By Graham Sinclair The mind flashes back a few years to last time that the Tigers were in the hunt for a coach. Spud Frawley had brought to the club the mediocrity he had displayed as an assistant under Tony Shaw at Collingwood. The future at Richmond was looking barren. Lack of funding, lack of [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Tigers must resist temptation to rush in and sign Buckley
June 17, 2009 by 3 Comments
General Footy Writing: Tired of silence in the stands? Now sit down and listen to this …
June 17, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Bill Mapleston Recently I was walking past the telly. The match of the day was on at the ’G, Cometti was commentating, and the match looked to be at an exciting phase. So I took a minute out to watch – “Luv the game,” as they say. Cometti kept me amused with his “right [Read more]
General Footy Writing: The day we took Geoff Leek to training
June 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Rod Oaten It wasn’t easy being an Essendon supporter and living in North Caulfield, but Mum and Dad moved out there from the beloved north-western suburb after they got married so there wasn’t much I could do about it. I used to love Essendon not only because of its footy team but because planes [Read more]
General Footy Writing: An Irishman’s thoughts on footy, such as they are
June 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Cormac McCormack Big wages. Big muscles. Big city clubs shipping 6000 kilometres to play at big stadia … Everything about the AFL should make anyone from a GAA background skulk around in anxious compunction, waiting for the inevitable comparisons. It doesn’t, though. The bottom line – that Gaelic games are amateur sports, played and [Read more]
Middle East Correspondent: Rick Quade deserves place among Swans’ greats
June 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Rod Gillett Rick Quade stepped down from the Swans’ board of directors only last year, after almost 40 years of service for the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans Football Club. Since beginning as a player in 1970, he’s been captain, coach, chairman of selectors and a board member. Recently he heeded another call to serve the [Read more]
General Footy Writing: In appreciation of Dean Laidley
June 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Josh Barnstable The man affectionately known as The Junkyard Dog started his career at the West Coast Eagles in 1987, playing 10 games that season. He played a total of 52 games for the Eagles, clocking up 873 disposals, kicking 9 goals and 7 Brownlow votes, despite missing out on the 1991 season due [Read more]
The View From Shepparton: We deserve a better go from telly stations
June 15, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Peter Schumacher As Round 12 wends its way through our consciousness the main issues for “The View” are old and recurring but they are: • Has the AFL ever heard of soccer? • Who is more unpopular, the banks, Networks 7 and 10, or the AFL? • Is it the worst case of corporate [Read more]
General footy writing: Sports stars should have no more expectations on them than rock stars
June 15, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Nathan Ryan The difference in community outrage between bad behaviour from sportspeople to musicians is astounding and one that I’ve never been able to fathom. Rock stars are lauded for their extravagant, live-on-the-edge lifestyles. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jimmy Barnes, the Gallagher brothers … they’re all open about their current or previous drug use. [Read more]
Jones files: My top ten in the Bendigo footy league
June 12, 2009 by 9 Comments
THE Almanac’s Paul Daffey asked me recently whether I’d considered compiling a list of the best players I’d seen in three decades of reporting on the Bendigo Football League. That got me thinking. My first season of writing about Bendigo footy was way back in 1977 — 33 years ago. Is it fair or reasonable [Read more]
Mid-season review: from Josh Barnstable
June 12, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Josh Barnstable So, after Round 11 and approaching the mid-season break, just how does each club stand in the Premiership race that is hotting up by the round? And what about the very close Coleman Medal? Ladder: 1st St Kilda Played=11 Won=11 Lost=0 Points for=1160 Points against=633 %=183.25 Points=44 2nd Geelong Played=11 Won=11 Lost=0 [Read more]
Channel 31 Local Footy Show: Big show planned for Friday night
June 12, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Ian Bennett www.localfootyshow.com.au On this week’s LOCAL FOOTY SHOW shown on C31 Friday Night at 7.30pm for one hour and again on Saturday Morning starting at 9am for the full hour and a half show. This week’s match for highlights, interviews and presentations from the Worksafe Country Championships between MPNFL Vs WGLFL played [Read more]
Memoir: The McInerney Rule
June 12, 2009 by 7 Comments
by Dips O’Donnell I bet every Primary School has at least one kid who was much bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else. At my Primary School his name was McInerney. He could run, jump, throw, fight, and play football like a man, at the age of nine. There was no [Read more]
Understanding Richmond: How Helen D’Amico caused the demise of a once great football club
June 12, 2009 by 4 Comments
By Andrew Gigacz Putting a finger on the cause of Richmond’s woes over the last quarter of a century is no easy task. There are myriad variables that could have had an influence on the Tiger down-turn. Could there have been a single pivotal moment in the Tiger time-line that can be pinpointed [Read more]
Coach speculation: On Mark Williams
June 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment
John Kingsmill One of the curious aspects of the Port Adelaide/Mark Williams engagement is that the more victories Power stacks up this year, the harder it will be for Port to afford to retain him. If, for example, the Alberton waters split asunder and Power wins the 2009 premiership, suddenly Williams will [Read more]
Local Footy: Bushpigs face extinction
June 10, 2009 by 3 Comments
by Rocket Gillett The Wagga Uni Bushpigs broke a 38 game losing streak when they beat The Rock-Yerong Creek by five points in their Farrer Football League fixture last Saturday. It was their first win since 12 August 2006 when they beat Temora. It was a huge day for the Pigs as they [Read more]
Application for the Richmond coaching job
June 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment
8th August, 1997 Tony Jewell Richmond Football Club PO Box 48 Richmond, 3121 Dear Tony, With the recent uncertainty surrounding the senior coaching position at your club, we write to offer our services with respect to this role. This correspondence is not meant to represent a waste of your time, or ours. [Read more]
Footy yarn: Never under-estimate the importance of the ladder in football
June 8, 2009 by 4 Comments
By John Dunne YOU can never underplay the relevance of the ladder in football. And while it may be stating the obvious, it was rammed home to me in no uncertain terms back in the late 1980s. I was domiciled in the hub of north-east Victoria in a place called Wangaratta and in the [Read more]
Special Feature: Bring the farm to the footy
June 6, 2009 by 3 Comments
1960s “footballers” Graeme Willingham (Camperdown and Daylesford FCs) and Owen Beaton (Camperdown, Heywood, Birregurra and Colac FCs) continue with their plan to recognise the contribution The Farm has made to today’s modern game. Naming a FoFF Farmyard Team of The Centuries is all well and good and has been done by [Read more]
General footy writing: Support the [real] supporters
June 5, 2009 by 2 Comments
by Patrick O’Keeffe I don’t really hold any personal grudge against Andrew Demetriou. I haven’t met the bloke. I know that he played football, though I was too young to recall his playing days, which ended before the VFL competition had entered my consciousness. I once held open a restaurant door for him. He [Read more]
Jones files: All aboard for the South Pacific Games
June 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Richard Jones BACK in the 1960s and ‘70s inter-Territory and inter-island carnivals were the high points of the sporting calendar for Pacific countries. The emerging island nations to the north and east of Australia contested a wide range of sports disciplines in the event known as the South Pacific Games. The Games were first [Read more]
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