The Swans star cements his place in the annals of AFL history amid wild scenes that, like his 1,000-goal mark, are unlikely to be seen againI’ll never forget the first time I saw Lance Franklin play football. Hawthorn was playing at the MCG and I was there under extreme sufferance. The Hawks were unspeakably bad that year. My eyes were glazing over when this beanpole of a second gamer suddenly swooped on a loose ball, shoved Brent Hartigan aside, gathered it one handed, and threaded a left foot goal from the forward pocket. It all happened in a tick over two seconds. He waltzed in and out of the stoppage like he owned the sport, like the MCG was his...
Australian Rules Football is proposing a trust for players suffering brain trauma and rugby could learn from this A fortnight or so ago I had an email conversation with a man who used to work as a development officer for the Rugby Football Union. We were talking about the opening round of the Six Nations, about concussion, chronic traumatic encephalopathy and what he called the “cognitive dissonance” involved in enjoying the physicality of the game while also recognising the damage it can do to the players. And then we got around to an interview I’d just done with Peter Robinson, whose boy, Ben, died of second impact syndrome while he was playing a school game in Northern Ireland in 2011....
Peter Jess represents a group of 135 former VFL and AFL players diagnosed with long-term neurological problems – ‘the most catastrophic events are the behavioural and mood issues’The last time I spoke to Peter Jess, he broke down midway through the conversation. Sorry, he said, in that reflexive way people do when they’re trying to fight back their tears, but it had been a long, hard day. Jess is a sports agent in Australia and his head was still wrapped up in a phone call he’d just had with one of his clients, a retired player suffering from a long-term brain injury and struggling badly with depression. It had been a tough conversation, and taken a lot out of both...
Athletes and supporters are compelled to wait, with no guarantee of a satisfying resolutionWaiting and cricket go hand in glove. It is an instruction barked urgently as a defensive push scuttles towards a fielder. It is the next batter, padded up, visualising their fate. It is the commentator’s lament as rain pools on tarpaulin covers.Cricket does not have a monopoly on waiting in sport, but the duration of a Test provides room for the passage of time to take on great significance, so much so that a contest could be understood almost entirely in the context of waiting. The pitch? How could you know how it’s faring until both sides have batted, or seen how much it turns on days...
The past decade of AFL football has seen an increase in league rule changes, which are often reactive and not in the interests of the game’s aestheticIt’s probably best to start this missive with a promise: what follows is not another self-indulgent paean to the glory of 1990s football, or some wistful plea for the return of torpedoes, $1.50 meat pies and Jason Dunstall kicking the ton every year. But … even discounting the breathless outrage surrounding Callum Mills’ rushed behind for Sydney last weekend, the rules of AFL football are now a topic so maddening that one could be excused for seeking solace in the nostalgic comforts of Allen Jakovich’s AFL Tables page.Let’s get the Mills one out of...