When you’ve done life’s hard yards and made it into the grumpy years, you understand with cold and dispiriting certainty that there is no turning back the clock. But that doesn’t mean that in the face of crass, intolerable change – or ‘progress’ as the suits would wish to sell it – you should give [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A forward explains rugby league
May 20, 2012 by 4 Comments
It is largely unknown to players and followers of the modern game that rugby league started off purely as a contest between opposition forwards, loosely divided between running into each other and taking no prisoners in set scrums. This pitted six men of statuesque physique, supreme fitness and superior intelligence in packs against one another. [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Getting to the heart of the matter with the Seconds
April 18, 2012 by 2 Comments
Longevity and loyalty. Priceless virtues, they are the cornerstone of bush footy. And if you really want to see the type of bloke that lives and breathes country rugby league, the character that epitomizes the game’s ethos, just get to the ground early and check out the reserve graders – the ‘reggies’ – go round. [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Farewell Fit for a Legend
November 21, 2011 by 4 Comments
Darren Lockyer’s farewell cavalcade finally came to a triumphant end at the fitting venue of Elland Road. The hallowed Leeds ground was the scene of arguably Lockyer’s greatest performance – Australia’s 44-4 thrashing of Great Britain in the 2004 Tri-Nations final. Lockyer laid on five tries, scored one himself and kicked six goals as Australia [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A Potted Rugby League Memoir Part II
August 30, 2011 by 2 Comments
A POTTED PERSONAL MEMOIR (part 2) Returning to Queensland in 1984, it seemed like there was something different in the air when it came to rugby league. It didn’t take long to figure it out – State of Origin! I was familiar with the concept because the Australian Rules fraternity in the southern States had [Read more]
Almanac Rugby league – A long way from home
August 29, 2011 by 1 Comment
The finals are just two weeks away. Brookie Oval is packed out for a Friday night cracker, first versus second on the ladder, one team undefeated after 12 games, the other undefeated at home for the season. The teams with the best for-and-against in the comp, sharing a rivalry built up over recent seasons (one [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – We all have beginnings
August 25, 2011 by 6 Comments
A rugby league version of The Footy Almanac? “About bloody time” is all I can say – for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the literature of rugby league is modest, to say the least – a reality and a paucity that needs addressing; secondly, “the greatest game of all” deserves that its story be told, [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – An afternoon of hope
August 23, 2011 by 3 Comments
This assignment started out full of hope – what better thing to do than write about a Canterbury victory over Manly, especially at Brookvale. Being almost out of finals contention five weeks ago, the Bulldogs had won three of the last four matches and were back in with a chance of finals glory. To add [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A sad way to go: Gold Coast v Canberra
August 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment
I thought about taking the train from Bris Vegas to Skilled Stadium at Robina on the Gold Coast with my 12 year old daughter. It would be Alan Tongue’s last game in Queensland and it would nice to say goodbye. Tongue has been our mutual hero for different reasons. I like how he plays every [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – NRL R24, 2011: Glory, glory to South Sydney
August 20, 2011 by 1 Comment
We’re heading west on Parramatta Road. Every other car has a white rabbit sticker on its back window. After looking like dead men walking just a month ago, Souths have won three in a row and are suddenly in with a show of making the semis. If they win tonight, that is. Boxhead and I [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – NRL R24, 2011: Celebrating Billy
August 20, 2011 by 2 Comments
I first visited Melbourne in 2000, a lads trip from Canberra in a busted-up Camry that lost both reverse and fifth gear mid-trek as Rohan, Bommy, The Judge and I all took our turns holding the bastard in fifth as we chugged down the Hume. It was the first time I had met Parko. We [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Fire Up
August 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Fans who enjoy Rugby League can consider this the end of the rainbow because they have just found their pot of gold Stephen Ferris and I (Brett Oaten) host a rugby league “show” every Friday morning on FBI 94.5 in Sydney and have done so for many years. Our standards are so low that not [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Rugby League comes to The Footy Almanac
August 18, 2011 by 5 Comments
Growing up as a young Canterbury diehard in Orange, when all you would get were two games a week on television and your main contact with the Big League came through Rugby League Week and The Daily Telegraph, the highlight of every Christmas was David Middleton’s Rugby League yearbook. The book was a goldmine for [Read more]
Male identity crises and other truths
June 17, 2011 by 20 Comments
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]
Convergence
May 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Convergence Friday night. Belly full. Cold beer. Girlfriend prepping Notting Hill on second TV. Mind shifting into first gear. A text causes my phone to fall off the coffee table. It’s Mum: –Sitting on a tram on the way to the G. So many Melbourne supporters on board. [Sibling 1] has a serious case of [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Queensland, just.
May 26, 2011 by 4 Comments
Yet another fine, fine example of the State of Origin genre last night: Queensland come out powerfully with their two props creaming New South up the guts, and with the defence back-pedalling, Cam Smith, JT and Locky going nuts and throwing the ball around beautifully. They score and it looks like the same thing is [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Some Origin thoughts from an ecumenical fan
May 25, 2011 by 3 Comments
by Lee Carney Australia is a unique country when it comes to its sport and particularly the football codes, like fans of sport in all nations we follow our teams religiously, having our moods go up and down based on the fortunes, of what in this era of trades and free agency is really a [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – Granny’s five cents goes a long way (a late sixties boyhood in Sydney)
May 22, 2011 by 12 Comments
Sausage roll five cents, (sauce one cent extra); musk sticks, cobbers, freckles, milk bottles, musk sticks, bananas – cent each; bertie beetle, choo-choo-bar, both five cents. Shiny packet on top of the glass-topped bench: same as a snag roll (minus sauce); forget bertie, forget the black mouthed bar; bargain! Give over the echidna; Mrs Mineo [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – A personal journey through rugby league in Brisbane from the 1950s to the 1990s
May 18, 2011 by 31 Comments
by Greg Mallory ‘’Doubles on the main game! One of the most enduring memories of going to rugby league in Brisbane was the sight of the double sellers assembled at the gates. At Lang Park they were the most vocal and theatrical — as you passed through the turnstiles you were confronted with about [Read more]
Almanac Rugby League – The Goodna Footy Floods of 2011
May 12, 2011 by 2 Comments
THE GOODNA FOOTY FLOODS of 2011 by Tony Caswell (or TC, The Goodna Gunna) The river came up, and the rain came down A playing field of green, became a slush of brown The footballs are gone, along with tackling bags All the teams jerseys, are now muddied rags Gary, the President, he carried the [Read more]
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