The Bombers were finally willing to get their hands dirty and showed enough at the MCG to suggest 2022 is not a complete write-offAt 3:15 at the MCG on Monday, the only sounds were a bawling baby and the Australian, Aboriginal and New Zealand flags flapping at half-mast. As a fan, it’s the one minute where the AFL and its sponsors aren’t trying to flog you something. For the Essendon players, it was a momentary respite from what had been a noisy week. Former players, ex Collingwood coaches, fans, pundits, panellists, professional fault finders – they were climbing out of trees to bag them. The Bombers were too soft. They were too nice. They had no depth. They had no...
On paper it was eighth plays ninth, both teams flawed and prone to imploding. But the Mariners and Jets’ rivalry is exactly what the ALM needsTo ape Bill Hader’s famous Saturday Night Live character Stefon, the A-League Men’s hottest rivalry is the F3 Derby. Located on a sodden field in Newcastle, the latest edition of this regional rivalry had everything. Twists and turns, emotions bubbling over, VAR disallowing goals, dramatic comebacksand Matt Simon almost coming to blows with a red-carded Daniel Penha.After serving as the unexpected highlight of ALM’s opening round of the 2021-22 season, overshadowing the greater ballyhooed Sydney Derby, punters were incredulous they were forced to wait 153 days for Saturday evening’s rematch between the Central Coast Mariners...
Adelaide’s dominant grand final win over Melbourne has set the benchmark for the heights an AFLW side can achieveA third premiership won on Saturday by the Adelaide Crows, who now boast more trophies than the club’s men’s side, is just reward for their investment in women’s football, the ability to retain star players and the importance of sound leadership.Adelaide were amongst the first AFL clubs to feature in the inaugural AFLW season – beneficiaries of the hard work of Gina Dutschke and others who established women’s football in the state after founding the South Australian women’s football league in 1990. Many doubted the state’s ability to produce a quality women’s side when the AFL announced plans to fast track a...
In 2019, Richmond and Scott Morrison claimed miracle wins. And with canny leaders like Trent Cotchin, we should beware these wounded Tigers Just before half-time of Saturday night’s game at the MCG, two very different footballers went toe-to-toe on the members wing: Trent Cotchin, who looks like an articled clerk but plays a blue collar game, and Bailey Smith, who looks as if he’s just stepped off a float at Royal Randwick.With Cotchin right on his hammer, Smith spilled a chest mark. The 32-year-old Tiger, who recently relinquished the Richmond captaincy, has always excelled at ground ball scrimmages. On this occasion, he was better balanced, a bit cannier and that little bit more ferocious than his 21-year-old rival. Cotchin got...
It is not simply a special group of players at the top right now, but a seemingly never-ending talent factoryIf you have watched more than a fleeting moment of the Women’s Cricket World Cup over the past month, you will be intimately acquainted with Gin Wigmore’s Girl Gang – the song that accompanies the entry of the teams on to the field each match and plays on a seemingly continuous loop the rest of the time. On the surface it is an upbeat, peppy tune. In the context of the Australian team, though, its lyrics take on a more ominous tone. Suddenly the lines “I got the strength to tear it apart” and “we’re taking over the world” do not...