Geelong put Collingwood right in their box, win third in five years

My mate Duncan and I decided to skip the pre-match Meat Loaf in favour of a Parma and a couple pints at the James Squire Alehouse in keeping with the routine we followed last Grand Final I attended in 2007. First though it was a quick detour to Swanston Street to buy a cheap pair of [Read more]

A Players Victory

Geelong and Collingwood. A classic case of starting from a similar spot and ending up in very different places. Two communities who in their own ways felt wronged. Who sought approval from others to compensate for a sense of inferiority. Who burned at ambitions thwarted. Two football clubs who came to represent a means of [Read more]

Grand Finals Pt.3: So This Is Christmas…

It’s 11 am, Saturday morning, the Coodabeens are on the radio. I’ve just got back from cutting a load of wood, and am bouncing off home, getting ready, up here, on the mountain, for the AFL Grand Final, as millions do. Last night I went around to Roland’s pile of corrugated tin he calls a [Read more]

Footy Symmetry

Shortly after Geelong beat Collingwood in R 24 i commented on  a posting, reminiscing back to 1980, my focus being on the First Division of the VFA. That year Coburg finished top of the ladder losing only 2 home and away games, not too dissimilar to Collingwood in the 2011 AFL season. I drew an anology [Read more]

Resilience-The essence of greatness

By Domenic Favata The one driving force that has enabled Geelong to become known as one of the greatest teams of the modern era is their ability to recover from various hurdles along the way, dating back to the 2005 preliminary final heart break against Sydney. This era of domination has been all but smooth-sailing, [Read more]

An Anniversary to Remember

This year has changed me. The constant in my life has always been football. Something new, something just as important, dare I even breathe the words, more important, has crept into my every day living. No longer do I live, breathe and eat football. In fact, it is more of a pleasant delicacy that I [Read more]

Cats Dressed to Kill

By Dips O’Donnell I could do no more. I’d planned it for weeks. The rest was up to the boys. First the socks. Not so much lucky socks, but unassuming socks; socks that have a hint of navy blue around the heel and toe. Yes, they would do just fine. I buried them deep down [Read more]

STAND UP AND FIGHT LIKE HELL!

Primarily a rugby league follower from Queensland, a stint in Adelaide in the 70s and 80s educated me in the attractions of footy, southern style. I became a Bombers supporter. Today, I watch the GF in my Scarborough lounge, 1600kms from the G. The final scoreboard shows that Geelong defeated Collingwood by 38 points in [Read more]

Happy Cats

By Yvette Wroby In the tradition of Weg. If you’re interested, Yvette can provide more originals for $150 or coloured photocopies for $30. 25% of proceeds to the Royal Children’s Hospital.          

And there they were

The head defies the heart. It was the second quarter of an Afl Grand Final against the archetypal foe, the Magpies. It was clear that The Pod’s arm was shot, and a crestfallen Harry Taylor was being taken to the bench. The heart, mine own, was beating with less and less vigor. This fabled swarm [Read more]

Happy Cats and Cheshire Grins:

Prelude   How can I, as a mad Sainter, not begin this piece with reference to the last two years.  It’s not just me, blasted Channel 10 kept showing the highlights of this years contenders last premiership battles, and the Saints happen to be the patsies that were beaten in their path to glory.  The [Read more]

Old Unwelcome Memories

Collingwood v Geelong Grand Final 2011 By Phil Dimitriadis   Nothing ends well that starts with a Meat Loaf ‘Kiss’.  The omens were there from the beginning and I chose to ignore them.  Even as a seven year old the lyrics of ‘Hot Summer Night’: “You took the words right out of my mouth” had [Read more]

Grand Final Discussion

The contest that was expected and deserved has come to be. The best two sides of the season will fight it out for the flag. Will the weather be a factor favouring one or the other? Will either team fall for the trap of the unfit player? The afternoon will tell. Your thoughts?

The Emptiest Bandwagon(s) in History

Disclaimer: I am a big Cats fan. For this post, I am donning my Analyst cap. I am quite stunned at how rapid the sift in sentiment for the Flag has been. Throughout the year the Pies have been wild favorites, as the Cats rolled relatively umimpeeded on, finishing second by one game. I was [Read more]

Grand Final preview – position by position

In the midst of the footy card mania of my youth, there was a game that was played between my brothers and I. The simple premise of the game was that you picked a team and put them into their positions. Then each position would be judged. The coach with the most number of winning [Read more]

The Great Black and White Schadenfreude

They’ve been worming out of the woodwork for weeks; Disenchanted Dees, Beaten Dogs and, more recently, Hard-done-by Hawks. Everyone’s lining up to have a crack. Like spectators watching a stranger withdrawing the fateful skewer in a game of Kerplunk, or misplacing a block in Jenga. They know the price of failure. It’s written all over [Read more]

THE GRAND FINAL PRE WRAP

FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie.  Congratulations Dane Swan.  You have been granted The Brownlow Medal you should have been given last year.  And does this suggest to anyone that there’s just the teeny weeniest possibility that the voting can be subjective?  (You still think Keith Greig’s 1973 [Read more]

Sal’s Tips: Grand Final

Merry Grand Final to All! The end is nigh – I have spent this Grand Final build up in the fine capital of Van Diemen’s Land and have been able to get a feel of Grand Final Hysteria in this footy deprived part of the country.  As I have alluded to before and in my [Read more]

Can the Cats win without Stevie J?

Everything points to this Grand Final being a cracker. Even the weather. As the Friday dawn is breaking over the People’s Republic of Northcote I can see small patches of blue sky. The morning paper tells me that Beams is out for Collingwood and young Fasolo is in, and that there is no change in [Read more]

Crio’s Racing: GF Weekend 2011

Punters prepared to weave through a fixturing maze will be rewarded with a festival of G1 races. Footy, The Show and now wild weather have wrought havoc on this great racing weekend- but there’s a dazzling meeting to kick off Friday Nights at the Valley, Randwick’s classic Epsom Day follows and then HQ’s Turnbull “brunch” [Read more]