Chasing that elusive premiership

CHASING THE ELUSIVE BUSH PREMIERSHIP It’s been a while since I’ve written an update and it’s not because things are going badly and I’ve cracked the sads but more to do with the fact I get pretty busy these days. The Imperial Football Club is sitting pretty in both grades at the moment with a [Read more]

One Hundred Years Ago: Round 8, 10th June, 1911

‘Football in the Mud’ was the headline The Argus chose for round 8 of 1911, and the weather was the dominant theme for more than just VFL fixtures. The constant rain was certainly causing havoc and confusion in the Geelong District League where communications went badly amiss for previously undefeated Chilwell. On the advice of [Read more]

God Said

Somewhere between last week’s snow, and this week’s constant rain, the hard, grey weather that floods or buries roads, God put his finger over our oval, leaving a blue sky that lasted six hours, and whispered “Bloody oath. Play.” There was no wind, no mud. Just cold air and sun getting in our eyes. Our [Read more]

Time Shifted Thrills

That week, Round 13, I was not going to be able to watch my Tigers battle the Lions at the Gabba that week, due to the fact that I was scheduled to keyboard St Kilda vs Geelong at the same time through my job with Champion Data. It goes without saying that it is an [Read more]

GigStuff 55

  by Andrew Gigacz THERE’S TONS TO TALK ABOUT Over the past few days I haven’t been able to get the Crowded House song, Four Seasons in One Day, out of my head. But as I’ve been singing it, in my mind and occassionally (to the great annoyance of my sons) out loud, the first [Read more]

Harmony Sainters’ style

Love and death. Or on the hip side of the Yarra: sex and death. That would be the St Kilda side. (Of the Yarra) Love and death. It’s the sum total of it all. Saturday night and I am in the kitchen dealing with kids. I have been occupying them, entertaining them, playing with them, [Read more]

There’ll be plenty of beers after the game

  by Glenn Harris   You know I remember it like one of those things from your childhood that is ingrained into your brain and will never leave you. It was a few months before my 43rd birthday. I was tired, bruised and on my way home.   As we drove down the long straights [Read more]

Sat’dy arvo footy – June 25th

  by Chris Riordan   It’s not just AFL players who anxiously awaited tribunal calls this week. There have also been some celebrated, even unfortunate cases in suburban and country comps. The comical one was down on the peninsula where a player got a week for dropping his dacks and saluting the crowd! Less amusing [Read more]

Saints March In, Coober Pedy Style

Will the Coober Pedy Saints march in with their first win of 2011? They look smart in their red, black and white strip. At least as smart as St Kilda look half the time. It’s the eighth round of the Far North Football League (FNFL) season so it’s been a piss-poor start.   Hornridge, the [Read more]

The Most Beautiful Kicks

  by Matt Zurbo   The most beautiful kick I’ve ever seen on a football oval was a torpedo by Andrew Levi.   The third most beautiful kick I’ve seen was a goal in a VFA/VFL Grand Final by Ian Rickman. His Williamstown were 42 points down at the start of the last quarter, then, [Read more]

English lessons at Windy Hill.

by Shane Goss In the days pre-AFL and Metricon Stadiums, suburban grounds played host to the game’s biggest stars. Back then the AFL was the VFL. Telephone-booths were still in use and Big M milk was the flavour of the times.The ‘match of the day’ or ‘games of the round’ were taking place every Saturday [Read more]

Good Guys and Heroes

By Sasha Lennon Saturday the 18th of June 2011 was a special day.  It was a day for good guys and heroes.  It was about players past and present, and what happened on the field was just a side-story. My eight year-old daughter Molly and I were in Hawthorn’s second home of Launceston, to watch [Read more]

He’s alright, this [Geelong player*] *insert your preferred young’un

    He’s alright, this kid Menzel.   In 2007 when the Cats finally won a flag, I was in London desperately searching for a pub that was showing the game at two in the morning. As the opening bounce drew closer I knew that we were going to win, and that I wasn’t going [Read more]

Clarence Clemons – The Passing of a Musical Inspiration

  by Peter Baulderstone One of the great things about the Almanac is that its’ about more than footy.  Its’ footy and sport as an entrée to things that are deepest and most important in life.  Stuff that would sound ‘preachy’ if stated overtly, but sounds natural and unforced in the context of fandom, mateship [Read more]

A day with the Tigers

  by John Green There are many types of Tiger in the football jungle. They may be found in places as diverse as Coburg, Werribee, Mitcham, Morwell, Colac-Coragulac, Woori Yallock, Kyneton and Foster. Or Glenelg, if you want to continue your safari outside Victoria. Today I’m watching the Tigers in the afternoon and fronting up [Read more]

Happy families, but not when it comes to the Swannies

Bloody hell, the Swans should have made a bit more of an effort for Dad’s Seventy-Sixth birthday.   We should have switched the teev off fourteen minutes into the first term.  Three goals, one, to one behind, things were looking good.  Then Prinz Eugen marked, dead in front, and three minutes later, the ODNBs had [Read more]

Nothing Sweeter

I’m not old enough to understand the hate and bitterness North Melbourne folk have towards the people of Windy Hill, but I do know that there is probably no better feeling than beating Essendon, especially when you’re the underdogs and they are ‘premature premiership chances’. I know that North’s push into the VFL was thwarted [Read more]

St Kilda’s Night of the Living Dead

Considering the top shelf drama that games between these two clubs have provided in recent years, this was a night more notable for what was missing than what actually transpired. No Ablett. No Selwood. No Hayes. After a few minutes, no Bartel. But most significantly, no St Kilda.

THE WRAP – ROUND XIII

WHERE LIFE IMITATES SPORT What a round it’s been in Footy Eddie.  The Team of The Mighty West drove another nail into The Coffin of South Australia as they overhauled and eventually ran away from them on Friday night.  The Leafblowers were roaring in the Leafy East as their heroes demolished The Little Rays of [Read more]

Crio’s Q: Golden Boys

With a wave of the (titleist) wand, Tiger is forgotten….golf has its wunderkind…a golden boy. Though followers have seen it coming for some time, his U.S. Open exhibition ordains Rory McIlroy as “hottest property”. Can you remember the official baptism of a new hero? Who and when?