As I suspected it seems that I’m not the only person who has seen a gap between Indigenous and White Australia. To some extent this gap has been narrowed by participation in sport but as I have outlined in an earlier installment it has also created an entirely new problem with players being taken away [Read more]
Indigenous players to the AFL? Why not bring the AFL to Indigenous centres and communinties? The case for NT Thunder FC in the AFL.
September 12, 2012 by 1 Comment
AFL Finals Week 1- Adelaide v Sydney: A comfy old pillow
September 12, 2012 by 3 Comments
I like my pillow, its durable, supporting, hard working, a little worn at the edges and cost me about $10 from Kmart a decade ago. Sure there are flashier versions with dodo bird feathers or maybe endorsed by Buzz Aldrin, but I like mine just the same. I depend upon it. The Sydney Swans are [Read more]
My Brother Graham
September 12, 2012 by 8 Comments
By Bob Utber My brother Graham suffers with that most terrible of diseases, Motor Neuron. Originally called Lou Gehrig’s disease after the great American baseballer who died with it aged 38, the disease is a progressive degeneration of the motor neurons of the central nervous system, leading to muscle wasting and paralysis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. [Read more]
Blacks Clinch ’12 GF Spot and ’13 A-Grade Berth
September 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
NO PROBLEM FOR OLD MEN AS EXPERIENCED BLACKERS GET THROUGH TO GF They say that love can make music sound sweeter and food taste better. Whilst your narrator is not normally prone to such sentimentality, a similar feeling came over me as I carved through my sweet and sour pork whilst Rose Tattoo’s ‘We Can’t [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – NRL Finals 2012, Week 1: Melbourne v Souths – Rabbitohs in the lights
September 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
By John Robotham The portents weren’t good. My seven-year-old daughter, Lucy, was conflicted – wearing a garish purple coat over her knee-length Rabbitohs jumper, circa 1999 – a look that amused many. As we joined the river of purple flowing down Batman Avenue she felt more self-conscious, pulling the coat tight around her. [Read more]
September for losers (reprise)
September 12, 2012 by 21 Comments
September is a non-event for those of us who rarely see AFL finals action. Unless we swallow our pride and follow someone else’s team. Always full of hope at the start of the season, we keep September free until the last minute just in case, resisting the urge to plan a weekend away an overseas [Read more]
Geelong Era at an End
September 12, 2012 by 14 Comments
2007 Coming off an horrific 2006 season, and with coach Mark Thompson given the last year of his contract to turn things around, Geelong launched an aggressive and ruthless campaign to win the flag and break a 44 year drought down at Kardinia Park. Characterised by daring, up-the-middle, play on at all costs, all [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 12: Aussie Humour
September 12, 2012 by 4 Comments
AUSSIE HUMOUR. “No tribal colours,” the bouncer tells me, holding his hand out. We both look at the North jumper I’m wearing. “It’s okay, he’s with the band,” Gav says. “I know the band,” the bouncer says. He’s from Warrnambool. So are the Monaros. Like the King and Queen are from England, and David Boon [Read more]
1980 A Personal Footy Almanac – Second Semi Final, Saturday 13 September, v Geelong, VFL Park
September 11, 2012 by 6 Comments
(For Geelong fans still licking their wounds from Saturday night…sorry, folks, I can’t help the timing of this piece…) A roar goes up as umpire John Sutcliffe signals a free kick in the Richmond forward line. In the tense early moments of a big semi-final, it’s pretty typical of the men in white to assert [Read more]
WAFL: Royals bow out, Sharks shape up
September 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
THE home teams won the WAFL semi-finals on Saturday setting up an interesting preliminary final at Bassendean Oval next Sunday.
AFL Finals Week 1: The View from Shepparton
September 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I hope the tribunal throws the book at Chris Tarrant I love players that play the man and not the ball. I have had a sneaking respect for the Pies for most of the year but now hope that they get walloped.
Off Season Odyssey – Part 11: New Year’s Without Resolutions
September 11, 2012 by 7 Comments
Off Season Odyssey Pt11. New Year’s Without Resolutions. Princetown has a beaut oval. Round. Hard. There’s no team any more, no town. Just the reedy wetlands that is the last gasp of the Gellibrand River, where farmers, back in the day, paddled their milk downstream, on longboats, to the Saturday market. Just coastal [Read more]
AFL Finals Week 1 – Adelaide v Sydney: Behind Enemy Lines
September 11, 2012 by 5 Comments
The Crows fan did not seem happy to see me.
“You again” he growled before breaking into a wry smile. “Jesus I’d almost forgotten about today’s game. Then here you are again in that damn jumper reminding me all over.”
Almanac Footy History: Clegg’s Match
September 11, 2012 by 6 Comments
1949 Brownlow Medalist Ron Clegg played a match for South Melbourne in 1951 of such dominance that is still referred to as “Clegg’s Match”. Richard Davis reports.
AFL Finals Week 1: TV Ringside? Just Buddy and Taz
September 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Nightclub veterans Tarrant and Franklin kicked off proceedings as the Hawks and Pies squared off on Friday Night. In moves reminiscent of TV Ringside, the AFL might look to this boxing as a form of pre-game entertainment.
crio’s Q: MRP shambles
September 10, 2012 by 9 Comments
Mark Fraser. Peter Carey. Paul Broderick. The MRP. “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem”. Apparently there is widespread dissatisfaction (dismay/distrust) with the AFL’s Match Review Panel. It’s a soft target. Who’s got a solution?
AFL Finals – Week 1: The 2012 ‘Mopsy’ Fraser Cup
September 10, 2012 by 2 Comments
All power to the Funky Purps, this is their highest point, even better than when they made a prelim against Sydney, to beat the reigning premier on their home turf and knock ‘em out of the finals, it’s a great day for the Purps. Perhaps it’s their Great Day for 2012 and nothing else will come of it.
AFL Finals Week 1: The Finals Wrap
September 10, 2012 by 9 Comments
Hawthorn, Fremantle and West Coast were just bullies on the weekend, says The Wrapster.
AFL Finals Week 1 – West Coast Eagles v North Melbourne: Finals footy from the text book
September 10, 2012 by 15 Comments
North were humiliated.
North played scared, says Andrew Starkie. They melted when the game was hot. Once the goals started at the other end, they folded. Except for Swallow and Jack.
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