If your team is out, who are you going for?
If your team is out, who are you going for?
First. I’m a Geelong fan, so I’m going for them, of course. Go Cats!
What of the others?
Equal second. I’d have rated the Dogs or the Saints equally. Both underdogs. I have a girlfriend who lives in Footscray, and a good friend who is a big Dogs fan, but I have a sister who goes for the Saints, and I grew up in St Kilda. Since the Saints won last night, they’d be my number two team this Finals season.
Besides, anybody but Collingwood.
Tags: AFL, football
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Two urns lost
Overnight Australia lost the Ashes, after losing to England by 197 runs.
You can hear the joy in Stephen Fry’s voice in this short audio post on the subject:
And this weekend my footy tips tanked with just 4 out of 8. With only one more round to go, I now have no chance of winning the Anthony Malloy “memorial” trophy, the truly horrible urn which once adorned my house for an entire year.
So at least there’s some good news from the weekend’s sport.
Tags: cricket, footy tipping, The Ashes
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Old names
Was just watching the footy and noticed that the Sydney Swans have the initials of their old name — SMFC — on their jumpers near the back of the neck. Had previously noticed that the Bulldogs also have this — FFC.
Collingwood doesn’t seem to have it. How many other teams do? Is it a heritage thing? Only the teams that have changed their names? Maybe the footy experts reading will know.
Hmm, I wonder if there are present-day teams from Kerang or Korrumburra that go by the initials KFC.
Tags: AFL, heritage, Sport
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Three-sided street cricket
It turns out there are actual documented rules for street cricket, which is popular on the sub-continent.
But at my place we’ve got our own version, which has evolved into a limited overs format that suits a short game after dinner for the three of us, though of course occasionally neighbours will join in.
6 balls per over. If there’s only three of us playing, this means the wicketkeeper and bowler swap after each over. The “pitch” is between the middle of our driveway and the middle of our neighbour’s driveway.
To make it fun and ensure everyone gets a good go at batting, each batsman gets at least two overs when they can’t go out. During these overs the batsman also can’t get run out; if this happens then the run doesn’t count.
On or after the 12th ball, the batsman can go out.
Overs for each batsman are limited according to the length allowed for the game. Four overs in total, with three players is about a half-hour game.
If the ball is knocked into a temporarily or permanently inaccessible spot (eg down a drain, into a hedge) then the batsman may earn a maximum of three runs, but he has to run them. (This whole game is to get all of us to have more exercise, so it’s not an automatic score.)
Cars stop play temporarily, of course.
I think that was all the rules. We don’t do LBW or wides or no-balls, at least not yet.
The result from last Thursday night’s game: Jeremy 10 runs, Daniel 8 runs, Isaac 6 runs. I think we were all bowled out; I don’t remember.
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Directions to Waverley
The new Customer Information Centre at Flinders Street Station is a funny looking structure. The native grasses growing out of the sides… well, I don’t know who thought of it, but it’s certainly distinctive. Staff will answer customer queries there, and additional staff will be on the platforms from November.
Extra staff on Melbourne’s busiest station? Got to be a good thing, especially given recent platform crowding issues.
Mind you, there’s over 100 stations out there on the network with no regular staff presence at all, and another 31 with only staff in the morning peak hour.
I was at the centre’s official opening last Thursday morning, and talking to a senior Connex manager about it, and asking specifically whether the staff held information on non-train modes. If a train passenger wants to know where to catch the bus to Port Melbourne or the tram to the Victoria Market, can they help? Yes they can. They have access to all the Metlink and V/Line information.
Just to underscore the importance of public transport staff knowing about the entire network — not just their bit of the empire — a couple of punters came up and asked how to get to Waverley Park. Footy tragics apparently, headed for the pre-Grand Final Hawthorn training session. Between us we managed to give them an answer: platform 7, train to Huntingdale, then the 900 bus.
Even though they were Hawks fans, hopefully they found it all right.
(A couple of people seem to have wondered if I’m upset the Cats lost. I’ve been a Cats fan for a long time, but I’m not exactly hard core. And anybody could see from the number of behinds scored that Geelong’s goal kicking was lacking on Saturday. But hey, they might have lost, but at least Geelong doesn’t have fugly colours.)
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The Greatest Team Of All
When they wrote the footy club songs, they got together an old familiar tune and lyrics which are generally way over-the-top for most circumstances, basically proclaiming the team is invincible. If only it were true.
The Geelong Football Club song is called We Are Geelong, sung to the tune of Toreador from Bizet’s Carmen, a tune I’m very familiar with as my mum used to love playing music from this opera around the house when I was growing up.
The lyrics were written by John Watts, and admittedly I didn’t know the full words until yesterday during the game, when it was getting clearer that the team would win, and Tony found them and printed them out for me.
They open with: We are Geelong, the greatest team of all
Under normal circumstances, this would be a big call. But as the game came to a close, it became apparent that the Cats had in fact won the game by the biggest Grand Final margin ever. At one point I was even cheering on Port Adelaide, urging them to kick a few goals just to make it a little more interesting.
If winning margin at a Grand Final is a good way of measuring it, then maybe they really are “the greatest team of all.”
PS. I have now memorised all of the lyrics. At least, the first verse. Like the national anthem, few know there’s a second verse, and even fewer know what the words are. I also promised Tony I’ll buy a club jersey.
Now… Go Storm!
PS. Monday morning: Storm won their game too.
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One thing to say
The weekend’s here, the crowds are gathering around the MCG, and though I won’t be attending, I have only one thing to say:
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Jumping on the Cats bandwagon
Yes, I’m jumping on the bandwagon. I’ve been a Geelong Cats fan for a long time, though it’s years since I’ve been to a game.
From what I can see, most years they do well in the first few rounds, then descend into a plumetting spiral of defeats. But not this year. They haven’t won every game, but they’ve finished on top of the ladder, and thumped North Melbourne in the first week of the finals. (Oh, do we not call them “North Melbourne” anymore?)
It would appear that the Cats have a fighting chance of winning the Premiership for the first time since 1963. (Hey, when did they stop calling the home ground “Kardinia Park“?)
So enthused am I by the prospect of a Cats Premiership that I’ve gone and bought myself a scarf. Okay, so I didn’t splurge for an official AFL scarf. No, I got a $5.50 “unauthorised” scarf (it has a sticker saying so) that I found at a discount shop down the street.
Marita asked me to get her a Bombers one. It looks like they’ve got away without having to subtly alter the colours or spelling, on condition of the disclaimer sticker. No doubt if they’d lost a trademark challenge, they would have had me supporting the Catts, and her the Bumbers. Or something like that.
Tell you what — if the Cats win the next final, I’ll buy a beanie too. Maybe even a (gasp) jersey. Like a real, authorised one, so the club gets some money from it.
Just don’t ask me who all the players are… (Hey, why do we have a coach with the nickname “bomber”?)
Anyway, Go Cats!!
PS. Trish won the Footy Tipping this year, and consequently will take home the Ugly Trophy for the year. Lucky Trish.
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