Tigers vs Roos: An Abu Dhabi Perspective

At 7.00 am on a Sunday in Abu Dhabi it is 34 degrees and the humidity is rising. My aim today is to survive working, as well as get a good live radio stream of the last game of the last round of AFL football for 2011, that of my beloved tigers and the kangaroos. [Read more]

BROWNLOW VOTES IN GALLE

The final day at the G saw a brave defence by Mahela J and Angelo M with Mahela equalling DGB’s 29 test centruries and Angelo missing out by 5 playing the same windy woof that caused his demise in the first innings. Five wickets to Ryan Harris was the best performance in an attack that [Read more]

Borough Sting Scorpions

What a proud footy club the Borough is. One of only two stand alone clubs in the VFL, the other being Frankston, providing you don’t count Geelong and Collingwood, This year they are making every week a winning week. Undefeated at the end of the home and away, which is a first for the club.  [Read more]

Pendlebury

Pendlebury.   The pub was small and full. There was a great no-name band crammed into the corner, a few loose units dancing, people in booths talking, everybody pushing like mud rivers to get to get drinks, to the smoker’s section, to and from the fire. I wore them all, and the music, like a [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – The battle for the wooden spoon

The excitement last week of Parramatta’s extra-time loss fuelled the Golden Girl’s fire to make it to Skilled Park for the final match of the season for the Eels and Titans. The fact that it was also the final of the Wooden Spoon- a dreaded consequence of a poor season – made it an appealing [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – A noble rugby league tradition

For good or ill, I am an optimist, so despite another disappointing season from Canterbury and a reliance on either a Friday night draw between South Sydney and Newcastle or a Rabbitohs win followed by a mammoth Bulldogs win, I still thought there was hope for Canterbury. Mathematical chance, I believe they call it. That [Read more]

AFL Footy Darwin style: unhyped, uncomplicated, and unlikely to push the crocs off the front page

Visiting Darwin is like returning to 1985. This view isn’t shaped by the locals’ preference for iced coffees over flat whites; nor their steaks served with a thick ridge of fat; nor the lack of pretentious fashion chosen by those having a beer in Mitchell St on any given night. It was because of the [Read more]

We don’t have the Blues this morning…

We’ll start with a generic question:  do the Saints have to always put us through so much misery and tension before we reach happiness at the end of the night? It seems so.  Saints supporters like me went to the Game at the MCG last night feeling pretty mixed.  A win meant a home, Etihad, [Read more]

Floreat Pica: Take Your Pick

By Paul Fahey Round 24 Vs Geelong 2011   The first weekend in September is usually reserved for the first weekend of AFL finals – we have to be thankful that this was NOT the case this year! As this game was a “dead rubber” I believe that you the type of person you are [Read more]

Friday Night Footy 360

Ever since the shock loss to Sydney ended the Cats four year unbeaten run at Kardinia Park last week all and sundry have been declaring “Geelong are wobbly”, “The Cats are vulnerable” and “Hawthorn are now the biggest threat to Collingwood”. Funny how they seem to have forgotten that we’ve beaten Hawthorn twice this season [Read more]

Bless ‘Em All – Eagles V Crows

Subiaco Oval – 5.10pm WST Saturday 3 September 2011 A final round game with nothing at stake. The Eagles are finals bound. The Crows are bound for Mad Monday with the aim of ‘drinking to forget’ a season of loss and disappointment. It is an odd feeling going to the match. None of the expectation [Read more]

Marvin Vaas is ‘Indisposed’

Tragedy in Galle? Was it the tuk-tuk? Was it the humidity? Or simple ‘over excitement’ at Australia’s victory. The Almanac’s intrepid correspondent Marvin Vaas was mysteriously indisposed and unable to file a fourth day report from Galle. The last sighting of Marvin is below.

Happy Cats

Sainter Yvette Wroby helps the Cats celebrate Friday night. Will they be celebrating this time next week?

Bulldogs take SANFL minor flag – again

By Rob McLean There is something exhilarating about watching a sporting team winning against all expectations, particularly when it is your own. Central District went into yesterday’s top of the table SANFL clash at Elizabeth Oval undermanned and many observers expected the Bulldogs to concede top spot and possibly the minor premiership to a confident [Read more]

Aussies Ward off Sri Lanka

  by Andrew Gigacz The inevitability of Australia taking the last five wickets and taking a 1-0 lead against Sri Lanka was delayed by several events.   Firstly by another almost inevitable occurrence, morning rain in Galle, after just a few minutes of play. Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews had time only to take the [Read more]

Almanac Rugby League – Finals Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Come back to 1995 with me for a moment. The ARL expanded their competition by introducing four new teams – the Western Reds, the South Queensland Crushers (featuring the incomparable St John Ellis), the Auckland (subsequently New Zealand) Warriors and the North Queensland Cowboys. With my early childhood years split between Mackay and Brisbane, I [Read more]

Is this the season for the drought to end?

    I’ve hit record button on Foxtel for the Cats v Swans game and headed off to Port Melbourne to see if my VFL side can win 18 on the trot and remain undefeated in the main season.   Its been a while since I have not made the trip down Princes Highway for [Read more]

Day 3 at Galle; mixed metaphors at the G.

DAY THREE AT GALLE   I often wonder what journalists do when there is no play.  They sit and chat about yesterday’s play and so it was this morning. Strangely there is no music that Marvin Gay wrote about yesterday but the atmosphere is one of happiness which to me epitomises life in Galle.  After [Read more]

Collingwood’s Loss is Australia’s Gain

“My fellow Australians, I speak to you tonight to announce that I will be standing down immediately as Prime Minister of this great country.  Over the past year I have given my all to this country that I love so much, and that has given me so much. But I have to acknowledge that the [Read more]

Marvin Vaas survives day three

Sri Lanka v Australia First Test Day 3 by Marvin Vaas We’re finally becoming accustomed to the vehicular madness that is the A2 Galle-Colombo road. The journey to the ground hasn’t been without its considerable scares though. Across the road from the Galle market, hundreds gather on the beach wishing to purchase some fresh-off-the-boat Indian [Read more]