Collingwood Newsletter

Well Magpie fans, can you believe it’s already been 38 days since our glorious victory. Incredible as it seems we are already beginning to mount the premiership defence for 2011 with the players recently returning from altitude training in the penthouse at Crown. The excitement amongst the group in palpable and there seems to be [Read more]

A Well Oiled Oaks Day

Have you ever looked really closely at a well oiled machine? When you were younger did you ever take the head off a Holden 186 motor and marvel at the shiny mechanical thingies, all oiled up and tuned to perfection, ready to propel the Kingswood along? No? Me neither. But when I arrived at the [Read more]

Book Review: A Prodigious Tome for an Epic Tale

A Prodigious Tome for an Epic Tale Book: The Red Fox: The Biography of Norm Smith Writer: Ben Collins Publisher: The Slattery Media Group, 2008. Contemporary football biographies continue to fill a lucrative corner of the sports publishing market place. Rarely does a champion seem to retire without the close accompaniment of a publishing deal. [Read more]

Jack Anthony leaves Danni (and Collingwood)

Sat –Nov 6th 11:26PM- a confirmation on the Herald Sun website reveals Jack Anthony has left Collingwood and will nominate for the pre-season draft. — Take a glass, throw it to the floor and smash to a billion pieces- that’s what happened to my heart. I had no awareness of anything around me, Jack left, [Read more]

Almanac Racing: Spring Carnival Final Day 2010

Bookies have, as usual, so far claimed the points at the annual “Flemington fill-up” and will be looking to top up at the outstanding fourth day of the “Festival”. Punters were losing confidence in a tricky track after some early blow-outs on Oaks Day but they rallied late to get a bank for a counter-attack [Read more]

Radio One

For some of you that have met me at the Almanac launch last year and various lunches throughout 2010, you would know by now that I’m a shy kid, I keep to myself mostly, and am pretty terrible at keeping my end of the deal in conversation. So it may take many of you by [Read more]

London to a Brick

The spring carnival is a funny time of year. The mix of once a year punters with regular mugs makes for interesting conversations, the most notable being the wonderful use of racing terms that provide the veterans with an air of being all knowledgeable. I’ll start with a couple: Black Type Races – No it [Read more]

Woggabaliri

I’m surprised there hasn’t been some discussion of Woggabaliri. It’s threatening to go viral on bigfooty/fourfourtwo/the world game and so on. Woggabaliri is supposedly an Aboriginal game that resembles keepie uppie and has been claimed by the FFA as an indigenous form of soccer. The FFA are using it as a plank in their World [Read more]

Sri Lanka Celebrates as Australia Wobbles Again

1st ODI- Australia v Sri Lanka- MCG 3rd November 2010 It’s usually unwise to rush to judgement on the basis of a single one-day match, but last night’s astonishing Sri Lankan comeback would have done nothing to allay the anxieties of Australian supporters contemplating the summer ahead. This midweek fixture was ludicrous in design, especially [Read more]

In A-League of Its Own- Edition 15

Tom’s weekly outlook on the A-League In another week of A-League action, we saw a goal fest of a round. Not one game had less than 2 goals, with two having two, two having three and one having five. It has been a good trend this season, which has hopefully improved the reputation of Australian [Read more]

Punters argue the toss and come up with the goods (hopefully)

Terrific lunch at the Clyde Hotel yesterday. Fine form analysis from the 40 revellers has led to two trifecta being placed, the winnings to go to a Salvation Army charity: Bet 1: Flexi-trifecta for $200 1 and 3 roved with the field. gives us 158% of the dividend Bet 2: the roughies flexi-trifecta for $200 [Read more]

Derby Day fills the rain gauge and the punting stash

I live in a wonderful neighbourhood. There may well be a few too many Pies supporters who have ostentatiously positioned Collingwood garden gnomes in their Westgarth yards. But I like how they have applied the black and white paint themselves. (Some probably got a grant to do it.) I don’t like that Theo said, “Go [Read more]

Crio’s Q: Early Achievers and Late Bloomers

So You Think has trampled on our old truisms for a hot Cup fav…just 11 starts and none beyond a mile and a quarter – but 2 Cox Plates and five times unbeaten this prep are irresistible credentials. To beat him, punters are plumping for Maluckyday, a Hawkesbury maiden winner in March, having his 9th [Read more]

2011 AFL Fixture Discussion

The AFL have just released the full fixture for next season. Fuller examination will doubtless reveal many sub-plots and sub-texts, but initial points to catch the eye: As usual, Collingwood have less opportunity to accumulate frequent flyer points than other teams- cue traditional arguments over this issue. West Coast and Freo will now be playing [Read more]

Footy hasn’t finished for the Year. It’s just starting up … in the Middle East!

By Russell Yule Sure, most of the football community is depressed with the thought of facing the next four months with Collingwood as Premiers. Well here is an opportunity to move on. Get on board the AFL-Middle East bandwagon. Be amongst those up the front driving it, rather than on the wagon part! Your humble [Read more]

Almanac Racing: Derby Day 2010

The odd thing about Derby Day is that the so-called (and, since 1855, time-honoured)signature race is rarely the highlight of a star-studded programme. Such is again the case this Saturday at Flemington where the “support” card overwhelms the 3 yr old’s “Blue Riband”. On a day littered with Group races, it seems odd that the [Read more]

Old not-so-reliables will have to fly the Ashes flag

For those who may have erased the moment from their memory, it has been 431 days, or nigh on 62 weeks, since Graeme Swann dismissed Mike Hussey at The Oval, and England claimed the Ashes with a 2-1 series victory. As we sit 28 days out from the next Ashes test, it seems opportune to [Read more]

Melbourne Cup Lunch

G’day All Melbourne Cup lunch Clyde Hotel, Carlton Monday, November 1 12.30 for 1pm $40 plus drinks at bar prices Come along and help us nail the Cup trifecta. We are unsuccessful in seven attempts, so we are due. All welcome. RSVP to [email protected]

Name Your Team

The Cricinfo website has just undergone an extensive process to pick their all-time World Eleven. This is the team they arrived at. ESPNcricinfo All-Time World XI- these blokes can play a bit. 1st XI Jack Hobbs Len Hutton Don Bradman Sachin Tendulkar Viv Richards Garry Sobers Adam Gilchrist Malcolm Marshall Shane Warne Wasim Akram Dennis [Read more]

And so it begins…

It’s been a little over three weeks since the last AFL game, and I’m already missing the hustle and bustle of the AFL. Richmond began their pre-season training today, with the first to third year players stepping back out on to the field of battle in preparation for the 2011 season. Holidays are over, its [Read more]