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...
The most gripping football on offer around the world exists because clubs risk relegation to a lower tierThere is a haunting presence in the A-League Men. Shuffling from ground to ground clad in tattered purple, orange, or red and black regalia, they are the ALM revenants: those whose seasons have long since died but continue to walk amongst us. Their hopes and dreams dashed, their only purpose now is to haunt the rest who still draw breath.This is the reality of what confronts Perth Glory the Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar as the 2021-22 season concludes. With little to no hope of finals football, supporters watch on as their beloved clubs, once so full of promise, go through the...
Ken Hinkley’s boys should have beaten Carlton. They blew it, and are now up against it to salvage their seasonPort Adelaide simply had to win yesterday. Lose, and it was curtains for season 2022. The task before them was enormous. The Blues have an abundance of talent and play the MCG very well indeed. They were smarting after dropping a game to Gold Coast. And they were desperate to get one back on Port, after their Adelaide Oval humiliation last year. That was the day David Teague’s papers were stamped. There were plenty of Port players in downhill mode – slaloming into easy goals, dishing out the lip. Michael Voss, who was wearing a Port polo top that day, would...
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...