Following the salted air through the backstreets of Williamstown, our disparate mob stumbles its way toward Morris St. Truth be told, none really knew what we were doing there; the luring prospect of a cheap can and a decent blue could not be discounted. Disenchantment with the corporate code and its roofed and soulless monsters [Read more]
Local Footy: AFL recruiters’ broader vision brings local heroes into play
June 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment
In 2004, Victorian suburban and country footballers would have thought it more likely to be drafted into an astronaut program than to be drafted on to an AFL list. Even the VFL was barely on the radar for AFL clubs. Few recruiting managers were prepared to look beyond the elite under-18 competition, the TAC Cup. [Read more]
CENTRAL VICTORIAN SPORTS WRITERS AND COMMENTATORS
June 5, 2010 by 4 Comments
OVER a period of three decades I have worked with some interesting media people. All of the ones listed here have reported on, or broadcast, Bendigo and district footy fixtures. They have then gone on to to ply their craft in Melbourne at AFL level. In my early days at the Bendigo Advertiser it seemed [Read more]
Local Footy: Yellow and black!
June 2, 2010 by 6 Comments
The Richmond Central Amateur Football Club plays in Richmond guernseys in the Amateurs’ Division 4, which Amateurs people might recognise as G-grade in the old language. Their ground is the Loughnan Oval at the Kevin Bartlett Reserve (unofficially Comb-Over Park), which is tucked into a bend of the Yarra River. The view from the new [Read more]
Local Footy: Mourners flock to Beechworth to see off country sporting legend
June 2, 2010 by 5 Comments
Terry Bartel had several nicknames. In his home town, Beechworth, he was known as Ferret because he was small and lively and because he loved to send ferrets down burrows after rabbits. In Wangaratta, where he roved to Mick Nolan in premiership teams with Wangaratta Rovers, he was known as Gipsy because of his penchant [Read more]
Ken Piesse: Favourite Son’s of the Bush- MORNINGTON PENINSULA
June 2, 2010 by 2 Comments
The legend of spring-heeled goalkicking great John Coleman from sleepy country village Hastings is part of Mornington Peninsula sporting folk-lore. Coleman was one of the most sensational players of his, or any era, and along with Collingwood’s Gordon Coventry, the only forward to head the VFL goalkicking four or more times. kenpiesseI am a journalist, [Read more]
Link: Junior Players in Demand
June 1, 2010 by 35 Comments
The competing interests of local sports clubs and private schools is a long standing issue. Private schools have priorities which often affect the availability of players for their local teams. The recent rise of junior pathways and elite development squads in many sports has added to the confusion. This Age article examines some of the ins and outs of [Read more]
VITTI RELISHES WET DAY, MUDDY GROUND
May 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment
FORMER AFL boundary umpire Matthew Vittiritti was chuffed when he awoke on Saturday to the cold and rain of a late May day in Bendigo. The 300-game veteran said after running the Queen Elizabeth Oval boundary for the South Bendigo-Strathfieldsaye game the miserable conditions suited him. “I was hoping it was going to be raining. [Read more]
MORE EX-AFL PLAYERS WHO HAD BIG IMPACTS ON BFL CLUBS
May 30, 2010 by 1 Comment
MOST footy followers would be aware of the never-ending stream of talent which flows from central Victoria, and especially the Bendigo Football League, into the clubs of the VFL/AFL. Consider the four Selwood boys, Nick Dal Santo, Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams, Rod Ashman, Peter Dean, Geoff Southby, Peter McConville and Jimmy Buckley: and that’s less than [Read more]
Local Footy: Goulburn Valley emerge from haze to win Victorian country crown
May 26, 2010 by 7 Comments
If Freo is known as the Purple Haze, the Goulburn Valley Football League should be known as the Purple Haze and a Half. On Saturday the GV combined team, which wears purple guernseys with a yellow monogram, went into its match against the Ovens and Murray to decide the best country competition in Victoria with [Read more]
KEN PIESSE’S FAVORITES… from the BENDIGO LEAGUE
May 26, 2010 by 3 Comments
I love hearing stories about Laurie Nash, the champion’s champion of the ‘30s and ‘40s. He’d take a mark 50 out and ask the bloke on the mark which foot he’d like him to kick it with… his left or his right? Invariably they’d soar through. Post-high. Laurie was a hero even for the great [Read more]
Local Footy: Carlson’s appointment revives Eagles
May 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
On the morning of Sunday 16 May, Paul Dodd, the coach of Victorian Amateur Football Association club Marcellin, responded to the Eagles’ fourth consecutive loss by 100 points in Premier Section by resigning at the club’s scheduled review meeting. That afternoon, Marcellin president Michael Howard scored a coup when he persuaded Leigh Carlson to take [Read more]
JACK DEAN – PRINCE OF PLAYERS IN SYDNEY FOOTBALL
May 24, 2010 by 13 Comments
In the 1949 interstate match between NSW and Victoria at the SCG nineteen year old East Sydney ruckman Jack Dean went up against veteran Victorian captain Jack Dyer at the opening bounce. “He sat me on my arse!” Jack told me over a few beers. We were at Harry McAsey’s pub in Alexandra after a [Read more]
Waaia break the long drought
May 23, 2010 by 3 Comments
Waaia v Rennie Waaia Under Seventeen’s. 29 games without a win since late 2008. Since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Today, we played Rennie, a team from New South Wales. They made the long trip down, prepared for yet another easy win over Waaia. I woke up at 7am, not [Read more]
Elcho Island footy an inspiration
May 23, 2010 by 8 Comments
Not many people have been to, or heard of, Elcho Island. And to be honest, before I accepted the position of Regional Development Manager for AFL NT, I hadn’t, either. It’s a unique place in that it’s a remote aboriginal community and one that every white person who I’ve spoken to agrees every Australian should [Read more]
“Football Williamstown”
May 20, 2010 by 4 Comments
By Darren Dawson There has been more than a little discussion about junior footy on the Almanac website recently, in part prompted by Paul Daffey’s piece referencing the Brunswick Junior Football Club: http://footyalmanac.com.au/?p=10504 Was it mere chance that in the very week Daff’s article appeared on this site, that my old club Williamstown CYMS was [Read more]
Local Footy: Brunswick changes give grounds for thought
May 19, 2010 by 19 Comments
It was a beautiful place to watch the footy at Brunswick’s Gillon Oval on Saturday, basking in the sun in front of the Glenn Stand while Amateur clubs North Old Boys-St Pat’s and Williamstown CYMS went at each other in their Division 1 match. But it was a strange sight if you looked across the [Read more]
Local Footy: Eagles lose fourth in a row by 100 points
May 17, 2010 by 3 Comments
VAFA Premier Section club Marcellin has matched University Blacks’ unenviable record in the B-section in 1991 by suffering its fourth consecutive loss by 100 points. After losses to Premier Section rivals Old Xaverians (122 points), Collegians (122) and De La Salle (139) in recent weeks, Marcellin went down to Old Scotch by 111 points at [Read more]
Regional Communities and Sport: A Comment
May 14, 2010 by 6 Comments
by Bill Walker One only has to only look via any of the plethora of mediums for sourcing, processing and transferring news to see that the basic values and foundations of sport today have been swept up and pummelled by fast and diversely evolving business tsunami. Either through design or chance the status quo has [Read more]
“This Is Country Footy”
May 14, 2010 by 1 Comment
by Michael Filosi It took just three minutes and one warm up lap before any thoughts of a glowing come back match this Saturday were dashed. Along with the addition of three extra light towers, I could have sworn the council had increased the dimensions of Tamworth’s No. 1 Oval since I had last run [Read more]
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