron, writer and footy fan, clearly sensed it as he launched the “traditional” 2009 edition of The Footy Almanac. His galloping, gloriously irreverent speech captured the spirit of this compilation and of the happy [Read more]
Schauble likely to miss grand final re-match
November 19, 2009 by 6 Comments
by Rod Gillett Former Sydney Swans best & fairest Andrew Schauble is likely to miss the Middle East AFL grand final re-match when the Dubai Heat travel to the Sultanate of Oman to play the Muscat Magpies in their round 3 at the Muscat Rugby Club on Friday. Schauble is suffering from a flu virus [Read more]
Is poor player management the reason why players get a premature exit?
November 17, 2009 by 7 Comments
by Clint Youlden I met this AFL footballer (let’s call him Player X) through a friend of mine, Tavis Perry. Tavis has long been involved with me, and my training innovations, for the past 5 years and encouraged this player to seek out my expertise in speed and coordination training. Tav floated the idea to [Read more]
Stone the Crows (or at least their recruiting policy)
November 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
by Lynda Morphett These are my ideas on how the Adelaide Footy Club could improve their recruiting (it probably applies to other clubs as well): Recruiting criteria: Our recruiting criteria perhaps needs revising. (Without seeing it – can’t say for sure!) More focus on skilfulness and decision making ability, and less focus on beep tests, [Read more]
Footy Talk: Ziggy Stardust & Chris Judd discuss the Messiah burden (and other matters)
November 15, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by John Butler Setting: Fleeing the rock ‘n’ roll craziness of the 70’s, Ziggy Stardust ended up running an underground backpacker’s in Coober Pedy (a long story). He finds that he blends in with the local wildlife surprisingly well. His hair now tends more grey than fluorescent red, and a middle age paunch hangs over [Read more]
Footy: Denning’s death ends links to Roys’ last flag
November 13, 2009 by 4 Comments
By Adam Muyt The 1944 Fitzroy premiership player Clen Denning died on 10 November. He was 98. One of Clen’s teammates in the Gorillas’ premiership, Laurie Bickerton, died just three months earlier, marking 2009 as the year the two final living links to Fitzroy’s eight VFL flags ended. Denning was, by all accounts, a very [Read more]
Footy: Say it isn’t so Richo … or then again … maybe the time is right
November 13, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Sam Steele I don’t think a better verbal portrait of Richo can be painted than Waleed Aly’s piece that prefaced the 2008 Almanac. Nor can a better image be conceived that Jim Pavlidis’ wonderful cover picture. I won’t even attempt to compete with these. My contribution to what will doubtless be a host of [Read more]
Crio’s Question: Richo’s out. Who else will be miss when they’re gone?
November 13, 2009 by 2 Comments
So Richo’s gone. Like all footy fans, I’ve shaken my head and clapped my hands at his soap opera of a career. What I knew all along, though, was that we’d miss him when he’s gone. Far too often we scold players and then, a few years later, lament the lack of characters in the [Read more]
Footy: What’s in a number? Plenty, if you ask me
November 11, 2009 by 1,020 Comments
By Josh Barnstable My love for Football began in 2002. Not knowing anything about the sport back then, I decided to take up Dad’s offer and start collecting the footy stickers that came out each day in the Herald Sun (greatest paper of all time). As my collection of stickers grew, so did my passion. [Read more]
Crio’s Question: Who or what has tested your loyalty during the spring carnival
November 11, 2009 by 15 Comments
By Chris Riordan I’m confident that a picture of All Silent is hanging on Makybe’s loungeroom wall and a pic of Alan Eskander is near triple 20 on the dartboard! Makybe will have Hissing Sid tucked in a drawer and a screwed-up All American resting next to the bin. Spring is tough on our loyalties.
Life: Vale Uncle Ado, butcher, battler, family man, Australian
November 10, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Andrew Starkie My dad, Joe, is like the You Yangs: back from the road, strong, always there. He looked like Tom Jones before Tom had the work done. Joe turned 67 on Thursday, the day we buried his elder brother, Adrian. Uncle Ado was a few years older, but had been an old man [Read more]
Reigning Cats this year and Dogs next year
November 2, 2009 by 30 Comments
2010 AFL Season by Josh Barnstable Finally, the fixture has been released. After spending all of recess and lunch on the 30th of October on a computer in the library at school checking out the new fixture, I spent most of period three texting fellow Almanacker Steve Healy what we thought of the allocated games [Read more]
AFL Club Awards: The bald and the beautiful
November 1, 2009 by 58 Comments
Port Adelaide’s Best and Fairest By Steve Healy In season 2009, Port Adelaide’s theme song should’ve changed to: We’ve got the power to win, the power to lose, the power to win, the power to lose… Because that’s what they showed us, they have a huge win one week, and then get smashed by a [Read more]
2009 Malarkey Medal
November 1, 2009 by 12 Comments
THE 2009 MALARKEY MEDAL THE TOP TEN (Brownlow votes in brackets) Chris Judd (Carlton) 28 (22) Gary Ablett (Geelong) 26 (30) Nick Riewoldt (St Kilda) 23 (15) Jonathan Brown (Brisbane) 19 (19) Nick Dal Santo (St Kilda) 18 (17) Alan Didak (Collingwood) 18 (12)
AFL Club Awards: Dyer for Deledio, maybe not so dire for Richmond
October 30, 2009 by 10 Comments
Jack Dyer Medallist By Josh Barnstable Bleak. That one word describes the Richmond season. It started out with some optimism. Ben Cousins had been recruited after a one year ban for drug use, Matthew Richardson was coming off a career-best season, Chris Newman was handed the captaincy and most of the Tigers players were set [Read more]
18 might just go into 2
October 29, 2009 by 5 Comments
by Tavis Perry There are going to be 18 teams in the AFL competition by 2012. While I’m all for expanding the competition and growing the game nationally, I honestly think the time is right to look at introducing two conferences instead of having the mundane set-up we have now. I understand there will be [Read more]
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