Search Results for: rugby league

My illusion

The Geelong Football Club has had two rather large wins over the past two weeks, both at Kardinia Park. You could say of the first, against Melbourne, the oldest of rivals, that it had quite an impact. And of the second, against the Gold Coast, that Guy McKenna was lucky to keep his job. (Which [Read more]

Why is it the AFL cannot sort out the advantage rule?

by Jim Young   Yet another episode late in the first quarter to remind everyone of the incompetent folly of the advantage rule as presently administered – a clear free in a marking contest to Geelong, umpire blew the whistle, by which time the ball had spilled to another Geelong player only about a yard [Read more]

Marketing the death of state of origin

  by Luke Morris. Remember watching Paul Salmon tap to team-mate Robert Harvey? Or Brad Johnson kicking long to Glen Archer? How about Chris Grant handballing to the run of Anthony Stevens? This was State of Origin football and it gave us the best players on the same field. Champions of the game united in [Read more]

Male identity crises and other truths

The world has changed. Back in the good old days, if you’d forgotten where you were, or who you were, all you needed to do was buy a beer and listen to the sports conversation around the bar. If the bloke behind the jump poured you a XXXX you knew you could look outside to [Read more]

NackiLeaks Expose’ – John Harms Dream (Extended and Unauthorised Version)

DRAFT MEDIA RELEASE (Embargoed until after Geelong go through season undefeated) Mr John Harms, the newly appointed Marketing Director of the Competition formerly known as the AFL, took pleasure in announcing today that “a great Australian company in James Hardie Industries will become the League’s major corporate sponsor from 2012 onwards.”  Mr Harms said that [Read more]

Karmichael, I take it all back. What a goal!

By Sasha Lennon Saturday night provided us with one of those ‘momentous occasions’ in footy. The Gold Coast Suns played their first real ‘home’ game at the redeveloped Carrara. Amidst the fanfare marked by the ‘shock and awe’ style fireworks which burst above the crowd prior to the opening bounce, the punters were giving the [Read more]

Round 7 Blog: Finding the young’un in all of us.

Saturday morning and I’m recalling only a couple of things from last night’s match. 1. Daniel Motlop’s shot from the pocket. and 2. Richo’s reaction to threading the eye of the needle. I loved it. Great illustration of the love of play, and the fascination of the football itself, and what can be done with [Read more]

Ponderings from Cape York

Is this the tail end of the Cape York Wet season or Autumn in Melbourne? Looking out the window at the porch light illuminating the rain falling in front of the grapefruit tree you could be excused for confusion. But no, an arm with sleeve rolled up thrust out the window tells me it’s still [Read more]

LET’S JUST CALL IT ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL, OR SOCCER FOR SHORT!

The final session of Gaelic football for kids in Abu Dhabi last Sunday involved a match against the parents at the British School – delicious irony in that given the history between the Irish and the English. But that’s another story. The kids call it “Gaelic”, but the parents call it football, after all, its [Read more]

Four ponderings and a conjectural (the State of the Game)

Footy seems to have changed in 2011, and at this early stage it seems mostly for the better. I don’t just say that because this year the Eagles look worthy of holding a spot in the top 16, but it helps. Saturday night’s game between West Coast and Sydney was a thoroughly engaging and entertaining [Read more]

Gary’s Gold Coast fails to glitter, so Bluey give me a run

By Sasha Lennon Having recently surpassed the age of the great Michael Tuck the day he retired in September 1991 (he was 38 years and 95 days old), I have finally conceded that Hawthorn will not be phoning me any time soon with an invitation to come down to training on a Thursday night. But [Read more]

How The Footy Almanac saved football

The Footy Almanac has saved football. The Richmond footy club almost saved footy a few years ago, but here at the Almanac we’ve done it properly. The Tiges almost saved footy when they lost to Geelong by 157 points one Sunday evening in May, 2007. At a time when the Swans and West Coast had [Read more]

NT Grand Final: a run and gun affair

By Peter Argent Uniquely Territorian and full of all the dynamic aspects of our national football code, the NT Football League Grand Final day, held at TIO Stadium, in Darwin, on March 19 was simply a festival of all things good about the game. Because of the big wet up north had been bigger and [Read more]

Burning Down the House (or ways fans celebrate sporting success)

One of my favourite stories of fans celebrating a premiership is what Parramatta fans did in 1981 after the team won its first premiership in the old Sydney Rugby League comp: they burnt the old home ground down! Parramatta’s rickety, old, ‘country showground’  home, Cumerland Oval, was slated to be replaced by a new ‘stadium’…that night, the jubilant fans decided [Read more]

Footy kicking on in Coffs Harbour

by “Rocket” Rod Gillet The Sydney Swans defeated last year’s AFL runner-up St Kilda in a NAB Challenge match at the BCU Stadium in Coffs Harbour by 31 points last Saturday night. Almost 5000 attended the fixture on a unseasonably cool night on the north coast of NSW. One of those in attendance was my [Read more]

Up There Cazaly and The Myth of Icarus

Phil Dimitriadis presented this paper at the 150 Years of Australian Football Conference: Up There Cazaly and The Myth of Icarus: An exploration into the narrative of freedom and failure in Australian Rules football. This is the abstract. [Interesting – wish I heard it. JTH]

Actually Mate, It’s Soccer

With the onset of the real football . . . err . . . soccer season (as opposed to that franchise-based circus called the A league), it’s time to revisit the nomenclature debate.

Crio’s Q: Sporting All-Rounders

Boxing and Rugby League – now there are two sports where hyperbole rains like confetti.”Rabbs” Warren should call them both. “Thugby”, as it has been decried, has been known for some stoushes, but the link between the sports has been dubiously legitimised recently. “The Man” Mundine was a genuine League star and is now a [Read more]

Cricket Losing Out In Schools

By Peter Hulthen In my last few years in education I could see the writing on the wall . One of the unsaid that is besetting our Australian Cricket is that it is not promoted in schools to anything like the extent it should be. Sports such as Rugby League, Basketball , AFL and some [Read more]

UPDATE FROM THE ROCKY FLOOD

Hey lads, thought people would like to really know what it is like around the Rockhampton region as it does flood. Especially important for the sporting precincts in the area as well that some may or may not know. We are still waiting for the peak, but it’s now at a level where the roads [Read more]