The undefeated Blues have a new coach, a watchable brand of football, a captain in fine fettle and a pretty soft draw aheadDavid Foster Wallace once wrote that Michael Chang had the unhappiest face he had seen outside of a graduate creative writing program. A few years ago, I was on a city loop train when a group of Carlton fans alighted at Spencer St. Suddenly, I was confronted with an entire carriage of Michael Changs. I have never seen a more miserable-looking bunch. GWS were basically playing with 16 men and were 100 points up with a quarter to run. The Carlton fans had seen enough. Their team had broken them. They had lost faith, hope, interest and, in...
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...
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...