The Wrap: Part 2 of Round 12

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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]

AFL Round 12: Richmond v West Coast: Tigers offer picture of hope

By John Green I have a favourite footy photo. It was taken at a Richmond-Collingwood match at Punt Road in May 1933. It shows legendary Collingwood coach Jock McHale sitting on the bench by the boundary fence alongside his nineteenth man. McHale hasn’t noticed the photographer. He is glancing down at a fob watch. Spectators [Read more]

AFL Round 12: Bulldogs v Port Adelaide: Dogs chew up insipid Port

By Nick Kossatch I was on a ‘high’ after watching the St Kilda and Carlton match the previous night – Friday night footy on national TV. It was pure football – tough, no flooding, and man-on-man. The following day, on a cool Saturday afternoon, in my role as a football writer for The Murray Pioneer, [Read more]

AFL Round 12: Carlton v St Kilda: Saints fall in in a ring-a-ding-ding affair

By Josh Barnstable Having a day off school means you can relax for the day. It is also vital that you relax your muscles after a tough night of footy training and, in today’s case, rest your muscles after a night of dancing, raving and just having fun at the school social. For me, I [Read more]