After spending my first week of holidays in Yarrawonga, I’m keen to get home and head off to the Dogs-Saints game. Hours after getting home Dad and I are out on the road again to Surrey Hills station. We aren’t willing to take on preliminary finals traffic. On the way to the station we make [Read more]
Local Footy: Xavs hold out De La for last-gasp win
September 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Old Xaverians yesterday scored their 11th A-section premiership and 10th since 1995 when they held off a late flurry from De La Salle to win the grand final at Elsternwick Park by three points. Xavs defeated De La by 92 points in the second semi-final and looked the likely winners throughout this match. They led [Read more]
AFL Prelim Finals: Thoughts of Finland begin to drift in as Cats demolish Pies
September 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment
It’s a heavily anticipated preliminary final, there’s a massive crowd at the MCG and they are making a massive amount of noise. I add my own as the popcorn cooks. Pendlebury is a late withdrawal and it’s no surprise really. Three weeks recovery for a broken leg is rather absurd. From the first bounce, the [Read more]
AFL Prelim Finals: Saints’ extra bite up forward hauls them over line
September 20, 2009 by 13 Comments
It is a Friday and the end of the school term, I should be thrilled. However on this particular Friday I am relatively angry!! Today is the day I am receiving my braces!!!!!! Although this device is supposed to straighten my two crooked teeth, its presence still very annoying!! Thankfully they will only be attached [Read more]
Racing: Review from Caulfield on 19 September
September 20, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Mark “Makybe” Freeman writes: Great days racing at the Heath today, spoiled only by the starter’s shocker in the Rupert Clarke and the lightness of pocket (mine and Daff’s). The Rupert Clarke was the first Group 1 of the spring, and was a debacle unfortunately. The well-fancied Gold Salute reared in the starting stalls, then [Read more]
AFL Prelim Finals: Saints desperate flurry breaks every red, blue and white heart
September 20, 2009 by 2 Comments
It’s that time of year. The end of the third term: the garbage trucks invade the streets and take rubbish from people’s nature strips. It’s September. I can’t wait for the game to begin. I come home from Founder’s Day with a smile on my face, and do whatever I can to pass time. The [Read more]
The Pre-Wrap: A salute to Lloyd for memorable career
September 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment
For the Philosophical Marngrook Follower What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. Now here’s some Breaking News. Lloydy may have played his last game in the Red & Black of Whingy Hill. The story going around is that Coach Knighter wants him to play further up the ground (about fourth row in the W.H. [Read more]
Jones Files: Square keep Sandhurst at bay to earn grand final victory for the ages
September 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Richard Jones GOLDEN Square plays off with old rivals South Bendigo in this Saturday’s Bendigo Football League grand final. The Square Bulldogs went down by a goal to Eaglehawk in last September’s cliffhanger decider. The Bloods, meanwhile, have made the grand final for the first time since 1995. Perennial losing preliminary finalists, South snapped [Read more]
Racing: Preview for Caulfield, Rosehill and Echuca on 19 September
September 17, 2009 by 11 Comments
Chris Riordan writes: The Underwood Stakes meeting at Caulfield on Saturday is a cracker but it will, as usual, struggle for profile on AFL prelims weekend. Although no match is scheduled for the afternoon, it is really not until Turnbull Stakes Day in another fortnight that the spotlight switches to the gallops. That, however, doesn’t [Read more]
Local Footy: Hume league to honour old Coreen league
September 17, 2009 by 5 Comments
By Barry Malone The Coreen and District Football League folded in 2007 after 98 years of serving the people of the southern Riverina, specifically the area north of Corowa. This Saturday, at the Hume league grand final between Osborne and Jindera at Walbundrie, Hume league officials will host a “wind-up” of the Coreen league. It’s [Read more]
Local Footy: Demise of Benalla District league spark cherished memories in sad circumstances
September 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Hamish Cameron Last Sunday, Bonnie Doon went back-to-back winning the final Benalla and District league premiership by 15 goals against Swanpool. After more than 60 years in existence, the league will now disband, leaving five clubs to go their separate ways. For posterity’s sake, now is a good time to reflect on playing for [Read more]
Harms: The Magpie Creature just won’t die
September 17, 2009 by 5 Comments
THIS is madness. I am getting worried. About the creature that is the Collingwood Football Club. It is like some alien in a sci-fi movie; some vile, bile-spewing monster that cannot be killed. Like some vampire in the last leg of a midnight-to-dawn marathon and all you have to protect you is a pair of [Read more]
General Footy Writing: The Footy Almanac is like the ravens that feed me in the desert
September 17, 2009 by 1 Comment
By Michael Viljoen Gadala, Cameroon When I came to work as a linguist in rural Cameroon in 2002, I knew the land was an Aussie Rules wilderness. Internet connections were feeble and fluky. The first Grand Final cassette sent to me was lost in the post. Occasionally I went weeks without hearing a result. My [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Wild Cats (Felis catus) take centre route to big kill
September 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
Throughout the land fans of at least four footy tribes are all a little excited. Maybe it is just a spring thing but for some it is has deteriorated into a serious nervous affliction. This was worryingly apparent in the weekly words from Cat tragic and fellow ‘Knacker” John Harms in this morning’s Age. Plagues [Read more]
Local Footy: Serong’s two seasons in Bendigo league rank him among the best
September 16, 2009 by 21 Comments
My fellow Almanacker Richard Jones is a keen observer and promoter of the Bendigo Football League. He has compiled two separate lists of the 10 greatest players from different eras. I saw several of the players he had on his list from the 70s play and that’ll brook no argument with me, all great players. [Read more]
General Footy Writing: How does the AFL expect the code to expand in Sydney?
September 16, 2009 by 1 Comment
I have constantly railed against the TV scheduling of football telecasts, as have all footy supporters. For those who get The Oz I refer them to Imre Salusinszky’s column “The Wry Side” in which he discusses the reason why he was not thrilled by the Adelaide-Collingwood game. His comments encapsulate exactly the frustration felt by [Read more]
AFL Round 16: Blues torch Swans in Flame Trees spin-off
September 16, 2009 by 1 Comment
by Rick Newbery Four years since The Move and I still can’t get the hang of this joint, whatever it’s called this week, and the frustration mounts as I crawl up and down the side streets of West Melbourne looking for a parking spot which is easy to get away from, and within reasonable range of [Read more]
Ireland Correspondent: The toy leprechaun can go back on the shelf
September 16, 2009 by 13 Comments
By Peter Lenaghan It is a dilemma that I have been wrestling with for weeks. Our time in Ireland is drawing to a close and I need a souvenir. In stores across the island there are enough tacky postcards, fridge magnets, flat caps, toy leprechauns and T-shirts and trinkets advertising a certain black beverage to [Read more]
Jones Files: Hartney’s two league medals place him among Bendigo elite
September 16, 2009 by 20 Comments
Richard Jones BRENDAN Hartney was always destined to play for Sandhurst and follow in the footsteps of his late father, Leo. Leo Hartney not only donned the maroon and blue colors of Sandhurst, but when his playing days were over was a faithful servant of the club, serving for a period as chairman of selectors. [Read more]
Top Ten: The best dummy spits in sport
September 16, 2009 by 49 Comments
1. Jeff Tarango, 1995 The American hot-head spat the dummy in the ultimate fashion by becoming the first tennis player to walk out on a match at Wimbledon. After losing a point that had been replayed during his third-round match against Alexander Mronz, Tarango told heckling spectators to “shut up”. A subsequent warning for an [Read more]
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