How to Watch Footy, part 9: Homegrounds and donuts

How is Vin Maskell expected to stay the distance without an adequate supply of Blue and Gold donuts?

Melbourne Uni Blacks: Where country meets city

Following their promotion to the VAFA premier grade, Thomas Dullard highlights the connection the Melbourne Uni Blacks have forged with country footy.

VAFA Div 1 Semi-finals: A weekend for the ages

Will the experience of the Pirates get them over the line in this weekend’s VAFA Division 1 preliminary final? Smokie Dawson runs the ruler over the contenders.

Ammos Division 1: All roads lead to Elsternwick

With the weather taking a decidedly spring-like turn for the better, in the air around town we can suddenly detect whiff of finals. The hard slog of eighteen rounds of preliminaries is over, and now we have arrived at the big show. Let’s be honest: for a number of weeks now the final four has [Read more]

Ammos team of the season

Ammos scribe Smokie Dawson chooses his Division 1 team of the season. He is already bracing for the backlash from those left out.

Down, but definitely not out

It always saddens me a little when it is confirmed that a club has been relegated. In those immediate awful moments, it can seem like years of grinding and grafting and striving to climb the competitive rungs of the Ammos divisional ladders have been laid to waste in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, the dreaded axe [Read more]

Slab Masks the Media Storm as Blacks Beat Jackas

CRAMERI’S GOLDEN PERFORMANCE GETS BLACKS THE ‘V’ Dressing oneself for a day at the football can be a tricky task. Whilst in the dead of winter one can throw on a series of layers with confidence, the remaining rounds of the season can bring a sprinkling of sunshine that can make a true Melburnian wary. [Read more]

Sticking to the script

VAFA Division 1 – Round 15 It was the late Alan Jeans who said that footballers are like sausages. “You can fry them, grill them, curry them, put apple sauce with them. They’re still sausages; all you’re doing is dressing them up”. The words of the master coach came to mind when I sat down [Read more]

Fitzroy Banyule

“Early to bed and early to rise” makes derrinalphil on time for his first patient on Saturday morning. It was a boring morning, with nothing interesting to do. “Check-ups” and scaling and cleaning; no implants, root fillings or extractions. Looked out the window at about nine o’clock and it was pouring down. I thought this [Read more]

VAFA Div 1 – Round 14: Give me footy

My wife thinks there is something wrong with me. Actually, she thinks there are lots of things wrong with me, but what she really cannot fathom is how disinterested I am in the Olympics. And it is true. I could not care less for Australia’s achievements in the pool, and on the other various courts [Read more]

VAFA round 13 review: Not dead yet

V.A.F.A. DIVISION 1: Rd 13 Review I have been known to enjoy a lunch or three. So it was with plenty of enthusiasm that last week I accepted an invitation to the picturesque Fearon Reserve, to enjoy the hospitality of my old club Williamstown CYMS. The attendees were entertained by the wit and wisdom of [Read more]

Rain, mud and shellackings

V.A.F.A. DIVISION 1 REVIEW (Rd 12) It would give me great pleasure, dear readers, to be able to announce that last week saw a round chock full of cliff-hanger finishes and nail-biting contests. That under grey and rainy skies there were battles decided by less than a kick. That there were heroes anointed after successful [Read more]

VAFA Round 11: Pirates on shaky ground

One could almost feel the seismic shift in the competition last week when North Old Boys – St. Patrick’s comprehensively defeated Peninsula Old Boys at Gillon Oval. That rumbling was not tectonic plates shifting beneath us; indeed, it was the sound of the Pirates being dislodged from their perch at the top of the table [Read more]

Are Old Geelong the real deal?

V.A.F.A. Division 1 – Round 8 review It was a win that made the rest of the competition sit up and take a bit more notice of the men from Como Park. A victory over the previously unbeaten Peninsula, who are notoriously difficult to overcome on their own patch down the coast. What also made [Read more]

Long may She reign

V.A.F.A: DIVISION ONE REPORT. RD 7 Although I am a staunch republican, there is one weekend each year when I make sure I raise my glass and toast Her Majesty, praising her generosity in granting her subjects a Monday morning sleep-in in mid-June. (I am told that this year is even more special, as there is [Read more]