The day’s been perfect. Lost and perfect. I have money in pocket, hard work behind me. There’s only five clouds in the sky. Each one worn by a mountain range, making their own weather. The town is perfect, to look at, anyway. To drive through. To drink at. Walking into the pub, surrounded [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 20: Empty Bars and Back Pocket Legends
September 21, 2012 by 8 Comments
Empty Bars and Back Pocket Legends. The hotel hangs over a winding road that cuts down into town. Above its door is a sign that says Top Pub, simple and honest. I’ve been on the road for ten hours and slouch over my beer as if it’s a lead-lined magnet. [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 19: Blood
September 20, 2012 by 9 Comments
Uncle Les is dying. It’s not right. I have such vivid memories of him being so damn imposing. So solid. All Hungarian, with that slicked back hair, the angular face, barrel chest. That way. Straight down the line. Now he’s skin and bone, there nothing there. He sits opposite me in his house [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 18: Running In Cathy Freeman’s Steps
September 18, 2012 by 7 Comments
It’s grey when I get to Canberra. I’ve been to dot-towns all over the country, found teammates and ex-teammates underground and in cities, yet not one of them lives here. Not that I know of. I wonder what that says about us – me and the Grey City? I have a kick with [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 17: Nowhere Rugby
September 17, 2012 by 2 Comments
I’m driving through some town in NSW. I’ve well lost count of names and details. It looks like a beaut. Rural. No coast for miles. Nothing but giant waves of mountains. They’re everywhere, weaving into and out of horizons. The people in this place are different to those on the coast. They live here, [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 16: Not Every Club Is Roses
September 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
Off Season Odyssey Pt.16. Not every Club is Roses. The plan is simple. Vaguely bounce through Kingston, S.A., then wobble towards Gypsy Point, somewhere on the other side of the ranges, where there’s work on the coast. About two days away, give or take. But there’s a beaut pub just off the highway, [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 15: The World is Round
September 15, 2012 by 9 Comments
The World Is Round. The world is round. Drive far enough through any desert and you’ll find a river, or the ocean. I wake up beside what I later figure is the Wimmera River. A superb, muddy thing with no rush to it. The trout let me know they’re there, and I swim [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 12: Aussie Humour
September 12, 2012 by 4 Comments
AUSSIE HUMOUR. “No tribal colours,” the bouncer tells me, holding his hand out. We both look at the North jumper I’m wearing. “It’s okay, he’s with the band,” Gav says. “I know the band,” the bouncer says. He’s from Warrnambool. So are the Monaros. Like the King and Queen are from England, and David Boon [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 11: New Year’s Without Resolutions
September 11, 2012 by 7 Comments
Off Season Odyssey Pt11. New Year’s Without Resolutions. Princetown has a beaut oval. Round. Hard. There’s no team any more, no town. Just the reedy wetlands that is the last gasp of the Gellibrand River, where farmers, back in the day, paddled their milk downstream, on longboats, to the Saturday market. Just coastal [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey – Part 10: Pre-season is Serious Business
September 9, 2012 by 2 Comments
“Come have a kick!” I say to Louie. We were teammates at Otway for three years. I have no idea how, yet here he is, on the coast, working in Kenty’s Surf Shop. “Up yours, Zurbo! It’s summer. You haven’t changed.”
Off Season Odyssey – Part 9: The Bandidos
September 7, 2012 by 3 Comments
After a few big days in the bush, spraying in the gullies, and clearing fireweed, I come down from the hills to have a surf not far off sunset – the good, stupid, lazy kind that hurts no-one. Not the kids on boogie boards I can’t dodge, not me or the water. Jumping in [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey Part 8: A well-shared silence
September 6, 2012 by 15 Comments
Off Season Odyssey Pt.8. Concreting has been hard. Jack and I kick the ball. His real name is Steven, but his last name is Daniels. He is a stocky Otway Ressies Premiership player, by way of Geelong. Nowhere Geelong. From one of those non-descript houses, in one of those rolling suburbs in a sea [Read more]
Off-Season Odyssey Part 7: Alcohol und Footyball
September 5, 2012 by 1 Comment
This Odyssey is turning me into an alcoholic. Each stop, old teammates badger me: “We haven’t seen you in years! And you don’t want to have a drink with us?!” So we kick, then drink, as if a little run around has earned it. Each stop I pick up a few more good memories [Read more]
Off Season Odyssey Part 6: Excaliball
September 2, 2012 by 7 Comments
Footyhead of the Cove… Devil’s Kitchen, Moonlight Head, Victoria. I hope all the Knackers have a corker of a season on and off the oval next year. Matt Zurbo.
Brett’s Last Hurrah
September 1, 2012 by 2 Comments
Hello? Yes, Brett. What? You don’t want me to call you Brett today? Oh. Mr. Ratten? No? Um… Rats? Yes, yes, I can hear you… Oh, I thought you were cursing. Serious? Jesus on a cross? What, as if it’s a name? I know, yes I know you still have three hours to go [Read more]
Discussion: Today’s Champions
August 29, 2012 by 8 Comments
Right now I’m wondering if Martin Pike was a Champion. Four Premierships, All-Australians. A B&F. He did it in winning sides, he did it with no support at Fitzroy. What about John Blakey? Rohan Smith? Both played over 300 games of elite level football. Many say you can’t reach that number without being [Read more]
Footy Poetry: Josh
August 27, 2012 by 2 Comments
Matt Zurbo is at a footy-watching, beer-drinking, rock’n’roll, Saturday night thirtieth.
Best On Ground…Or Not
August 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
Best On Ground… Or Not. I watched the Doggies vs Tigers last week. In a small butchering shed on a hill, just down my track. It was a good enough game for two teams not quite anywhere, yet again. Boyd played well for the Dogs, with pride. He reminded me of a pro. Half [Read more]
Friday footy is a beautiful thing
August 4, 2012 by 7 Comments
Friday Footy is a Beautiful Thing. I finished work not long after sunset, watching the moon wobble up from, then across, the mountains. It was almost full, but not, as if someone had dropped it on its head. As I came down the logging tracks into the valley, towards the nearest farms, that lead [Read more]
A Good Way To Watch Footy
July 25, 2012 by 5 Comments
A Good Way to Watch Footy. Nutsy and I pull up barstools at the tavern. He’s played well, but his groin is sore. His wife is well-pregnant. “Groin?” I had said, while we watched the seniors belt out an easy win in constant drizzle, then gave him every “too much pulling” joke ever [Read more]
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