Why do grown men weep for little boys who do not grow up? Do they weep for themselves? In a lifetime following football I can remember few more inspiring moments than watching in disbelief as George Best mesmerised club and international team-mates and opponents at...
2005
We always qualify for the World Cup in Germany
When people asked me earlier this year could the Socceroos do it, I used to try to cheer them up by saying, ‘We always qualify for the World Cup in Germany’. At the time it was whistling for a wind and a statistical generalisation based on a single example, now we...
Back to the future, not the past
Is it time to scrap the Australian youth coaching scheme and replace it with what went before or something based on Brazilian or French models as Craig Foster and Les Scheinflug in the their different ways suggest? Foster blames an English coaching mafia, code for the...
Have Geelong’s senior clubs any future?
Geelong has five senior clubs, North Geelong, Geelong, Corio, Geelong Rangers and Bell Park. Each grew out of a particular migrant community, Croatian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Scottish and Italian, though all have tried to varying degrees to attract members from...
Victory collapse to Mariners
Melbourne Victory continued its dismal run of recent results with a two-nil loss at home to Central Coast Mariners at Olympic Park last night in front of 13,892 fans. Four home games in succession have produced no goals and three defeats. Victory welcomed back skipper...
How footy kicked off: Origins of Our Great Game Unclear
Where did what we now call Australian Rules football come from? Many people still believe that the game was influenced by Gaelic football, an impression that is sometimes reinforced by the hybrid game played between teams of Australian and Irish footballers in recent...
Snakes, cows and barbecues
Coming down from Far North Queensland in the plane this week I found myself in the company of an Italian-Australian, one of large group of fellow migrants who were spending a couple of weeks in Victoria and New South Wales. He had arrived from Sicily as a carpenter...
Has football got lessons for how to deal with globalisation?
Football is and has been for more than a generation the global sport par excellence. There are more members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) than there are of the United Nations and the World Cup is a greater sporting extravaganza than...
Review of the football year 2005
The year 2005 was dominated by the qualification campaigns for the World Cup in Germany in June 2006 and by parts of two superb seasons of European Champions League football. The latter competition is now generally regarded as the best in the world, though Sao Paolo...
Last gasp winner for Melbourne Victory over Adelaide United
Geelong Adelaide, Monday 5 February 2005, p. 00. Melbourne Victory overcame Adelaide United by two-goals to one in a thrilling major semi-final of the A-League at Telstra Dome in front of another record-breaking crowd of 47,413 last night. Both teams were at full...
Bills must be open to scrutiny
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday 29 October 2005, p. 39. Have you noticed a change in the way laws are being made in this country? Instead of introducing bills into the Commonwealth Parliament, debating and amending them and then finally passing them after they have been...