A test of a sporting moment is whether you remember it. By that I mean you don’t half-remember it, but really remember it. Moments which you don’t have to go into the record books to check; moments where the details of time and place are superfluous. Moments so powerful they form the basis for your [Read more]
Cats victorious
September 12, 2011 by 20 Comments
“Victory,” said my mad-Catter brother, Mick, substantial piece of Lygon Street Special (no pineapple) in hand, at about 1.30 Saturday morning, “is not as important as defeat.” Crumbs, I thought to myself. That’s so 2006. We won it in `07, and `09, and we’ve just had a ripper win over the arch-rivals, Hawthorn, and we’re [Read more]
In praise of the Red Lions and varsity footy
September 2, 2011 by 8 Comments
The Red Lions play in two grand finals tomorrow following a brekkie where Derek Humphrey-Smith will be the guest speaker.
Almanac Rugby League – Sloppy Knights give Broncos an easy Monday night
August 25, 2011 by 2 Comments
When I hear the words Brisbane and rugby league together my mind first turns to the great BRL competition of the 1970s. That was another time. A decade later, many Queenslanders fell instantly in love with the Brisbane Broncos, marketed brilliantly as an incarnation of all things Queensland. But many didn’t. The dissenters could see [Read more]
Sean Gorman: Legends
August 16, 2011 by 7 Comments
Legends, which is a book of profiles of the Indigenous Team of the Century is a very important book. It is written by Sean Gorman who interviewed the players and has written these biographical essays on their terms. The book celebrates the game and the Indigenous players but it does not ignore the political realities [Read more]
The double torp
August 15, 2011 by 9 Comments
I think I saw one of the great goals on Sunday evening. It came as Theo and Anna were trashing the bathroom. The details (of both incidents) remain a little sketchy. The thing I am most confident of is that Anna (two years old next week) tipped about 12.7 litres of water on to the [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Monday nights
August 1, 2011 by 1 Comment
Monday night was good for nothing much at all in the old days. Except rissoles and mash and getting over the trauma of returning to work. Footy training was on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I do remember one Monday night, though, in the mid-80s when my mate PJ and I decided to go to the Keperra [Read more]
A Sporting Weekend
July 28, 2011 by 15 Comments
Friday evening. I am on the footpath outside the North Fitzroy Arms on the phone to a Swedish car wrecker. The family Volvo has died. He has offered less than the value of the computer which we have recently had re-soldered so that the air-conditioner is not stuck on Saharan Gale. Max walks by chomping [Read more]
Feeling Greek
July 26, 2011 by 23 Comments
Some people in Australia think that I am Greek. (Ted Egan thinks I am George Megalogenis…I wish) And now that I have a son called Theo they really think I’m Greek. I look Greek. In Greece, when people asked me (more than once), “Where are you from?” I would say, “Australia.” They would say, “When [Read more]
Tony Hachem: no dud brother
July 19, 2011 by 9 Comments
I always like to keep up with what the people in my neighbourhood are doing. Tony Hachem of Northcote, our suburb, has just been knocked out of the biggest and most important poker tournament on the planet, the World Series of Poker, in Las Vegas. He has finished 37th in the huge field. The tournament [Read more]
The British Open blog
July 14, 2011 by 26 Comments
Now is not the time to tell you how I got there, but I will later. But I was at Royal St George’s in 1993 to see Norman win The Open. Given the course is on the coast at Sandwich it was a sub-editor’s delight. History and all that. I went to see The open, [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Celebrating Darren Lockyer
July 11, 2011 by 8 Comments
Darren Lockyer still has a few games of football left in him, but when he stood on the stage after Queensland’s victory last Wednesday night, the whole of the maroon world paused to listen and to reflect for a moment with him. With humility in his face, he turned to the crowd, and in a [Read more]
Harms on the intriguing Zurbo situation
July 2, 2011 by 44 Comments
From John Harms (this all happened last night, as Andy Murray was falling apart, before any knowledge of The Age publishing an excerpt of Matt Zurbo’s piece): I have removed Matt Zurbo’s piece ‘Grass Roots Hype’ from this site. I regret that I felt I had to do that. However, the piece was also [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Katter’s FNQ position stable thanks to good old rugby league
June 24, 2011 by 6 Comments
When, on Wednesday, Bob Katter rose to his feet in the lower house of the national parliament and defended Johnathan Thurstons, some condemned his actions. They said that Australian politics had fallen to the depths, and that it showed how disgraceful this parliament was. (“The worst in Australian history”). People weren’t of that view in [Read more]
Harmony Sainters’ style
June 22, 2011 by 12 Comments
Love and death. Or on the hip side of the Yarra: sex and death. That would be the St Kilda side. (Of the Yarra) Love and death. It’s the sum total of it all. Saturday night and I am in the kitchen dealing with kids. I have been occupying them, entertaining them, playing with them, [Read more]
Male identity crises and other truths
June 17, 2011 by 20 Comments
The world has changed. Back in the good old days, if you’d forgotten where you were, or who you were, all you needed to do was buy a beer and listen to the sports conversation around the bar. If the bloke behind the jump poured you a XXXX you knew you could look outside to [Read more]
How Clarko saved Geelong
June 16, 2011 by 11 Comments
Saturday afternoon. I am reading nineteenth century newspapers, writing about the 1898 Grand Final. And waiting for time to pass until I get the train to the MCG. Jungle Ruler has just saluted. I am containing myself. I am happy in the way that Crows fans are not, because on the television the Adelaide Football [Read more]
Carrara daze
June 2, 2011 by 5 Comments
Saturday night. Gold Coast v Geelong. The Ablett match – for most. And yes, that is a key part of it. But for me, something has been forgotten: this is also the Carrara match. Footy is back at Carrara. And as weird as it might sound, on Saturday night I was feeling a little nostalgic [Read more]
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