THUNDER STORMS, 3-2-1 and More!!

    Representative side Northern Territory Football Club creates history: 3 Seasons competing, 2 Premierships, in 1 year. by Jocelyn Ledwidge   No wonder they’re tough in the Territory: with a high degree of difficulty, vision has become glorious reality in record time. A total start up club – new structure, staff, sponsors, Board, playing [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The Year of The Seagulls

Queensland Cup Rugby League Grand Final 2011 Wynnum Manly Seagulls 16 d Tweed Heads Seagulls 10 by JJ Leahy The Queensland Cup is one of two Rugby League competitions that sit at a level below the National Rugby League. The other is its New South Wales counterpart. It is contested by five clubs from  Brisbane [Read more]

The WOW WAGs

  by Danni Eid My blue carpet favorite Alex Davis (Pendlebury) looked positively radiant in her navy blue Versace gown. It fitted like a glove, it got the “Oh my gosh!” reaction from me, it’s a perfect classy dress. As always, Alex looked GORGEOUS! It was the dress that drew a gasp. As a natural [Read more]

A premiership at 50

  Hockey Grand Final. Septemeber 17, 2011 by Don Haines I’d never won a premiership. When I was 16 we had been in a seconds footy grand final.  I was full forward, and about all I can remember is watching a set shot veer alarmingly right, and asking the coach at half time to teach [Read more]

The Footy Almanac 2011

(Cover art by Jim Pavlidis) We’d love you to offer your support as a member of the Almanac community by purchasing your copy of The Footy Almanac 2011. It will be available from Friday November 11. This year the book is $30 (collected), or $35 (posted). In 2011, however, we invite a slightly different approach [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The highs and lows of a Preliminary Final

Oh, the highs and the lows of preliminary finals weekend. They’ll hit your harder than Brad Izzard on a cold day and they’ll stick with you until you breathe your last. There is something enduring about it, something special, something that separates it from Grand Final weekend, giving it a unique feel, an individual aura. [Read more]

G. Ablett senior

It is Gary Ablett senior’s 50th birthday on Saturday.

Cats in control

Friday. I am having lunch with an Eagles fan who is such an Eagles fan he is known as West Coast Dave (a fine contributor to these pages I might add). He is down from Canberra and is in a preliminary final mood. A Group 1 theoriser (with a masters degree in sports psyche which [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – A deserved win

As a Broncos fan who has always had a strong dislike of Manly, I’ll get the difficult part over with straight away: I have to admit Manly deserved to win. In all honesty I wasn’t expecting the Broncos to win. With Darren Lockyer missing, I sensed the Broncos wouldn’t quite have what it took to [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – A relentless wave

Despite the absence of my team, and ignoring the Melbourne – Newcastle game, this has been an extremely high quality finals series – the St. George/ Brisbane, St George /Wests Tigers and Wests Tigers/NZ Warriors games were all incredibly exciting but this game – from start to finish – topped the lot. It was fast, [Read more]

THE WRAP – FINALS ROUND III

WHERE LIFE IMITATES SPORT What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie.  The Pies came back from the death to shatter the dreams of Little Hawkers all over the World and book themselves into The Granny for the 2nd successive year.  The Moggies joined them with an equally impressive victory over a gallant but outgunned [Read more]

Brownlow Blog 2011

The buzz over Chris Judd threatens to dwarf the Dane Swan hype of last year. The dream scenario for many is the two double Medalists sharing a 3rd. But Brownlow history suggests you should never count your chickens. If your invite to the big night is still in the mail, join us from 7.30 as our fashion [Read more]

Crio’s Q: List Management

“List management” We all know what it means. And most of us understand that you have to give to get. Who do you want for your side and what are you prepared to pay?

Grand Final 2011

Cartoon by Yvette Wroby

My Magpies refuse to die but almost kill me in the process

Furious!!! Would be a good word to describe how I felt by half time. Crap!!! Would be a good word to describe how we were playing. Fierce!!! Would be a good word to describe how they were playing, and gob-smacked!!! Pretty much summarizes how I felt by the end of it all.

The 1993 waiting room

For Vin Maskell, Grand Finals  meant something different after 1993   I haven’t missed the start of the big game since 1977, when the Grand Final was first televised direct.   For a few years it was a time for old school mates to get together. Then it became a time for old school mates [Read more]

Best Night Ever.

A few years ago we met a family from Zimbabwe who had started going to our church at Rosanna. The father, MT, was studying at Latrobe University. MT and Rhee, like us, have three young kids and so we invited them over for a meal. Our three children James, Thomas and Ben loved running around [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – On the road

We are under immense pressure to perfect what shapes as a great game. We are in the trusted Commodore heading north. The only friend of the driver is the ABC radio and the pressure is from my obsessive goal to hit Miriam Vale at half-time to have the finest road food in Queensland –possibly Australia [Read more]

Geelong v West Coast

Geelong v West Coast. Discuss.

The willing and the wounded weave a way to the big day

    escapology n. methods and technique of escaping esp. from captivity, confinement in box etc.   Yes, this was a great escape for the Pies, and we make it through to the finale by the skin of our teeth.   The record volume of FPS email traffic pre-match said a lot about the excitement [Read more]