Footy Tipping Rego

Welcome to The Footy Almanac Tipping Competition which has been hotly contested in recent years. What you have to ask yourself is where you sit in the firmament of Almanac tipsters? Have you got the Waaia eye of Barnstable covered; can you compete with the Pie mind of Danni Eid; are you brighter than Peter [Read more]

Arma’s Club Corner – Edition 2

by Arma Nasco Adelaide: Could Lleyton Hewitt be behind the Crows’ latest interesting initiative, “The Tribe”? Apparently there will be 60 specially recruited Crows fans to become a part of The Tribe; their charter being to make noise. Sound a bit like The Fanatics? C’mon (everyone please point to your forehead now) !!!! OK, let’s [Read more]

Crio’s Q: The changing face of sporting etiquette

I’m interested in how sporting etiquette changes over time. Golf, for example, is a game of great disciplines and accepted protocol. When did players walking out the “front” (lip) of bunkers become acceptable? This was never allowed in my recollection, but has become commonplace – I saw a caddie lend a club to help wrench [Read more]

NAB Cup: Geelong, North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs

By Steve Healy Travel- It’s a word that circulates through the realms of every footy lover’s soul, season after season. How will we get to our destination? Why are we going there? In this particular situation, it would’ve been quite hard to understand why, from an outsider’s point of view. Is it really worth it [Read more]

In A-League of Its Own – Issue 30

by Tom Riordan Tom’s weekly outlook on the A-League The first week of the finals have come and gone, with all 3 matches ending in somewhat predictable results. The first of them was on Friday night from Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, where the Reds hosted Wellington Phoenix. With Adelaide finishing 3 places higher than the [Read more]

Knackers v Overland: a case for the mind, the body and the soul

by Straight Break Sport, some Greek with too much red wine in him decided, is about the mind, the body and the soul. That’s our problem. Of all the civilisations on which to base ours, we are stuck with the damn Greeks. They invented the gymnasium, which is not like the gymnasium in the United [Read more]

Almanac XI v Overland XI – Almanac Captain’s report

by Andrew Gigacz I believe it’s part of the unwritten ethos of the cricket commentating fraternity that at least once in a career the phrase, “well bowled, well played and well fielded; good cricket all around”, must be used. Had any of that fraternity been at Gillon Oval on Sunday to call the Almanac XI [Read more]

Almanac v Overland Photo Gallery

Evidence for the prosecution provided by Marion Butler (at least one family member had something to show for their efforts).

Flares for Dot Balls Campaign

Add your name to this petition I hope to take to those who run Cricket Australia. We the undersigned believe that bowlers are copping the raw prawn in T20 cricket and believe that flares should whoosh heavenward when the bowler delivers a dot ball:

NAB Cup: Essendon v Brisbane v St Kilda

Spraying the colour into my hair, I studied it in the mirror. It looked pretty good. My hair was now a lush green colour. It was the 2011 Numurkah Secondary College Swimming Sports Carnival at the local pool. My house, Gray, which is actually green house, was vying to against the three other houses, Christie [Read more]

Almanac Racing: Lightning Stakes

The Lightning Stakes (1000m, WFA) is a fair dinkum Group One. Look at the roll call – Takeover Target, Todman, Sky High, Storm Queen, Schillaci, Special, Mahogany, Miss Andretti, Choisir and Citius…there’s speed, power and class. This year’s edition (Flemington, R6) has generated profile with the return of the breathtaking Black Caviar. The little paper [Read more]

Manning Clark Cricket Dinner

Teammates

by Matt Zurbo I was dragged out of retirement early this year. All up I missed three gloriously injury-free games. The memory of them and my total playing absence, was sweet. But, before long I was back playing my 25th year of adult footy for the not so mighty Otway Districts Reserves. (Second last on [Read more]

Crio’s Q: The nick-name says it all

They farewelled the Doc last week. No need to clarify as Darrell Baldock…his simple moniker is enough to identify the subject to all footy lovers. Like The Don or Newk, it is a heightened level of recognition when a full name becomes irrelevant. Who else has earned this status?

Almanac XI primed

by ‘Straight Break’ Members of The Almanac XI made their way to the old Brunswick St Oval cricket nets last Sunday, and put in a strong session, in preparation for the much-anticipated fixture against Overland this coming Sunday. Peter Flynn put his captaincy aspirations in jeopardy by not turning up, while Gigs Gigacz served his [Read more]

Gideon Haigh’s book launch

I’m afraid I’ve done it again – that is, dashed off a new book. It’s called OUT OF THE RUNNING. It is about the 2010-11 Ashes series. You can see it here. https://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670076017 It has Michael Clarke on the cover. Sad to say, despite the small fortune he must have spent on them, none of [Read more]

Adrian’s call

by Damian O’Donnell The sun came up as expected this morning, people will die of old age today as usual, governments will extort taxes from their hard working citizens because they can, and the AFL has announced that the new NAB Cup format is a success. All very predictable really. Adrian Anderson proudly announced, ”We [Read more]

Arma’s Club Corner

by Arma Nasco Adelaide: Marking 20 years since its first Trial Game at Football Park; a victory over Essendon (1991). Crows team featured John Klug and Romano Negri. Brisbane: The pride of lions no longer includes Proud. Carlton: A “highly spirited” intra-club match rekindles fond memories of vision of the Setanta O’Hailpin and Cameron Cloke [Read more]

David Bridie’s song ‘The Deserters’

This is brilliant.

The great pack-splitters

Peter Zitterschlager has introduced a new statistic which has gained considerable (Almanac) currency. Name those players who would have racked up the stats in the pack-splitting category.