Thursday @ footyalmanac

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COUNTRY FOOTY GROUNDS: This Friday night, the Swans will take on North Melbourne in their final practice match. The game will be played at the Narrandera Sportsground, an oval with a long and proud Australian Rules history. Rod Gillett takes us on a fascinating journey back in time.

FICTION: The fate of the Albertville Albatrosses is in the hands of The Professor. Can he save the club from going under? Read chapter 1 of Richard Holt’s brilliant new weekly serial, “The Albatross Rules“.

MANNING CLARK HOUSE: High school students’ ESSAY COMPETITION. Great prizes – cash, and 12 places in a writing seminar. READ MORE.

CRIO’S QUESTION: Melbourne’s wild weekend weather played havoc with sports across the city. Chris Riordan asks sports fans to recount past sporting events that live on in the memory because of the extreme weather in which they were played.

COUNTRY FOOTY: Population decline, years of severe drought and scuttlebutt all suggest a crisis in north-west Victorian football. But as Peter Lenaghan writes, reports of the Mallee Football League’s impending death have been greatly exaggerated.

SHORT STORY: See whether you can crack the code of Ian Latham’s allegorical story ‘A bird of black and white’ which may have its origins in the classics or the Victoria Park railway station.

BASEBALL: It’s early March and time to take a look at the season ahead. For most of us this means the footy season ahead. For Tim Ivins it means baseball. In the first in a series of six previews, Tim looks at the teams in the National League West division.

RACING: As Super Saturday turned into Soggy Saturday, punters began to recall past freak weather events at the races, but none could remember a day like this. Chris Riordan tells more.

PRACTICE MATCH: As Steve Healy’s online education continues, Adelaide and Melbourne provide him with a few valuable lessons.

NAB CUP Semi Final, St Kilda vs Fremantle: On the Labor Day weekend in Melbourne, the hometown Saints made light work of the visiting Dockers, reports Damian Watson.

NAB CUP Semi Final, St Kilda vs Fremantle: As Josh Barnstable observes, these two teams share a growing history of strange occurrences. In this instance, the weather presented more of an obstacle to the Saints than the undermanned Dockers.

PRACTICE MATCH: David Enticott learns that watching a practice match has its good points. Meanwhile, the Pies and Tigers spend most of the afternoon simply scoring points.

NAB CUP Semi Final: Steve Healy watched Big Bad Bustling You Know Who get the Doggies over the line in a high tackling, tightly contested game.

NAB CUP Semi Final: Josh Barnstable found the best treatment for his cold was a cracking game of NAB Cup footy, in which both the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide took turns at running hot and cold before the Dogs fell across the line.

RACING: It’s Super Saturday and Riordan’s Recommendation to Prospective Punters, Wary Wagerers and Bullish Betters is for a Weather Watch.

INTERVIEW: Peter Temple, one of Australia’s top novelists and author of the Jack Irish series, had a chat with Kerry O’Brien on the 7:30 Report on Thursday night. Find out what he had to say about the Fitzroy Footy Club and the Melbourne Cup here.

FOOTY: The Bulldogs are a win away from their first Grand Final appearance of any kind since 1970. A lot of things have happened since that fateful September day. Here are some of them.

LINK: There have been several noted cases of sporting team-mates being sworn enemies of the field. The Guardian’s Lex Sim has a look at a few such soccer relationships.

FOOTY: In the latest in his series on the original VFL grounds, Billy Miller remembers when the Lakeside Oval was more synonymous with Bob Skilton than Bob Jane.

PRACTICE MATCH: Collingwood and Adelaide flew into Alice Springs on what happened to be the wettest day since Noah was a boy. Paul Fitzsimons reports.

FOOTY/RUGBY LEAGUE: A ridiculous survey on the Daily Telegraph just serves to highlight the Sydney media’s paranoia about an AFL incursion, writes Rod Davies.

CRIO’S QUESTION: Kevin Muscat has never missed a penalty for the Victory, while Gareth Southgate made millions out of missing one for England. Tiger Woods would sink the putt whereas the Shark often missed. Who is your Money Man?

MOTOR RACING: Build it and they will come? Not always, writes Tony Robb in reference to a desert fiasco.

FOOTY: Danielle Eid, ever the match-maker, has devised a game where you match a footballer to her description.

FOOTY: In a piece brimming with heart and soul, Darren Dawson traces the journey of his family from unfashionable West Bromwich Albion to North Melbourne’s new grandeur. Hail the blue and white heroes!

FILM REVIEW: The Blind Side, the latest Sandra Bullock vehicle, is well-meaning in its portrayal of the extraordinary circumstances of an American football player’s life, but it misses the mark, writes John Butler.

WORLD FOOTY: The desert derby is a pointer to the Middle East Grand Final, writes Sheikh Mohammed bin Rocket.

FOOTY/SOCCER: The suggestion to convert Kardinia Park into a soccer stadium angers Susie Giese, who hands out plenty of whacks in this compelling argument against bringing the World Cup to Austalia.

NAB Cup, Round 2: Freo beat the Roos in a match worthy of the real season, writes Steve Healy.

NAB Challenge, Round 2: Brendan Fevola and John Butler return to Princes Park, only to discover that Thomas Wolfe was right: you can’t go home again.

CRICKET: What? Bill Walker happy with himself? Yes, Tasmania did beat Victoria in the one-day nonsense and, yes,  Bill thinks the Vics need to eat more spinach.

CRICKET: A little twenty20 is harmless. Or is it? Dave Bruce offers the full face of the bat.

FOOTY: One day it was so cold and wet that Jack Hamilton and the opposition full-forward broke from the goalsquare, ran down the other end, touched the goalpost and ran back … Sue Currie recalls her Magpie childhood in a lyrical piece that tells much about an era as well as the love of a club.

NAB Cup, Round 2: It’s hard to find a score in the bathroom, writes frustrated Roos fan Josh Barnstable.

FOOTY: Adam Bulman pits Hawthorn’s left-footers against the right-footers. Find out who wins.

NAB Cup, Round 2: A top last quarter between the Saints and the Swans helps Jeffrey Paterson get the taste of an ordinary counter meal out of his mouth.

PRACTICE MATCH: Demon fan Steve Healy sees the Bombers rise to the challenge in a game that means nothing.

NAB Cup Round 2: While Barry and the Bulldogs were on song on Friday night, the Hawks evoked thoughts of Billy Ray Cyrus in Damian Watson’s mind.

Practice match: The Tigers beat the slipshod Cats while fans at Yea tooted their horns, writes Susie Giese.

POETRY: Damn you, Danni, H. Bob and Phil D. You’ve muddied the Collingwood waters, writes Andrew Gigacz.

NAB Cup, Round 2: The Dogs deserve to be pre-season favourites, writes Josh Barnstable.

NAB Cup, Round 1: Adam Bulman had a great time sussing out left-footers and meeting Almanackers during the first half of the North Melbourne-Geelong game.  Then he had to go to basketball…

NAB Cup, Round 1: The pre-season comp doesn’t mean anything, does it, asks Steve Healy after Melbourne’s loss to Fremantle.

RACING: Typhoon Tracy is the pick in a Futurity Stakes meeting that will deserve more attention than it gets, writes Chris Riordan.

ODD SPOT: A 13-year-old US gelding is trying to become the oldest horse to win a race, writes Philip Tyndall.

BOOK REVIEW: Les Everett followed Kim Hughes’s cricket career from their days together at teachers’ college in Perth. Here, he rises to applaud Christian Ryan’s considered biography of Hughes, Golden Boy.

FOOD: The Footy Almanac is pleased to announce our food columnist with a twist… Richmond midfielder Daniel Jackson. In the first of an occasional series, Jacko celebrates the emphasis on food and footy in Melbourne life.

SOCCER: Domenic Favata says Manchester United have skill and class. That’s why he barracks for them.

TENNIS: Peter Flynn’s planned trip to Madison Square Garden prompts a series of reminiscences as sweet as a McEnroe drop shot. Enjoy.

CRICKET: Remember the hairy-chested ’70s? This summer seemed positively hairless by comparison, writes John Butler, who says it’s appropriate that the Border Medal was won by a manscaper.

WINTER OLYMPICS: It is with sadness that Brad Carr moves on from Vancouver. Here he recounts his wonderful experiences at Whistler’s ‘Mother of All Olympics’.

CRIO’S QUESTION: The downward trend in attendances at some sporting events has not gone unnoticed by Chris Riordan. Is the AFL immune to it?

NAB Cup, Round 1: An unexpected loss to North Melbourne has CATapulted Geelong into crisis. Alex Wadelton explains.

NAB Cup, Round 1: It’s a long way to the top but the Kangaroos have started to roll, writes Josh Barnstable.

MEMOIR: Many years ago, ‘Dips’ O’Donnell had a holiday in Spain. Following the old mantra, “when in Barcelona”, he did as the Barcelonans do and witnessed a day of bullfighting. But his experience was not an entirely comfortable one, and left him asking himself a question or two.

FOOTY: OMG! OMG! OMG! Danni Eid and her friend Fiona turn to jelly at the Collingwood Family Day. It’s all here in her eyewitness report that comes complete with photos!

NAB Cup, Round 1: Steve Fahey summons the ghost of 1979 debutant Steve Roach during his observations on the Pies’ narrow loss to St Kilda.

NAB Cup, Round 1: Ban the pre-season comp, writes Dan O’Sullivan, a Richmond fan who wants more opportunity to dream.

GAELIC FOOTBALL: Farewell to a legend of Kerry football and the game in general, writes Peter Lenaghan.

SOCCER: Rob Scott watched the Man U-Milan Champions League match in a Stockholm green room with the Swedish equivalent of Eddie McGuire. Pull up a chair and join them.

POETRY: Oh Tim, writes Terry Chapman in a lament of the move of an ABC titan to a commercial rival.

LIFE: In a recent Crio’s Question, the word “cobber” came under review. Here, Jake Stevens, aka Cobba, asks what’s in a name?

LOCAL FOOTY: Damian Drum, Ray Byrne, Peter Foster… Richard Jones profiles some of the many former AFL players who’ve made an impression in the Bendigo league.

BOOK REVIEW: Phil Dimitriadis says all serious sports fans would do well to read Garry Linnell’s book on Gary Ablett, Playing God.

FILM: Australia is undeniably a sporting nation and yet so few Australian films are based on a sporting subject. John Butler explores.

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