by John Harms I know it is awkward to talk about your own, but sometimes it has to be done. And it has to be done honestly. So I’m going to say it up front: the Geelong supporter is the embodiment of all that is good and true. The world has never seen, in any [Read more]
Local footy: Amazing Country comeback on a windy day
July 22, 2009 by 53 Comments
By Paul Daffey Wind is a variant that’s going out of AFL games in Victoria. The Docklands Stadium is like a bowling alley with turf. The MCG’s stands are so high that the wind dare not breach its walls. Only Kardinia Park is exposed to the elements. pauldaffey
Local Footy: The Maffra story – it’s all about beating Sale
July 21, 2009 by 3 Comments
by Rocket Gillett In preparing my recent posting on the Rochester/Echuca rivalry I had planned to compare it to a very similar rivalry – and the most comparable is the Sale/Maffra rivalry – the parallels are striking similarly in terms of longevity, small town v big town, changing competitions, etc However, I got carried [Read more]
View From Shepparton: Dominant Saints prompt disappointing Crows to revert to type
July 20, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Peter Schumacher St Kilda are definitely the team to beat now, no doubt about that. Adelaide will quite possibly slide out of the eight. That they reverted to their instincts of trying to close down the game when the going got tough in the second quarter was very disappointing. I guess that as an [Read more]
The Wrap: The cream rises to the top
July 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment
What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie. The Doggies chewed up the Bombers in the Pipe Opener in an entertaining match under cover to consolidate their September Credentials. Carlton stormed home to crush The Valiant Lakers. Geelong, playing with the wind piping off Corio Bay, played its part in keeping The Dees to under [Read more]
Crio’s Question: Help us build a team of players who should play for another club
July 20, 2009 by 19 Comments
By Chris Riordan When Richmond’s Jarrod Silvester grabbed the ball in the match against North Melbourne on Sunday, I said to Tom, “He should be a Cat!” Perhaps Silvester and Tweety-Bird was a bit obscure, but it led to a conversation on players whose names or nicknames would best have had them playing elsewhere. We’ll [Read more]
Weekend Read: Hawk Thorp carries flag for bold men of Ross
July 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Paul Daffey Hawthorn’s Mitch Thorp is known to have a swagger. Even in these injury-stricken times, when he’s battling mishaps that will keep him out for the rest of the season, he’s known to have confidence, a certain way about him, like a bronco rider who rides his luck. pauldaffey
General Footy Writing: The Saints will win this season and every season for decades, so cop that, Pete
July 17, 2009 by 3 Comments
Pete, Well can I remember the day we ventured to Moorabbin to witness Bluey McKenna dog it and faint at the sight of Plugger shrugging off his tenuous hold of his right arm .I saw the stretcher pass us with McKenna’s bruised body but still smiling face as he contemplated the ensuing six weeks that [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Could Liam Jurrah be as exciting as Jeff Farmer?
July 17, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Steve Healy Liam Jurrah, the 20-year old high flyer from the outback, has been awarded this week’s Rising Star nomination after kicking eight goals in his four games and taking some spectacular marks. Last week, against Port Adelaide, Jurrah kicked three goals in the first quarter and four for the match, giving the Demon [Read more]
General Footy Writing: My blueprint to allow better player movement between clubs
July 17, 2009 by 4 Comments
By Luke Mother With the Gold Coast and West Sydney about to start in the AFL, discussions about free agency are once again taking place. Some see it as a potential blight on our great game while others, like me, believe it would be a great introduction. The basic idea is that free agency will [Read more]
General Footy Writing: It does get in
July 17, 2009 by 11 Comments
By Chris Riordan On my first visit to Scotland I was under instructions to purchase a Celtic top. Naively, I was amazed that a top with sponsors’ logos all over the front should cost more than the “pure shirt”. “Am I paying to be a billboard?” I objected (a Scottish response if you think about [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Demetriou is way overpaid compared to overseas contemporaries
July 16, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Clint Youlden Allow me to talk about Andrew Demetriou’s salary. There is not one national sports chief executive or commissioner, not even anyone close, who earns the salary that Demetriou earns in comparison to that competition’s best player. Demetriou was paid $1.6 million last year and the highest paid player in the competition was [Read more]
General Footy Writing: That sense of hopeless vulnerability returns for a Collingwood icon
July 15, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By James Gilchrist My Mum started following Collingwood in 1953. At age twelve she used to go to VFL games by herself to watch the Richards brothers and Ray Gabelich. Gabbo was her idol. She would travel by tram each week and stand on top of empty beer cans in the outer to try to [Read more]
General Footy Writing: I’m celebrating my sixteenth birthday and a bunch of AFL stars walk in
July 15, 2009 by 12 Comments
By Danielle Eid I’d like to share with you something that I will never forget, an event in my life that was so captivating I had to write it down. It happened last year when my family took me to the Conservatory in Crown to celebrate my Sweet Sixteenth … We are having a great [Read more]
Andrew Gigacz’s Round 15 Stat. Declaration
July 15, 2009 by 2 Comments
THIS IS WHAT I WANTED. BUT IT’S NOT WHAT I WANTED. Regular readers of this column will be aware that I have been lamenting throughout the season the fact that we have had no one-point margins. Well my prayers were answered on Friday night. The one point game finally arrived. BUT DID IT HAVE TO [Read more]
Local Footy: Rochester should be the Demons for a day
July 14, 2009 by 9 Comments
By Rod Gillett The local derby is in my view the essence of Australian football. This is much more pronounced at the grassroots level than at the AFL level, whether it be in the country, the amateurs, the suburbs, and even between schools. It’s particularly poignant in the bush. Training intensifies, supporters start talking about [Read more]
Victoria v All Stars: Strauchanie gets best on ground and rightly so
July 14, 2009 by 13 Comments
By Josh Barnstable This is the biggest date on the football calendar. It could shape the competition. Or is just that most of the players are out of shape? Victoria, coached by unsuccessful Fremantle ex-coach Chris Connolly, runs out on the ground with stars Bryan Strauchan, Andy Lee and Captain Glenn Archer. In the other [Read more]
Crio’s Question: What should be the criteria for Goal of the Year?
July 14, 2009 by 9 Comments
It may not seem important, but don’t you get annoyed at some of the hyperbole surrounding selection for Goal of the Year? It’s been reignited by this week’s Fev-freak and some commentators’ retrospective criticism of Lloydy’s cute back-tap a couple of seasons ago. Should it be the run-and-carry, the flukey snap, the critical or long [Read more]
Footy Prediction: 1997 revisited?
July 13, 2009 by 1 Comment
by Sam Steele It was all set to be the year when one of the AFL’s Cinderellas finally went to the ball. That was until the heartless, tradition-less Adelaide Crows crashed the party, three times in three weeks. Is history about to repeat? In the extraordinary 1997 season, St Kilda, Geelong [Read more]
AFL Round 15: View From Shepparton
July 13, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Peter Schumacher I suppose that I should feel elated over Brisbane’s win over Geelong and I guess that I do. In fact I found watching the telecast really gripping as I waited for the inevitable Geelong fightback, but wait … it was not happening. Yet I could not get around the fact that this [Read more]
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