By Pamela Sherpa We’ve beaten enemy No.1 (Collingwood) and enemy No.2 (Carlton) in thrillers this year. Now we face enemy No.3, Hawthorn. They beat enemy No.2 in a thriller last week and happen to be the premiers. Despite always being a chance against arch rivals there’s an awful feeling that this week will be quite [Read more]
General footy writing: Chelsea’s pain is small fry for a Bulldogs fan
May 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Andrew Gigacz I’m not a big follower of soccer but I’m aware of the controversy surrounding Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Conspiracy theorists say the referee was “encouraged” to assist in avoiding a second successive all-English final. Chelsea players, officials and fans clearly were in pain after getting [Read more]
Weekend read: The money game
May 8, 2009 by 6 Comments
By Paul Daffey Amid all the talk about overcoming injury, flying for the big mark and striving for the premiership, it is sometimes forgotten that football clubs need money to survive. In larger country competitions, they need lots of money. There are player payments, affiliation fees, hot showers and new footballs to provide. In recent [Read more]
General footy writing: How a boy earned his Hawthorn stripes
May 8, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Jason Christou Grand Final day 1989. Cross-legged under the television. Before me, a glass of chilled milk. I watched the condensation dribble down the glass, pooling into a moist ring. Expectantly, I tilted my head towards the television fuzz. A week earlier Mum had helped me attach streamers to the balcony barrier. My team’s [Read more]
Interstate Hell With the AFL
May 6, 2009 by 3 Comments
Background: When the TV rights changed from Channel Seven to Nine during the previous agreement it resulted in Friday night footy going from an 8.30pm time slot to 11.30pm . This caused immense frustration to viewers north of the Murray. I expressed my frustration in a poem. INTERSTATE HELL WITH THE AFL (2002) A national [Read more]
Ex-Blue gets leather poisoning
May 6, 2009 by 1 Comment
In the Sheds By Paul Daffey Readers may remember a bag-of-bones midfielder with blond hair who played for Carlton in the Denis Pagan era. His name was Jon “Hopper” McCormick, and although he impressed during his 26 AFL games he was offloaded after the 2004 season. In recent years McCormick has lived in his home [Read more]
Hats off to Castlemaine’s seven-decade servant
May 6, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Richard Jones JACK Jefferies’ service to the Castlemaine Football Club has spanned every decade from the 1940s to the early part of the 21st century. He has been a player – and a premiership player, at that, in 1952 – a club president, vice-president and committeeman and also the vice-president of the Bendigo Golden [Read more]
Water, water, everywhere but not a drop to drink
May 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Avan Stallard There’s a remarkable little documentary called Cunnamulla. It tells the story of some of the less fortunate soles in the Queensland town of the same name. If you’re not familiar with the place, Cunnamulla is a settlement 800km west of Brisbane in the middle of nowhere. It also happens to be [Read more]
Great days at East Freo
May 6, 2009 by 2 Comments
by Bruce Houston As a ‘past player’ of East Freo I receive their regular mag. I was looking at it on the weekend and thought I must send you a list of EF players in the AFL. Surely, no other individual club could match it. I’d be pretty confident that EF would still hold [Read more]
Bulldogs fan in familiar anguish
May 6, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Chris Riordan “Dad, they’re not going to win with only twelve players. You’ve sacked most of the side already!” Not yet quarter-time and, according to my footy buddy, I’d gone all “Phillip Lynch” on the Doggies’ list. “Eagleton, must go. Johnno, leave while you still have some dignity. Hit it, Mitch, you’re our only [Read more]
Oh yeah, and Ablett did his groin
May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Steve Healy Nine seconds had lapsed in this game between the Dees and the Cats and it was already apparent that Geelong had the game on a string. I watched in disgust as Gary Ablett, the Brownlow favourite, stormed through the middle without a Demon in sight. He sprinted up to the fifty and [Read more]
Diesel: From Golden Square to gold in Sydney
May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Richard Jones Greg “Diesel” Williams, Golden Square’s former champion young centreman, was a senior Geelong player when he spent a busy off-season during the summer of 1985-86. When Geelong dumped Tommy Hafey and Sydney snapped Hafey up, the canny coach knew which leading Cats’ players were coming out of contract. So he had a [Read more]
The view from Shepparton: Round 6
May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Peter Schumacher Who is the most tragic footballer in the AFL: the Fev or Matthew Richardson? I reckon after last week’s effort the gong would have to give it to Fev, although Richo has an imposing record. My wife and I stopped in our tracks spellbound as Fevola’s last mark was called so well [Read more]
When all is lost, I alliterate
May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Andrew Starkie North Melbourne versus Collingwood 7.40pm, Friday, 1May Etihad Stadium There are times when emotions are best expressed through alliteration. When feeling romantic, we’re amorously aroused. When our car is broken into in a Northcote carpark, we’re bloody bummed. When Barry Hall is angry, he is Big Bad Barry. And so on. Bewildered [Read more]
Little Voices
May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Vin Maskell We drank tea in the kitchen on the hill Listening to the players wandering Looking for their football in the fog. The kettle boiled, the whistle blew The steam from the cups Caressed our faces. Below in the white still darkness The players kept calling: Nicknames and coaches’ orders. A [Read more]
This Geelong Life
May 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Ed Harcourt “You don’t know what love is until you’ve learned the meaning of the blues.” It was June 16 1991. A typical Melbourne day at the MCG. Round 13 of The Australian Football League’s season was my first as a member of The Geelong Football Club. We sat on the wing [Read more]
Thin white moon
May 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment
by Haiku Bob Fraser’s stoop the long curve of the thin white moon crisp autumn night Pendlebury sticks his little gives leafless trees Lockyer finds himself loose rolling zone the crumb gatherer wheels right and bends [Read more]
Superdogs overcome tardy start
May 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Nick Kossatch RIVERLAND’S over-35s football side, the Superdogs, travelled to Blyth in South Australia’s Mid North and returned home 31-point victors. With a depleted side the Doggies “went to work” after a tardy start. The spring-heeled Nick “Kossy” Kossatch had a reason to jump higher in the ruck as his lady friend Nat was [Read more]
Loxton show they’ve got the goods
May 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Nick Kossatch Loxton’s Peter Smith kicked five goals to help his side to an upset four-goal win against Waikerie in the Headspace third round of South Australia’s Riverland footy league. The Tigers began in blazing fashion, skipper Leigh Kruger and Braden Smith setting the tone. Centreman Kruger helped set up youngster Jackson Fielke for [Read more]
You have to love the genius of Blighty
By Adrian Vitez Around 30,000 attended this Round 6 match-up at the Gabba. Like most other interested parties, I received it via the channel 10 telecast led by Quarters, and featuring the great Blighty on special comments. Blighty fits the special comments job description perfectly as he never fails to offer comments which are unique [Read more]