Racing’s focus has been fixed on Royal Ascot this week and, despite our tough time zone, Australia’s payTV viewers have been blessed with an outstanding coverage – as DD and I have discussed on another thread. One suggestion, though, for TVN. Harking way back to my childhood, I’d fall asleep to John Arlott’s dulcet Ashes [Read more]
How Clarko saved Geelong
June 16, 2011 by 11 Comments
Saturday afternoon. I am reading nineteenth century newspapers, writing about the 1898 Grand Final. And waiting for time to pass until I get the train to the MCG. Jungle Ruler has just saluted. I am containing myself. I am happy in the way that Crows fans are not, because on the television the Adelaide Football [Read more]
Sat’dy, June 18, 2011
June 16, 2011 by 8 Comments
Volcanic ash won’t have any bearing on local footy fixtures so you can fill your diary now with options for this Sat’dy arvo. The pick of the VFL matches appears to be North Ballarat, fresh from their toppling of wobbly Willy, who are hosting the Borough juggernaut. If you’d rather stay within a Zone 1 [Read more]
Forgive Me Father
June 16, 2011 by 3 Comments
I awoke on Sunday morning racked with guilt. Is it a sin to ignore your own team? To be drawn into, and absorbed by, another match at the expense of the club you love? Bless me, Father Brosnan, for I have sinned…
John Greening Incident
June 16, 2011 by 11 Comments
Getting close to 39 years since the infamous felling of John Greening at Moorabin. A lot of water has passed under the bridge, and a lot has not/can not, be said about the episode. Now I recall a fair bit of that period, but can someone remind me re Jimmy O’Dea’s tribunal hearing. In those days [Read more]
Cats v Hawks, Another Thriller, What did we expect?
June 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Hawthorn v Geelong Rd 12 MCG 7.10pm Wow! What a game! We all know the recent history of the Cats and the Hawks but can we keep expecting them to deliver every time they meet? Every time they play it’s built up and anticipated as a huge clash of FIERCE RIVALS, and unlike other “Big [Read more]
Where Loyalty Starts
June 15, 2011 by 15 Comments
by Matt Zurbo What the hell is a GC? I tried explaining it to my nephew. He’s looking for a team to barrack for. Red and yellow are simple and bold. Good stuff. He’s young. A new life for a new club, I thought. But GC? “It’s a co-orperate emblem,” I said. “Hm, you [Read more]
DA’s Clue of the Round (13)
June 15, 2011 by 6 Comments
by David Astle Something a bit different this week – a puzzle in piecemeal. Today is Part One – being four past or present AFL players. Your challenge is to spot the connection, which has zip to do with their playing careers, club or position. In fact only true all-round sports nuts will win the [Read more]
Violet Town v Longwood
June 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment
by Shane Goss After witnessing the thriller at the MCG on Saturday night between Hawthorn and Geelong I ventured to Violet Town in north east Victoria for the round nine clash in the Kyabram District Football League between Violet Town and Longwood. Violet Town is the former home to Aussie rock band Killing Heidi [Read more]
The right decision
June 15, 2011 by 30 Comments
by Nick Sculley On Friday afternoon I was faced with a decision; leave a pile of well overdue study for yet another day and head to Etihad Stadium to watch my beloved Saints, or get it out of the way on Friday and visit the Mecca on Saturday night for what surely would be [Read more]
One Hundred Years Ago: Round 7, 5th June, 1911
June 15, 2011 by 4 Comments
Monday the 5th of June 1911 was the 46th birthday of King George V, necessitating the footballers of the Victorian Football League to drag their weary bones out of bed and play a second round of football games in the space of three days. It goes without saying that there was no AFLPA back in [Read more]
Debt demolition
June 14, 2011 by 1 Comment
by Andrea McNamara It’s Women’s Round in the AFL – something I find quite unnecessary to draw attention to, since females make up about half the crowd every week and that’s not a new thing either. Anyway, as it turns out, I go to the footy with three other females, and this year we upgraded [Read more]
Heartaches by the Number
June 14, 2011 by 29 Comments
by Rick Kane On Saturday night I caught a train home from the MCG feeling lost and despondent. I knew what the Hawks could have done better. I know that the Hawks can take it right up to the Cats. I know a free kick when I see one. And boy, I know [Read more]
Bloods land a winner
June 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment
by Jake “Cobba” Stevens If footy is my favorite sport, then fishing (If you can call it a sport) would be my second. As unpopular and boring some people think that it is, nothing makes me happier than getting out onto the water and wetting a line. I live in Mt Martha on the Mornington [Read more]
Her hair glistened…
June 14, 2011 by 5 Comments
Every year, English teachers from across the United States submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year’s winners. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two [Read more]
Going to the footy
June 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment
by Richard Naco I love going to the footy. Sydney on Sunday was cold, wet and miserable (as forecasted), and although my family and I prevaricated to almost the very last second, in the end the lure of the game proved too great and it was off to the SCG that we went. I love [Read more]
JK’s Round 12 Wrap
June 14, 2011 by 2 Comments
by John Kingsmill Coming back from Gay’s today, there was a new piece of graffiti on a neighbour’s wall. Love, it read, in cursive longhand, on an alley wall in Regent Street South. It reminded me of Arthur Stace, writing Eternity on Sydney footpaths in chalk in the thirties. I saw Love from my balcony [Read more]
MID SEASON REVIEW – WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER…BEGINS
June 13, 2011 by 2 Comments
Brendan Schwab’s proposal for the creation of two divisions in the AFL, with promotion and relegation, though unlikely to gain much support, was nonetheless motivated by the very reasonable concern that an 18 team competition will produce too many meaningless matches in the latter half of the season. A quick mid-season report on the [Read more]
Bombers on Strike
June 13, 2011 by 3 Comments
Looking back at Australian Bureau of Statistics, (ABS), data on strikes and industrial action I looked at the figures for Victoria. In 1970 there were 447 industrial disputes in Victoria. These involved around 333,000 workers, and saw just over 510, 800 working days lost. Missing from these statistics were the actions of a group of [Read more]
No Ball!
June 13, 2011 by 1 Comment
Dravid ct Hayden Bwld Johnson (no ball): From boxing day 2007. Johnson had tied Dravid down for ages by bowling wide of off stump, but then lured him into a rash shot with a slightly closer ball only for it to be a no ball. The only Australian fieldsman not in the shot was fine [Read more]
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