It has been a most tumultuous week in Australian sport. Well, in Australian professional sport. You have to be specific because I reckon professional sport and normal, everyday, garden-variety sport are actually quite different. One is about commerce, the other is about the game. The tumult comes from the exposure of the flagrant salary cap [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Real Storm surprise is that people are surprised
April 29, 2010 by 18 Comments
Round 5: Fremantle v Richmond – Defeat’s not as bad from home
April 29, 2010 by 1 Comment
It’s looking like another grim football season for the Allan household. I decide this as my “other” side of the family watch their under performing Hawks remarkably lose to the predicted cellar dwellars North Melbourne. I can’t help but think back to 2008, when the season ended with my Tigers, finishing just outside the eight, [Read more]
Upset Round
April 29, 2010 by 4 Comments
Now that the annual ‘upset Round’ has been completed with football scholars’ throughout the land and possibly beyond, predictions being turned upside down and my geriatric Cats morphed from roosters to feather dusters as quick as you can say Podsiadliwho, I reflect, perhaps because I am upset. Some comment on Anzac Day footy, as the [Read more]
end of sorrow
April 29, 2010 by 3 Comments
Anzac Day – the sun settles on every medal Anzac Day crowd – the amplification of silence end of sorrow Cloke kicks the first bright autumn sun flashes through the goals Cloke’s banana Toovey goals there must be something in this beer Anzac Day – Didak finds a gap between bodies watching the rain beer [Read more]
More than one punt in modern footy
April 28, 2010 by 2 Comments
I haven’t lived in Melbourne for a few years now, but still love getting back home and catching the odd game. Having spent years overseas watching football (soccer) and now living in a rugby state, I can still safely say that footy, the Australian variety, is clearly the greatest of them all. But there is [Read more]
Dees Fans Sing a Saturday Night Song
April 28, 2010 by 15 Comments
It seemed like an eternity since the Demons had played a night game at the MCG. In actual fact, it was Round 19, 2008, and I wasn’t even there. But I was there tonight for the game between my rampant Demons and an undefeated Brisbane side. As I walked down to the Olympic Stand pocket [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Storm fans need another Lazarus moment
April 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Rugby league isn’t my game of choice. In fact, I can honestly say I’ve never been to one solitary game in any of my 33 years. My first real sense of association with it was at an unlikely event on a glorious spring day in 1999. North Melbourne had won the flag the day before, [Read more]
The Real Round 5 Ladder?
April 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Following a discussion with a Swans supporter about their dream run to get them to the top after round 5, I felt the need to try and justify my position……. Consequently, please find below the real ladder after Round 5. One that perhaps offers a bit more perspective on a team’s performance to date. The [Read more]
The View From Shepparton: Round 5
April 28, 2010 by 2 Comments
Well what a prick of an Anzac Day weekend that was. The Brisbane bubble was pricked followed closely by that of St Kilda’s, Geelong, but the Storm were the biggest pricks of all, or at least a few of their administrators have been. I spent the weekend in Melbourne, folks, and made up my mind [Read more]
FPS: ANZAC XVI Pies surge to equal top!
April 28, 2010 by Leave a Comment
By Mark O’Connell The 16th annual clash between Colingwood and Essendon was, as always, eagerly anticipated. Unfortunately we had to again put up with the annual whingeing about the right of these two teams to have this fixture. Let me re-print something from a previous ANZAC day report Anzac day, as a commemoration of those [Read more]
General Footy Writing: You want great clashes? You’ll have to look beyond Saints and Dogs matches
April 27, 2010 by 4 Comments
This Friday evening the Dogs take on the Saints in what shapes as a potential preview to a September showdown. Maybe. The battle of these tri-colours was once an entry on the fixture that hardly set pulses racing. Times change. As one of the many long suffering members/supporters of one of these trophy-starved teams, here [Read more]
A well-rounded holiday
April 27, 2010 by 1 Comment
26 April – the day after ANZAC Day. Which means it is a public holiday as Victoria has adopted the national policy of a day in lieu of the Sunday. Good idea if you are an employee. My actual ANZAC Day was spent at the MCG seeing the Pies dominate the Bombers, so the extra [Read more]
Blues take advantage of fluctuating circumstance
April 27, 2010 by 1 Comment
Isn’t it interesting how the sporting landscape can change so immensely in the space of just 7 days? It had been an enjoyable week on a personal level as I completed my Work Experience at Channel 10 and felt thrilled as I took a glimpse at the professional work involved in the fascinating medium of [Read more]
Crio’s Question: What are your sports forecasting rules?
April 27, 2010 by 22 Comments
As this weekend’s results attest, punting and picking winners are tough tasks. To simplify the predicament we look for trends, adages, even superstitions. My 2010 theory (at the moment) involves laying teams the week after they’ve played the Dogs. The Pies fell in by a point v Dees but it is otherwise effective! Past advice [Read more]
Speed kills: Blues run and run while the Cats plod
April 26, 2010 by 6 Comments
Sometimes, the more we think we know, the less we really know. Week after week, we study form, history, maybe even tea leaves, and boldly predict the unknowable. It’s called, amongst other things, footy tipping. Many even venture to wager. Others prognosticate. Aren’t humans amusing? This week’s games looked pretty straight forward. Well, we all [Read more]
THE TIGERS IN UNACCUSTOMED TERRITORY
April 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment
The Tigers are in unaccustomed territory. A big Anzac day clash on the Sunday night with the focus of an entire state upon the match. As for Fremantle, perhaps it is fitting. After all, Western Australians from the tenth battalion were among the first ashore on that tumultuous morning back in 1915. The Dockers are [Read more]
North triumph in Tassie
April 26, 2010 by 25 Comments
I wasn’t feeling too good about this game at all. North hadn’t beaten Hawthorn since Round 13, 2008, and the last time these two sides played at Aurora Stadium, the Roos had a three goal buffer going into the last term in freezing conditions, only for Luke Hodge and Lance Franklin to steal the four [Read more]
ANZAC Soccer
April 26, 2010 by 12 Comments
Here’s a piece I published in Neos Kosmos last year that some of you might be interested in reading. Since 1995, Collingwood and Essendon have battled for Anzac supremacy at the MCG. Following the AFL’s lead St George and Eastern Suburbs commemorate the day in the National Rugby League. It’s a tradition to which supporters [Read more]
Off-field consolations must suffice on a bad day for Bombers.
April 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment
It was a tough day at the “G” on Anzac Day. Not the company I was with of course, it’s the Annual Father /Son Bonding Day and we always get together for a pre match beer and chat about the season so far. I admitted i wasn’t feeling to confident but thought if the Dons [Read more]
Poem: Ode to the Crackling Transistor
April 26, 2010 by 3 Comments
Ensconced we sit in contoured plastic seats, our floggers banned, our brollies not allowed, with leg-room our desire for comfort meets and yet the advertising’s way too loud. Where thermos flasks of soup once warmed us up and pies were cheap, or peanuts from a sack, We queue for coffee now, five bucks a cup, [Read more]
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