Despite all the grumbling about selectors, Punter, old batsmen, etc. we’re all still watching with expectation. Almanckers aren’t known for bashfulness with their opinions, so feel free to share through the course of the game.
Andrew Starkie’s Ashes Diary
November 25, 2010 by 3 Comments
ASHES DIARY Entry 1 Wednesday November 24, 2010 Welcome to my Ashes 2010/11 diary. During this Test series, I will be posting regular entries on the almanac website, consisting of observations, opinions, queries and idle thoughts. I love the Ashes as much as I love footy and the NMFC, so stay tuned and let me [Read more]
A Gloriously Uncertain Summer Awaits
November 24, 2010 by 5 Comments
If nothing else this summer, we’re about to discover the value of a sound preparation in the scheme of modern cricket tours. For the first time in a long time, England have picked a squad with credible back-up in all areas, arrived early, played serious warm up games well, and appear genuinely ready for what [Read more]
Caught Behind 2/100
November 24, 2010 by 3 Comments
By Steve Ingham An opinion piece on Australia’s favourite summer sport WHERE HAVE ALL THE PERSONALITIES GONE??? No doubt we live in a world much more sanitised than decades before. No Australian Cricketer will attempt a beer can drinking record on a flight to England, I mean Andrew Symonds was sent home and never wore [Read more]
In A League of Its Own- Edition 18
November 24, 2010 by 5 Comments
Tom’s weekly outlook on the A-League They say that the ladder never lies, and I agree. This season’s A-League is just past midway through, and like in the EPL over their Christmas break, you’ll often find that the table doesn’t change too much from halfway until the end of the season. But this season in [Read more]
Zephi Skinner leaps tall buildings, and an Almanac correspondent
November 23, 2010 by 8 Comments
I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to play a couple of games for the NT Thunder side this year. They compete in the QAFL and unfortunately for them they were scraping the bottom of the barrel, player wise. I happened to be in town and they reluctantly decided they had no alternative but [Read more]
Crio’s Q: Sports Stars in the Media
November 23, 2010 by 34 Comments
Sport, of course, is simply a grading phase en route to the ultimate fame game – the media. Warnie, mostly unencumbered now by actually playing anything other than cards, can spread his wisdom across both our dailies, with TV, radio, twitter and other outlets all breathless for a grab. Tim Watson (newsreader, breakfast radio host [Read more]
Memories of “Urnest” battles
November 22, 2010 by 17 Comments
The Vietnamese-Cambodian border, transient nightclubs in St Kilda, and the turquoise blue waters of the Amalfi Coast in Italy. Among the reams of Ashes literature penned over the decades, I doubt whether these three destinations have been mentioned. But for me, they form part of my Ashes memories. Part of my urn worship if you [Read more]
Book Launch: Gideon Haigh & Martin Flanagan
November 19, 2010 by 2 Comments
Martin Flanagan talks sport with Gideon Haigh 6:30pm Wednesday 8 December Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall Cnr Victoria & Lygon Sts, Carlton “Does cricket make money in order to exist, or does it exist in order to make money?” In his new book Sphere of Influence, Gideon Haigh follows cricket’s biggest story since Kerry Packer’s [Read more]
Almanac Racing: Ballarat Cup 2010
November 19, 2010 by 2 Comments
I met someone recently who was honestly astonished to learn that the races continued throughout the year. I’m unsure whether the more incredible part of this is the person’s belief or that I’d managed to cross paths with such a standpoint! Nevertheless, the marquees have, indeed, been dismantled so, in her skewed sense, she is [Read more]
Almanac Launch Photos
November 19, 2010 by 19 Comments
The Good, the Bad, and the… well, we’ll leave that to your discretion. Ladies excepted of course. On the 11th November, warring football clans called an Armistice, to meet together in the common purpose of launching this year’s Almanac. Both father(s) and child are doing well, though we haven’t heard what the mother thinks just [Read more]
Social Networking in Footy
November 19, 2010 by 7 Comments
Scan the crowd at your local AFL match at half time and chances are you’ll see a myriad of fans ‘tweeting’ or ‘Facebooking’ on their phones. Social networking took the Australian Football League by storm in 2010 and the majority of clubs eagerly hopped onboard the new phenomenon. Fans can now access their favourite team [Read more]
SHORT DRAFT MEMORY (Must have a…..)
November 19, 2010 by 1 Comment
[I]”Conquistadors of Peel Thunder, West Adelaide and Northern Knights The Young Falcons of Old Geelong SHORT DRAFT MEMORY Young hopeful from Tasmania, a project player from Canberra Your club’s 2 minute deadline’s up SHORT DRAFT MEMORY Short draft memory must be a shoorrrt draft memory”[/I] Sorry, getting a little carried away with it all, or [Read more]
Giant Name Leaves Little Room for Inspiration
November 18, 2010 by 18 Comments
By Sasha Lennon I knew this would happen. It’s taken me ten years or more to accept ‘The Dockers’. I still can’t digest ‘The Power’, and I can’t even say ‘The Suns’ out loud but now we have the GWS Giants! What happened to all the animals? Have we run out of good names? Surely [Read more]
Where did you get the ‘Nac?
November 17, 2010 by 18 Comments
by Andrew Gigacz Last week’s Melbourne launch of the fourth Footy Almanac was, sadly, the first one I’ve not attended. A pre-arranged junket to New Zealand meant that I was holed up in an Auckland hotel at the time Gerard Whateley was unleashing the 2010 Almanac onto passionate Pies, sorrowful Saints, flummoxed Footscray fans and [Read more]
“Trust me selectors”
November 16, 2010 by 14 Comments
by Chris Riordan For the thousandth time in the week, a girl wobbled on impossible heels and procrastinated over what horse to back. Improbably, she eventually chose “NO HESITATION”, causing me to splutter in to my Bookies bag. “You shoulda seen me choosing my shoes this morning!”, she laughed. Decisions, decisions… Yesterday [Read more]
In A League of Its Own – Issue 17
November 16, 2010 by 2 Comments
Tom’s weekly outlook on the A-League This week, the A-League returned to its goals. Not only did we see more great games and goals than last week, but we also experienced a few upsets as well. With no draws and no less than 3 goals in any of the games, it was arguably the best [Read more]
littledocker
November 15, 2010 by 4 Comments
Okay so I was thinking about, the whole Jack might be going to Freo thing and I guess maybe it’s not THAT bad. While I know it means that id have to kinda-sorta adopt Freo as my second team, a photo I found of myself kinda made me realise that it’s not going to be [Read more]
Australian Football Versus Tackleball and Stoppageball
November 15, 2010 by 12 Comments
THE ‘GREAT GAME’ OF 2009–10 This is a story of the state of Australian Football — with implications for the character of other invasion/?eld games in the commercial, professional, corporate era of sport — in three parts. This more speci?c study is set in an era of the corruption of contemporary sports (from corporate club [Read more]
Vale Presti
November 14, 2010 by 4 Comments
Like other Floreat Picans, I felt genuinely saddened and moved when I heard the news of Presti’s retirement, and the consequent death of the dream of him playing in a premiership. He has been unique in this generation of players and while supporters of many other clubs reckoned that he was overrated, no-one at Collingwood [Read more]
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