By John Butler Nostalgia is said to be a sure product of advancing age. It is equally sure that those of us old enough to remember the days of suburban footy grounds are susceptible to rose coloured remembrance. Like favourite songs forever linked to formative life experiences, each tribe has a repository of memories held [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Diary of a Top End Saint
October 12, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Joc Ledwidge A bonza ten days. Friday: Flew in lunchtime of Preliminary Final day. Picked up by West Melbourne-dwelling, Essendon-barracking mate, so hung around Puckle Street then Lygon Street and witnessed a few Saints scarves (a future theme as it turns out). Bought some additional winter warmers, in colours of course. Transport Bar pre-game. [Read more]
Crio’s Question: Who’ll take No.5 at the Demons and other quandaries
October 10, 2009 by 12 Comments
All those players traded to new clubs during the week will have to find a new number as well as a new jumper at their new home. I’m happy for Barry “The Brawl” Hall to wear No.1 at the Doggies, though I’ll be demanding a bit more physicality than from previous lockermen Farren Ray and Simon Minton-Connell. [Read more]
AFL Club Awards: Barnstable’s breakdown on Crows’ top ten
October 10, 2009 by 433 Comments
By Josh Barnstable One of the most exciting seasons for the Adelaide Crows, the Red, Blue and Gold hoops finished 5th on the ladder and were third favourite to win the flag going into the finals after an enormous second half of the season, in which the young team blitzed the competition with an amazing [Read more]
General Footy Writing: You leave my Jack out of any trade deals
October 10, 2009 by 568 Comments
I’ve always wanted to create an alter-ego for myself, not too unlike my character , just different enough to still be true. So now I present to you the WAG of Collingwood’s Jack Anthony. Jack is in one of those moods again, I think it’s all this trade week drama! Danielle EidIm 23, cute and [Read more]
General Footy Writing: All over, bar the weeping
October 8, 2009 by 17 Comments
By John Kingsmill Every year fifteen teams run out of air. Some are shot early in the season; coaches walk, players have operations, fans think about a second team or go back to reading books. Two teams exit in the first week of the finals. Two others tease their fans only to experience a ruder [Read more]
General Footy Writing: The Geelong DNA is strong
October 8, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Ramon Fowler I have a confession to make: I’m in love with a Pies supporter; have been for nearly three years; didn’t plan it. These things just happen, I guess. It was the off season; I had other things on my mind apart from football. I don’t think I even asked her which team [Read more]
General Footy Writing: The days of plain sailing in the AFL may well be numbered
October 7, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Sam Steele AFL entered the new millennium on Wednesday 8 March 2000. A midweek matching of Melbourne and Richmond at an unusually early time of year, was followed the next evening by Essendon hosting Port Adelaide, in the first match for premiership points at the Docklands Stadium. If such radical scheduling was meant to [Read more]
AFL Club awards: Barnstable’s breakdown on Roos’ top ten
October 7, 2009 by 327 Comments
By Josh Barnstable If you told me the two top placings of the 2009 Syd Barker Medal, I would have called you crazy and told you to get back to your Lexus Centre. But, after a shocking season for the blue and white stripes, two young players came through with plenty of credentials, and gained [Read more]
World Footy: Dubai Heat the hot tip in Middle East AFL
October 7, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Sheikh Mohammed bin Rocket Reigning Middle East AFL premier the Dubai Heat, fresh from their triumph at the Asian Club Championship in Kuala Lumpur in early September, again look the team to beat when the competition gets underway this weekend. The Heat will be at home to the Doha Kangaroos, who have had forty [Read more]
Crio’s Question: Given Victoria’s triumphs in so many codes, does footy have anything to fear in its heartland?
October 5, 2009 by 6 Comments
When “other” national codes begun a concerted push in to Melbourne, many “dedicated” AFL fans (and the parent body, I suspect) exhibited ill-will towards them. It was us or them. Even the Socceroos and the Wallabies were not to be supported lest a foothold be conceded in Victoria. According to my son Tom, untainted from [Read more]
AFL Draft: Fev sideshow further darkens footy’s big anti-climax
October 5, 2009 by 12 Comments
By Jason Feldman Just as Grand Finals are the climax of the footy season, trade week is the true anti-climax. For weeks the tension builds. Player X is being traded to team Y for pick Z and player W. Footy websites crack under the traffic of footy fans eager to scrounge any information on, say, [Read more]
AFL club awards: All the best-and-fairest top tens
October 3, 2009 by 4 Comments
Adelaide (Malcolm Blight Medal) 43 Bernie Vince 41 Jason Porplyzia 39 Simon Goodwin 38 Michael Doughty 38 Graham Johncock 38 Kurt Tippett 36 Scott Thompson 30 Tyson Edwards 30 Andrew McLeod 29 Chris Knights Brisbane (Merrett-Murray Medal) 57.5 Jonathan Brown 56.5 Simon Black 54 Mitch Clak 51.5 Luke Power 45 Justin Sherman 41.5 Daniel Rich [Read more]
The Wrap: Don’t say I didn’t warn you
October 2, 2009 by 3 Comments
HEADLINES WE’LL BE SEEING IN 2010 Here you go Wrappers. We’ve just got the Wrap Crystal Ball back from the dry cleaners. We gave it a bit of a rub and these are the headlines that materialized out of the mist. How do they match up with your crystal ball? PRE SEASON AFL CEO Ayatollah [Read more]
AFL General Writing: He’s not a role model, he’s just a naughty boy
October 1, 2009 by 1 Comment
By John Butler A fine football season has reached a fitting climax. The rituals of triumph and despair will play themselves out in the competing team camps for some time to come. Grand Finals never turn out grand for everyone. Another growing post-season ritual has already snuck an early start. The annual Spot the Drunken [Read more]
Fantasy Fixture 2010: Steve whets his appetite for next season
September 29, 2009 by 263 Comments
We have come to the end of the footy season, which means that all minds turn to the release of the upcoming fixture. I have made my own fixture, while keeping in mind of the rules that the AFL uses (no teams play each other twice within seven rounds, one game at Subiaco per week, [Read more]
Crio’s Question: Who are the perennial losers?
September 29, 2009 by 35 Comments
St Kilda has lost another AFL Grand Final. Glenelg has again bowed out early in the SANFL finals. South Africa is out of the Champion’s Trophy. Who are the other perennial losers? crio
Gigs’ Stats: Rats, Cats, why did you have to spoil a good sequence?
September 28, 2009 by 5 Comments
Andrew Gigacz’s Grand Final Stat. Declaration CONGRATS TO THE CATS Well done to Geelong on winning the flag. Apart from transforming the house I was at from being one of the noisiest in Melbourne to one of deathly silence in a matter of minutes, here are some other statistical fur balls the Cats’ coughed up [Read more]
View From Shepparton: Magnificent match reminds me of Kline-Mackay final-wicket partnership in Adelaide
September 28, 2009 by 9 Comments
To all of you Almanackers and everyone else, as the self-appointed writer of the “The View” I always try to think about John Harm’s idea on writing, which as I recall is to the effect of: write something that others will find interesting and that you would want to read yourself. As I sit here [Read more]
The Wrap: In the words of the Velvet Fog, they stood up in the tackle
September 28, 2009 by 1 Comment
THE FINAL WRAP Where Life Imitates Sport What a year it’s been in Footy Eddie. First we must congratulate The Geelong FC for their 2009 Premiership win. They hung tough when they had to, and were able to find that bit extra when the contest was there to be won. In the words of the [Read more]
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