We’ve done it again–defied the odds that is! Speaking of odds, earlier in the week I remarked to my brother Harry how generous the line odds of +25 points were for the reigning premiers. Then again hardly surprising with all the Hawthorn hype and the pervasive penchant for people to write Geelong off. Another brother [Read more]
Hawkins pips Hawks in match of the year
August 4, 2012 by 1 Comment
GEELONG 9.3 10.5 14.9 18.10 (118) HAWTHORN 2.0 7.6 11.8 17.14 (116) 3 Hawkins, 2 Sewell, 1 Mitchell For a Geelong fan, beating Hawthorn with a goal after the siren is one of the sweetest tastes life offers. Only a big finals win beats it. There’s no point building it up. Tonight the Cats won [Read more]
Friday footy is a beautiful thing
August 4, 2012 by 7 Comments
Friday Footy is a Beautiful Thing. I finished work not long after sunset, watching the moon wobble up from, then across, the mountains. It was almost full, but not, as if someone had dropped it on its head. As I came down the logging tracks into the valley, towards the nearest farms, that lead [Read more]
Crio’s racing
August 3, 2012 by 9 Comments
Mick Stumbles has a great Aussie name and is an NT icon. After coming to Darwin originally to train greyhounds, Stumbles found himself at the microphone at Fannie Bay and has been an integral part of the Racing Club and its Carnival since 1971. He announced recently that he will hang up the binoculars after [Read more]
The Pre-Wap – Round IXX
August 3, 2012 by 15 Comments
THE PRE WRAP – ROUND IXX FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL MARNGROOK FAN And what a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. If the unravelling of the Australian swimming team doesn’t spoil the Ayatollah’s sojourn in the Olympic City, what’s going down at Harrison House certainly should. The worst kept secret in the History of The Game [Read more]
The secrets of Olympians
August 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Sometime during the past 12 months, I fell in love with PostSecret. PostSecret is a website updated each Sunday with a series of postcards which have been sent to the site that week, each containing the sender’s anonymous secret. I love the site because it can make you laugh, take pause, and even re-think one’s [Read more]
VAFA Div 1 – Round 14: Give me footy
August 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
My wife thinks there is something wrong with me. Actually, she thinks there are lots of things wrong with me, but what she really cannot fathom is how disinterested I am in the Olympics. And it is true. I could not care less for Australia’s achievements in the pool, and on the other various courts [Read more]
Time for a Think Tank
August 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Happy Olympics to all, This European Summer has been a killer for sleep – but we toil on. Meanwhile Brock McLean ensures that the local game keeps plenty of news inches filled. But really did he say anything we did not already know! There has been much blubbering about the penalties that should be inflicted [Read more]
Round 19 preview
August 2, 2012 by 3 Comments
Just trying to find a winner or two. Some very good line betting to be done. http://tatts.com/news/2012/7/30/afl-round-19
The AFL is Federation all over again!
August 2, 2012 by 2 Comments
I’m currently working on Australian constitutional law and it strikes me that the creation of the AFL is very much like what happened when Australia federated. The States created the Commonwealth which then took on a life of its own and made the States its beggars. Now the AFL, created by the clubs, has taken on [Read more]
Rivalry
August 2, 2012 by 25 Comments
This all goes back a couple of decades, perhaps to 1989. Or even earlier. The story so far: the Hawks are too good for Geelong during the late 80s and early 90s. The Cats have a terrific team of characters who play the game with their own flair and are encouraged by the creative [Read more]
A Blue day in the outback
August 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
By Callum O’Connor Deny sleep long enough and it will ignore you when you need it. I’m aboard a bus that has been faithfully lurching and wheezing its way up from Melbourne for 30 hours since 7 am on Wednesday morning with the thirty of us who are on the 2012 Eltham College /school Central [Read more]
light and shade
August 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
sunset a few purple patches kill off the game evening sky no great signs only flashes playing the bottom team the caller questions a lack of urgency twilight game the zig-zag path to goal empty seats Cloke marks alone and unattended fading light Wood losing what little he had twilight the light and shade of [Read more]
Hindsight….it’s a beautiful thing
August 1, 2012 by 4 Comments
By Neil Anderson Whenever I check the Almanac’s website for the latest offerings and before I have a go at writing myself, the first thing I see written in bold lettering is, ‘Write From The Heart’. This credo is evident in most pieces and none more-so than articles by JT Harms. I have finished reading [Read more]
Secret Cloke list revealed
August 1, 2012 by 18 Comments
The following clubs have yet to confirm their expression of interest in the services of Mr T Cloke, footballer. Aberfeldie Junior Football Club Brunswick Bocce Club Creswick Croquet Club Donald Darts Club Elsternwick Elderly Citizens Club Fairhaven Surf Life Saving Club Geraldton Golf Club Hopetoun Hookey Club Ipswich Football Club (U.K) Jurien Junior Football Club [Read more]
The afternoon football nearly forgot
August 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
By Simon Dalton Perhaps the apparent predictability of this game’s outcome was already sensed by the footballing public and the respective teams well before the first bounce. That could account for a build up lacking in passion or interest. As such it was played as if a gentleman’s agreement had been reached. With forewarning of [Read more]
The (next) Great Man
August 1, 2012 by 9 Comments
Some friends of mine have spoken somewhat disparagingly of my inability to write anything for this website other than Geelong related prose. For those friends: stop reading now. For this I will try to be short and sharp, and deliver it with the minimum of fuss. Much like the man it aims to pay tribute [Read more]
DA Puzzle of the Round (19)
August 1, 2012 by 2 Comments
Discover the world of David Astle here. But first, can you solve this week’s puzzle? There’s a current senior coach with a well-known nickname. Bizarrely, two current players in the coach’s former team, have surnames rhyming with that nickname. Unmask the trio. (Burkie is quick off the mark with the answer this morning – [Read more]
1980 A Personal Footy Almanac – Round 18, Saturday 2 August, v Footscray, VFL Park
August 1, 2012 by 3 Comments
Richmond’s hold on the coveted top spot may be suddenly looking tenuous, but I’m feeling carefree today as I ignore the steady rain and catch the early bus out to Waverley from Nunawading. Mid-year exams are over. In a week that saw the release of AC/DC’s immortal album “Back in Black”, I’m ashamed to admit [Read more]
Song of the Seagull
August 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Twilight-time, the MCG, seagulls now are flying free, as old men clean the littered stands, the seagulls spy the fertile land, the hordes have left in trams and trains, only corporate men remain, and while they sip their cold champagne the seagulls sing in joyful strains: “When you leave the footy ground, we fly in [Read more]
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