A short passage from Mongrel Punt – the novel

Mongrel Punt is a new novel by poet, author and former footy player Ged Zochling. This is his first novel, launching on Thursday 20 September at Gertrude’s Brown Couch in Fitzroy at 7:00pm. This story follows three players on a top grade footy team as they enter Grand Final week – the biggest week of [Read more]

Floreat Pica – Collingwood v West Coast – Best Win of the Year (to-date)

At the conclusion of Saturday night’s game, West Coast Eagles players quickly showered and then headed for the airport. They would back in Perth in the early hours of Sunday, head home and then get some sleep. They adopt this strategy because after a game of football, players find it hard to sleep anyway, so [Read more]

AFL Finals – Week 2: The Wrap’s Last Four Standing

WHERE LIFE IMITATES FOOTBALL And what a round it’s been in Footy Eddie.  The Barry Crockers started off like a German Band and finished with a dirge.  They’ll probably say it wasn’t a cause, but there’s a fair bit of travelling in there, and they probably only slept in their own bed two or three [Read more]

AFL Finals – Week 2: Collingwood v West Coast

Better seats this week. After being behind the point post in the Ponsford stand last week we are in the Olympic Stand between the centre and the 50m line at the Punt Road end. 30 rows from the fence on the bottom level. Happy with this, always prefer to sit somewhere between the two 50m [Read more]

It’s the Sharks and the Tigers

WAFL preliminary final… EAST FREMANTLE will play in their first grand final since 2000 after a strong preliminary final win over Swan Districts at Bassendean Oval. The Sharks got on top during the second quarter and took their lead out beyond six goals before a Swans fightback that got them within 13 points early in the last [Read more]

Off Season Odyssey – Part 16: Not Every Club Is Roses

Off Season Odyssey Pt.16.   Not every Club is Roses.   The plan is simple. Vaguely bounce through Kingston, S.A., then wobble towards Gypsy Point, somewhere on the other side of the ranges, where there’s work on the coast. About two days away, give or take. But there’s a beaut pub just off the highway, [Read more]

Northern Areas Football Association Grand Final

More than 6,700 fans watched the Northern Areas footy and netball finals at Jamestown in South Australia. James Lang was there.

St Kilda Best and Fairest: Two Elephants in the Room

There’s a lot of preparation that goes into a Best and Fairest.  I am, of course, talking about the shaving of legs, preparation of clothes, planning of transport; make up, hair and nails.  Feeding the dog, making sure the kids take care of themselves, and booking a cab to pick me, and then Rina, up [Read more]

Country footy: Weeks poised on the cusp of Bendigo FL greatness

GOLDEN Square’s outstanding full-forward Grant Weeks is poised to etch his name into Bendigo Football League history. Needing four goals in Saturday’s senior grand final against Gisborne to pass a goalkicking record which has stood since the Great Depression, Weeks has the footy world on the edge of their seats. In the 1933 season Eaglehawk’s [Read more]

AFL Round 1 – Fremantle v Geelong: In hostile territory

Evie Tozer looks back to the start of the season when for the first time ever she saw Geelong play outside of Victoria.

Let it B Let it B

We are the boys from old Fitzroy. We wear the colours, maroon and blue. Happy days are here again, dah dah dah d dah, happy days are here again dah…. Let it B, Let it B “When I find myself in times of trouble, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate loses to me.” There were some [Read more]

Stop all the Clocks

With apologies to W. H. Auden

AFL Round 6 – Sydney v Adelaide: Crows in a tight one

As the Crows prepare for their Preliminary Final v Hawthorn, we recall the day earlier in the season when they beat one of the other contenders, the Swans.

Magpie mateship for McCarthy

Danielle Eid *Rewind to 2 weeks ago*   Surely there is no way we would make it to the preliminary-final, don’t even CONSIDER the Granny. No really, booking a week holiday in Sydney during grand final week is fine. There’s nothing to worry about, if we meet West Coast again they’ll probably just belt us [Read more]

VAFA Div 1 – Grand Final Preview: A Clash of Two Titans

  In what seems like the blink of an eye, we have arrived at the season’s denouement. Was it really six months ago that the ten Division 1 clubs were winding up their pre-season programs, full of hope for the year which lay ahead? The season has whisked past us so quickly. Preliminary Final review: [Read more]

Off Season Odyssey – Part 15: The World is Round

  The World Is Round.   The world is round. Drive far enough through any desert and you’ll find a river, or the ocean. I wake up beside what I later figure is the Wimmera River. A superb, muddy thing with no rush to it. The trout let me know they’re there, and I swim [Read more]

2002 – A Magpie Memory

By Eleni Donnelly It’s 2012 and Collingwood seem to be headed for another Grand Final appearance… again! In 2002 I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. A few weeks after she was born I was sitting at Crown watching Collingwood v Adelaide. I had a breast pump with me. I was so excited we [Read more]

Grand Final Heartache

I’m now actually pleased that Richmond never makes the finals – it has probably saved me two or three heart attacks. Coaching my first basketball Grand Final was more nerve racking than watching Collingwood throw away another premiership in the dying seconds. I didn’t sleep at all the night after the game and two days [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The finals for the small-minded

Your team has missed the finals. Maybe again. Maybe for the first time in years. Either way, it hurts. You can switch off altogether and pretend not to give a damn. But, its rugby league, you love it, and that means there’s still plenty of ways to enjoy the footy over the next few weeks. [Read more]

Qualifying Final – Clouded Moon

Haiku Bob ponders the elements as the Pies go down to Hawthorn