AFL Grand Final day 2009. A young Japanese tourist wandered down Spring Street, Melbourne, dressed in a fashionable clinging top with blue and white horizontals. She was quickly surrounded by Geelong fans, vying to have their photo taken beside her. An observer described her as “utterly, utterly perplexed”. tonyward
The battle for Melbourne’s soul: Sporting Capital or International City of Culture?
May 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
round 5 – haiku bob – the last second
April 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Anzac Day one grey cloud covers the sky space closing at the last second Swan’s handpass fine rain a snap for goal brushes the post cloudburst the ball belted one end to the other autumn mist a handpass without looking cloud trapped sun Collingwood leading the smother count [Read more]
Moving Day
April 26, 2012 by 10 Comments
Last week Gigs wrote a touching and heartfelt piece on being sacked andwhat that meant for him and his family. It was raw, brilliant, brave and open and generated a tremendous amount of support and commentary. This Friday is moving day for me, and I can’t guarantee I won’t fall in a crumpled emotional heap. [Read more]
A Day Out
April 25, 2012 by 4 Comments
by Bill Walker Clinking of the medals crunching of the feet witnessed by the honor guard lining out the streets skirling of the bagpipes dull thud of the drum order of the service just a background hum flooding back the memories so strong it’s hard to cope did their bit for freedom democracy and hope [Read more]
the sunlight’s slant
April 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
piercing light the defender touches a nerve partly closed roof the ball hovers between flanks filling the stands with groans stubbed toe ump and player in heated discussion – the sunlight’s slant edge of winter – crossing the 50 metre line he falls over falling leaves them all behind Harry clouds adrift so many goals [Read more]
France’s answer to Hayden Ballantyne falls
April 24, 2012 by 2 Comments
by Bob Utber Paris in the spring without football is not football. Mind you the way the weather has been behaving here, walking up the Champs Elysees is like making your way to your seat at Arctic Park. Not once has anybody asked me the score and there have been some big games this [Read more]
Heaven
April 24, 2012 by 2 Comments
by Bernie Tuck As we get older we start thinking about what Heaven is like. Topless angels serving boutique beers and the like . I have now discovered Heaven: Saturday afternoon at the MCG. With your son. Fine day. Essendon supporters. Playing Carlton. Three quarter time. Essendon seven goals up. At the back of [Read more]
John Kingsmill’s Footy Diary
April 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Round Four, preview Here’s a chance Here’s a chance for Port. Collingwood is tearing itself to bits. Here’s one round where Port can note that its opposition is more ragged than itself. Here’s a chance to put their foot upon their throat in the last quarter, where the game may still be there to be [Read more]
almost not there
April 18, 2012 by 3 Comments
autumn night the missing parts of our game watching the footy in a different time-zone I whisper an expletive turning leaves Swan fast becoming slow wisps of cloud Collingwood almost not there lingering snow the team’s lifeblood lies motionless flaming red the young maple – new coach feels the heat autumn haze I vaguely remember [Read more]
John Kingsmill’s Footy Diary: Round 3
April 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Round Three, Think again The best thing about footy is that it only takes three weeks for the world to change, for nothing else to matter, for the dry summer to dissolve. Unexplainable gaps appear in the tipping comps; injuries punch holes in early balloons; new coaches are, suddenly, stranger than the ones they [Read more]
TO THE KNOCKERS
April 15, 2012 by 2 Comments
TO THE KNOCKERS When your kid falls to the ground You don’t put him in the dock. You don’t walk away disgusted You don’t let his buddies mock. You pick him up and dust him off You whisper in his ear ‘Don’t listen to the blighters scoff Get up again and hear them cheer.’ That [Read more]
Footy Quatrains Part 2
April 12, 2012 by 4 Comments
Advice to a Young Footballer “Don’t worry what the papers say, don’t fear the words of men, in Melbourne-town the footy boot is mightier than the pen.” Jesaulenko You Beauty! If you blinked you would have missed it–– like the strike of a death adder–– he was soaring into outer space, Jenkins was [Read more]
still the crowd
April 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Good Friday – we discuss who ought to be culled Easter Saturday – we enter the game without our leader a shot at goal brings howls from the crowd – full moon no wind missed kicks still the crowd autumn night nothing much going on except Pendlebury dusk – Daisy splits the night into [Read more]
Vale Jimmy Little
April 5, 2012 by 6 Comments
I first heard Jimmy Little on the radio in 1963 singing Royal Telephone. I hated the song (which struck me as 3rd rate country gospel) but even then I recognised that Jimmy had a great voice. Royal Telephone wasn’t the first Jimmy Little song to be played on the radio. In NSW he had had [Read more]
Music and the footy – they go well together
April 4, 2012 by 9 Comments
by Andrew Fithall “I love football and I love music. But I don’t like music at the football.” These were the words of the founder and self-appointed head of the Floreat Pica Society, Steve Fahey, when I had the privilege of sitting next to him at the Round 1 Collingwood Hawthorn game at the [Read more]
down another falling
April 4, 2012 by 5 Comments
new season starts at the 10 minute mark I catch my breath first quarter the umpire plucks the ball from the clinging pack dusk deepens one more missed goal the debutant’s first shot at goal straight through the middle MCG in March Buddy’s skied hook post-high Cloke drags down another falling leaves alone inside fifty [Read more]
John Kingsmill’s 2012 Footy Diary: Week Two
April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Sunday, 1 April 2012 Round One Week Two 3. Ben Cousins is arrested – here’s a footballer’s story that refuses to go away. It doesn’t really matter what we think. Life after footy is no easier for him than before. We’re watching him and we care but we’ll skip any further note. On Thursday night, [Read more]
Archibald Prize Entrant: Brian Bourke
March 30, 2012 by 2 Comments
Words and portrait by Martin Tighe. l chose to depict Brian Bourke in the way in which l imagine his clients saw him; a formidable barrier between a desperate defendant and the awesome power of the law, as someone between them and the iron bars of prison in some cases. Brian Bourke is also [Read more]
The Danihers
March 28, 2012 by 4 Comments
by Rod Oaten It’s a long bow to draw the Port Fairy Folk Festival with the Essendon Football Club via the Danihers but seeing Anthony at the recent Festival, as I have for the last four or five years, sparked up the grey matter and the writing bug. I’ve been a regular at PFFF [Read more]
John K’s 2012 Footy Diary
March 26, 2012 by 1 Comment
Sunday, 25 March 2012 Round One, Week One 1. The season begins, oddly, with one game for the week – the Sydney derby between the Swans and the Giants. Matty Rendell goes down for a Thought Crime; Jim Stynes dies; Jason Akermanis says that Stynes was nasty on the field. He meant that as praise [Read more]
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