And then there were four. The swans got to take on the pies and the hawks got the crows. And both pairs fought over the right to get into the big one; the right to play for a silver cup at the MCG. And there is nothing bigger and nothing more special than the G [Read more]
Morals v Medals: Who comes out on top?
September 27, 2012 by 4 Comments
Hannah Kuhar raises the issue of playing to win at the cost of participation in junior sport.
Off Season Odyssey – Part 24: Addictions
September 27, 2012 by 9 Comments
Jesse’s Aboriginal. Light, like his Mum, who he grew up with down south, in the bush where I’m from. He’s gone to work with his Dad, who is full-blood, on the Central NSW Coast. It’s been ages and is great to see him. He’s nineteen now, but, due to his height, still looks [Read more]
Cycling through the eras
September 27, 2012 by 3 Comments
Premierships are the benchmark of successful teams. Geelong had been starved of real success since 1963. A founding member of the league as we know it, influential on the rules as we know them, the once powerful Geelong had become mediocre. A spate of losing efforts in Grand Finals dating back to 1967 against Richmond, 1989 against [Read more]
English Premier League: Chelsea hold top
September 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Chelsea 1-0 Stoke Another game, another win for Chelsea. Both sides went into the game after hard fought draws the week before. Stoke had held on for a valuable draw against champions Man City while Chelsea failed to win at Loftus Road. The first real chance came on twenty minutes, when Walters smacked a header [Read more]
Grand Final preview: Diary of a dialectician in training
September 27, 2012 by 7 Comments
There are three sleeps to go until the Grand Final. Hawks supporter Rick Kane is getting seven hours per night – for now, anyway.
Brownlow Bolognese
September 27, 2012 by 3 Comments
Earlier this year, my 11 year old daughter, Anna wrote an article for the Footy Almanac. It was all about footy tradition. Tradition is a key word in our house. Much to my wife Jenni’s chagrin, I spend just as much of my time looking back as I do looking forward. She is a very [Read more]
AFL Preliminary Finals – Hawthorn v Adelaide: Audacious Adelaide Ignore The Script
September 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I enjoy the reduced stress associated with attending finals matches, when the Blues have put the cue in the rack. It affords an opportunity to watch football of generally high quality, with an attitude of relative detachment. Of course one is almost never an absolute neutral, most typically, in my case, there is a team [Read more]
AFL Preliminary Finals – Sydney v Collingwood: Revenge, Redemption and Jetta
September 26, 2012 by 13 Comments
It’s been a huge fortnight. September, surely, is Christmas for footyheads. A whole month of it, longer than we get for holidays. I’ve been to the mainland, watched the game’s oldest, greatest rivals, Port Melbourne and Williamstown slog it out in a VFL Semi, at a ground where you could sit or stand [Read more]
The Brownlow Medal: Brownlow Thoughts?
September 26, 2012 by 9 Comments
Brownlow Thoughts? Well done Jobe! You are a jet! A superstar! All those other fancy words. A Brownlow winner! A Brownlow! Hell, yeah. And, I thought, a damn worthy one! I loved watching you play this year, your hardness. Your want! Geez, you have want! And you seem like a top bloke! Anyone else [Read more]
Grand Final bliss as Blacks jump the Shark
September 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Black Hack awakes from a dual premiership celebration-induced slumber to post his recollections of a memorable day for the Melbourne Uni Blacks in the Ammos Grand Final.
Cause-infested footy
September 26, 2012 by 29 Comments
Footy is becoming cause infested. It is involving itself where it need not be; where it should not be. Like a movie star who suddenly acquires the wisdom to resolve the Middle East conflict, the AFL is becoming a slave to its own hubris, says Dips O’Donnell.
Grand Final Infographic
September 26, 2012 by 3 Comments
Jake ‘Cobba’ Stevens uses Grand Final week inspiration to produce a super infograph.
The Brownlow winner
September 26, 2012 by 3 Comments
We re-visit John Harms’s tribute to Jobe Watson after an unlikely Bombers win one Sunday evening in 2009..
1980 – A Personal Footy Almanac: Grand Final – Richmond v Collingwood
September 26, 2012 by 22 Comments
Richmond tragic Stainless reaches the final stop of his nostalgic journey through the 1980 season – the Grand Final against Collingwood.
AFL Finals – Week 3: The View from Shepparton
September 26, 2012 by 5 Comments
De facto Crows supporter Peter Schumacher couldn’t help buy ponder the “what ifs” while staring at the ceiling on Saturday night.
WAFL: Tigers make it two in a row
September 25, 2012 by 5 Comments
Claremont are the 2012 WAFL premiers, defeating East Fremantle by 26 points. However, as Les Everett reports, the Tigers didn’t have it all their own way. Some terrific photos included.
Local footy: A Black day in the Ammos
September 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
More Grand Final football stories were etched over the weekend as plenty will continue to develop over the coming weeks. A story just as big as any other is the dual premiership glory of the University Blacks in the Victorian Amateur Football League (VAFA).
People and Memories – Part 6: Joan Etherington, Melbourne FC
September 25, 2012 by 4 Comments
Joan Etherington has her feet up in front of the TV when I arrive at her Blackburn unit, in Melbourne’s east. Her Melbourne scarf hangs on the coat stand and the living room walls are covered with family photos. Beautiful grand-daughters smile out at her from exotic European and African settings. Over cups of [Read more]
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