By Sam Steele They’ve got a Kop at Richmond these days! Rushing into Docklands just as the ball is bounced, I’m expecting a new dawn of sorts as the Tigers start life under new coach, Jade Rawlings. He’s dropped all the old-timers in the team apart from Cousins, and is expecting our youngest team in [Read more]
AFL Round 12: Richmond v West Coast: Tiger Kop barely moved to song by humdrum win
June 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Round 12: Carlton v St Kilda: Even a Tigers fan admits the Blues deserves praise
June 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Sam Steele I’m home alone – a rare event in the Steele household. Older son Tom has gone to the game with some university mates. Younger son Billy is at a party. My better half, the non-footballing Yang to the football-mad Yin of the three boys in the family, is having a family reunion [Read more]
Gigs’ Stats: Mega mid-season stat declaration
June 20, 2009 by 2 Comments
Forget all the other mid-season reviews. Here are the four most important things so far gleaned from this season: 1. FOOTY TIPSTERS TIPPING TIP – WHEN TO PICK CARLTON So many factors come into play when deciding which team to pick on a Friday afternoon. Is player X in this week? Is player Y carrying [Read more]
The Wrap: Part 2 of Round 12
June 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By John Mosig What a week it’s been in Footy Eddie. The big question is out there in The Burbs, at The Family Club. Is the Football Department about to be Jeffed? They’re certainly playing as though they already have been. The news came in the form of an apology from The Prez, to the [Read more]
Jones Files: The day Moresby fight fans heckled Smokin’ Joe
June 19, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Richard Jones SMOKIN’ Joe Frazier, one-time world heavyweight boxing champion, landed in Port Moresby in late March 1975. Joe and his entourage flew in from Melbourne where Joe had beaten a top rated opponent in Jimmy Ellis in a scheduled 12-rounder. In fact Frazier won on a ninth round TKO with Ellis unable to [Read more]
AFL Fans: Curse You Harms, You’re Right (about Crows fans)
June 18, 2009 by 8 Comments
I could tell from the opening words of John Harm’s article on Patrick Dangerfield that there was trouble ahead.
AFL fans: A Crows fan is a Crows fan is a Crows fan
June 18, 2009 by 13 Comments
by John Harms I am worried about Patrick Dangerfield. He seems like such a nice boy. He’s from the Geelong area. Innocent. He knows the country air, the surf and the sea of Moggs Creek, the smell of freshly mown fairways, and the sound of new-born lambs feebly bleating. He was born under the reign [Read more]
The Wrap: Round 12 and a bit
June 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment
THE WRAP – ROUND XI THE LADDER ST KILDA 12 0 173.62 48 GEELONG 11 0 153.00 44 FOOTSCRAY 8 4 125.89 32 BRISBANE 7 5 101.40 28 ADELAIDE 7 5 100.19 28 CARLTON 6 6 114.52 24 CARRINGBUSH 6 5 107.79 24 [Read more]
Yarra Man: Make the TAC Cup an under-23 competition
June 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Tavis Perry I’ve often wondered if the AFL has got it right with the TAC cup. There’s no doubt that most of the players who are drafted come out of this competition, but I wonder if the AFL could utilise the TAC Cup better as a breeding ground for potential players. I think it [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Footy soul train needs a little direction
June 18, 2009 by 11 Comments
By David Mapleston It’s Sunday afternoon and I am watching the Cats and the Bombers on telly. My girlfriend Sonja’s favourite player has just became Jimmy Bartel due to a close up before a centre bounce. Cameron Ling was No.1 because, as Sonja said, he is the “Susan Boyle of the AFL”. It’s the mothering [Read more]
Irish Correspondent: Hill 16 and other lessons
June 18, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Peter Lenaghan Croke Park in Dublin gleams when the weak, early summer sunshine peeps through the cloud. It is the first big day of the Leinster football championship. Nearby, betting shops and pubs are overflowing and the Dubs’ fans, decked out in sky blue kits, are lubricating their voice boxes; the old rivals are [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Tigers must resist temptation to rush in and sign Buckley
June 17, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Graham Sinclair The mind flashes back a few years to last time that the Tigers were in the hunt for a coach. Spud Frawley had brought to the club the mediocrity he had displayed as an assistant under Tony Shaw at Collingwood. The future at Richmond was looking barren. Lack of funding, lack of [Read more]
General Footy Writing: Tired of silence in the stands? Now sit down and listen to this …
June 17, 2009 by 3 Comments
By Bill Mapleston Recently I was walking past the telly. The match of the day was on at the ’G, Cometti was commentating, and the match looked to be at an exciting phase. So I took a minute out to watch – “Luv the game,” as they say. Cometti kept me amused with his “right [Read more]
General Footy Writing: The day we took Geoff Leek to training
June 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Rod Oaten It wasn’t easy being an Essendon supporter and living in North Caulfield, but Mum and Dad moved out there from the beloved north-western suburb after they got married so there wasn’t much I could do about it. I used to love Essendon not only because of its footy team but because planes [Read more]
General Footy Writing: An Irishman’s thoughts on footy, such as they are
June 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Cormac McCormack Big wages. Big muscles. Big city clubs shipping 6000 kilometres to play at big stadia … Everything about the AFL should make anyone from a GAA background skulk around in anxious compunction, waiting for the inevitable comparisons. It doesn’t, though. The bottom line – that Gaelic games are amateur sports, played and [Read more]
Middle East Correspondent: Rick Quade deserves place among Swans’ greats
June 17, 2009 by 2 Comments
By Rod Gillett Rick Quade stepped down from the Swans’ board of directors only last year, after almost 40 years of service for the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans Football Club. Since beginning as a player in 1970, he’s been captain, coach, chairman of selectors and a board member. Recently he heeded another call to serve the [Read more]
In the Sheds: Castlemaine celebrate 150th anniversary in style
June 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Paul Daffey A FEW years ago, with questions still to be solved about the formation of the Castlemaine footy club, Magpies committeeman Maurie Crooke proposed that the club should take measures to establish just when it was created. Crooke organised for the Magpies to make a donation to the Castlemaine Historical Society, whose Aileen [Read more]
General Footy Writing: In appreciation of Dean Laidley
June 17, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Josh Barnstable The man affectionately known as The Junkyard Dog started his career at the West Coast Eagles in 1987, playing 10 games that season. He played a total of 52 games for the Eagles, clocking up 873 disposals, kicking 9 goals and 7 Brownlow votes, despite missing out on the 1991 season due [Read more]
AFL Round 12: Richmond v West Coast: All in all another great day in my young life
June 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Josh Barnstable An early morning is necessary today. Due to an absolute screw-up by the Picola and District Football League, my club, Waaia, has been put in the same division as clubs like Tungamah (our opponents today), Shepp East, Dookie and Rennie, which are 60 kilometres away, while the other half of the competition [Read more]
AFL Round 12: Adelaide v North Melbourne: Of Simmo and a Sunday night in Fitzroy
June 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment
By Andrew Starkie The only distinctive features on the front exterior of an otherwise unremarkable Fitzroy terrace house are the image of the Virgin Mary and the handwritten sign advertising meal times. This is the Missionaries of Charity Men’s Refuge and Soup Kitchen. It’s off Gertrude Street. Most pass by without noticing it on their [Read more]
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