Pre-Season Promise

Start Level 1……..BEEP…. Don’t exert too much. Just get to the line. It’s almost a walk at the start It’s probably not a ‘beep’, to be fair. It isn’t high-pitched enough to warrant an ‘ee’. More like a ‘duuurrrrt’. It is the calling of the legendary ‘beep test’ and it is but one facet of [Read more]

50 years on – Square and Rochy resume the rivalry

  by Rod Gillett Last year the Golden Square Football Club went through the Bendigo Football League unbeaten to win the premiership. It matched the feat of the Rochester “Invincibles” who were premiers and champions in the same league in 1962. Rochy beat Golden Square in the grand final that year. Both clubs are understandably [Read more]

PRE-SEASON RECESS

We all read in the newspapers about the clubs gradually coming back from the mandated breaks from the club to return to formalised pre-season training every year. How players are dreading the hard slog of endurance running, fitness testing and a smattering of skill which won’t kick into gear until shortly after the last strains [Read more]

New Norfolk and all who sail with her

IN TASMANIA   In Tasmania the New Norfolk Eagles are a football enigma.   Last Saturday they were striving for a three-peat, which had never previously been achieved by the club. In fact back-to-back only occurred last season, such is the sporadic nature of their premierships.

BREAKDOWN OF A GF….DEFEAT

In the traditions of the TV Show 24 (for some reason I have ONE on the TV in the background)….The following takes place between 6:30AM and 11:00PM on Saurday 3 September 2011. 6:30AM: Wake up after short sleep, try to make sure footy gear is dry. 7:00: Warm shower, pleasantly surprised hot water is working. [Read more]

Homeground

    By Andrew Starkie   In September, 1991, favourites Old Collegians Warriors lost the Warrnambool and District Football League Grand Final to the Merrivale Tigers.    Earlier this year, the drink company, Gatorade approached media personality, Dave Hughes, to be the ‘face’ of their marketing campaign,’Gatorade Replay’, which offers amateur sporting teams the opportunity [Read more]

Football and music. Part I.

    Tonight in Tassie, outside, the city streets were still with cold. Empty. Inside, sitting in the warm seaweed sway of a noisy Friday night pub, I was watching the footy on a small monitor above the wine fridge, while the band, behind me, did their thing. The football looked strange. A pocket of [Read more]

The other Suns

    The Suns are playing the Demons at the G.   I would have been there but a freaky wall of the most horribly foul weather kept my plane from taking off.   So it’s for two reasons I’m thrilled to hear the Suns Reserves are taking on Mt Gravatt Vultures in an NEAFL [Read more]

Football Memories

      We were engaged. Work wise, her heart was tough, leather. I loved her for that. The way she had dreams. In life it was porcelain. I was in love with that, too. With keeping her safe. I had only ever taken her to one match, when I was still in the bush. [Read more]

Otway

History is a (not always pretty) Beautiful Thing.   Rory Harrington was a part of a Juniors team I coached eleven years ago. He was always going to be a dairy farmer like his dad, and his dad’s dad before that. School was just killing time. While the other kids dicked around during study periods, [Read more]

Else lifts; Spud flops.

Friday night games don’t thrill me the way they should. It’s a rush to get there, if your team loses then your weekend is doomed, the game is delayed on the box, and, as a park footballer in my twilight years, attending a match is probably not the ideal preparation. Especially a match like this [Read more]

Chasing the Bush Premiership VII

A 53 point half time lead would be translated to a win right?  Last Saturday was one of the most bizarre games of football I’ve ever played in. Despite my shaky form, I stayed in the senior side for another week.  After getting over the top side seven days earlier, we were due to battle [Read more]

A day with the Tigers

  by John Green There are many types of Tiger in the football jungle. They may be found in places as diverse as Coburg, Werribee, Mitcham, Morwell, Colac-Coragulac, Woori Yallock, Kyneton and Foster. Or Glenelg, if you want to continue your safari outside Victoria. Today I’m watching the Tigers in the afternoon and fronting up [Read more]

Sat’dy arvo at the footy: June 11 2011

The major suburban matches highlighted in this column last week threw up interesting results, with the top sides losing in the EDFL, NFL and EFL. Maribyrnong Park’s stranglehold on the EDFL title is now under serious challenge after Damien Peverill inspired Aberfeldie to victory. Luke Livingstone, king of the Marby goal square in recent weeks, [Read more]

The Thrilling ‘Fields

by Shane Goss Old Ivanhoe and Caulfield Grammarians played out a thriller in round seven of the VAFA Premier B section last Saturday at Chelsworth Park in Ivanhoe. It was first against third. The Fields had been promoted from Premier C the year before and were going into the game undefeated. Old Ivanhoe had only [Read more]

I trained them hard

Jesus, I trained those Juniors hard. They were a dead-set chance. At something that would affect them and their community and stay with them forever, like a tattoo for your heart. Sometimes, while training them hard, I’d tell them. I had never won a flag. Not in all those years. Then, my team made the [Read more]

So, what footy will we be going to this week?

Once again, no MCG Saturday game gives us an excuse to check out other options. Out my way, the big drawcard this Saturday will be at Aberfeldie, where Jason Akermanis will join new recruit Mal Michael and former Essendon  players Hayden Skipworth, Damien Peverill and Courtney Johns as they “welcome” Chris Johnson’s Avondale Heights. This [Read more]

Desert Ovals

People go two ways over Easter. They lift the city off its foundations and dump it on the coast, or go to the footy. Especially footballers with the Easter bye. You can spot them in an Anzac Day crowd by the way they barrack. The AFL suporter will call: “Kick it, kick it, kick it!” [Read more]

AT THE FOOTY…this weekend

by Chris Riordan The advent of billion dollar television rights has changed AFL fixturing forever. Increasingly it is becoming a TV supported competition. If you want to get to your team’s games, you need to be very flexible with your weekend schedules. We do otherwise – finding a timeslot that suits us and then looking [Read more]

Brighton FC’s only flag in 1948

This is a letter I received from Ian Bennett (of The Local Footy Show on Channel 31), who has unearthed remarkable film of the 1948 Brighton semi-final, preliminary final, and grand final. If you have any stories about this team or it’s players we would love to hear them. To find out more about the [Read more]